Berachot 48: Eating Before Grace after Meals; Origins of that Blessing

We are told a story about King Yannai and the queen who ate bread together.  They needed another man to recite the blessing on their behalf.  She said "Swear to me that I bring such a man, you will not harass him".  He swore and she brought her brother Shimon ben Shatach.  She sat him between their thrones and the king said, "Do you see how much honour I am according you?"  Shimon responded that the Torah in fact honours him, as in Proverbs (4:8), "Extol her and she will exalt you; she will bring you to honour when you embrace her."  The king said, "You see?  He does not accept authority".  

They gave Shimon a cup of wine.  He drank that cup as his meal and then said the Grace after Meals over the second cup of wine.  In fact, the rabbis agree that this was done incorrectly; we need to eat at least an olive-bulk of grain as a meal.  The rabbis discuss the difference between blessings over one's own meal and blessings for the many.  When saying the Grace after Meals for others, an olive-bulk of grain must be eaten first.  

The rabbis share the origins of the four blessings of the Grace after Meals:

• Moses instituted the blessing of "Who feeds all" to say thank you for manna
• Joshua instituted the blessing "of the land" when they entered HaAretz
• David instituted "Who builds Jerusalem... on Israel Your people and on Jerusalem Your city" as he conquered the city, and Solomon instituted "Who built Jerusalem... on the great and Holy Temple" because he built the Temple
• The blessing "Who is good and does good at Yavne" referred to the Jews killed in Beitar at the end of the bar Kocheva rebellion.  "Who is good" thanked G-d for stopping the corpses from decomposition, and "and does good" thanked G-d for bringing them to burial
• On Shabbat, we begin and end the third blessing with consolation and we acknowledge the sanctity of the day while mentioning Shabbat in the middle.  

The rabbis discuss proof texts behind the belief that the Grace after Meals is taken from the Torah.  The blessing may have been taken from statements that refer to blessings before eating.  It is suggested that eating is a temporal activity.  At this point the rabbis comment on why the young women speak expansively while conversing Saul.  The Gemara states that it is because women are chatterboxes. Shmuel suggests that it is actually to prolong their time staring at Saul, who was said to be "an excellent young man; no other Israelite was better than him; he was taller that the people from the shoulders up". (I Samuel 9:2)

Perhaps this is the first mention of the joke about Jewish men being short.