We begin with a debate about how many blessings should be recited if one purchases similar items more than once. Although we might think that being more stringent and reciting more blessings is better practice, Rabbi Meir suggests that leniency is preferable when we might be invoking G-d's name in vain by reciting needless blessings.
With regard to the earlier statement, "One recites a blessing for the bad that befalls him just as he does for the good," the rabbis wonder about the surrounding circumstances. Overflowing dams that ultimately better one's soil, lost objects that would have been usurped by the king are used as examples of how what is bad might actually be good and vice versa.
regarding the statement that a blessing for a male child while one's wife is pregnant is a prayer said in vain, we are reminded about the birth of Dina; she could not have been named after Leah's judgement, for we learn that we do not mention miraculous acts to teach general halacha. Of perhaps Leah's prayer was within forty days of conception. A baraita once taught that we pray for the seed to become a fetus for three days after conception. From the third until the fortieth day, we pray that it will not be born with the appearance of a flat sandal fish. From the third to sixth month we pray that the fetus is not born still. From the sixth to ninth month, we pray that it will emerge safely. Thus we can pray for the gender of the fetus for the first forty days.
The rabbis believe that when a woman emits seed first, a male is born, and when a man emits seed first a male is born. When they both emit seed simultaneously, the gender is undetermined and we might be able to pray for the gender we wish for. Otherwise it is a prayer said in vain.
We learn more about the verse that teaches us to recite two prayers when entering a large city. Ben Azzai says that he recites four prayers. All of them have to do with peace upon entering and leaving the city.
In a Roman bathhouse or other dangerous situations (because of the fire heating the water from below), we pray for our safety and for our death to be atonement for our transgressions. But should be even tempt Satan by mentioning "if evil befalls me"? We are also told that Rabbi Abbahu was in a bathhouse that collapsed from below and that he saved one hundred and one men with only one of his arms. This is used to validate our prayer to G-d for healing and truth. More prayers are shared about bathhouses, which seem to have been dangerous places.
When we go to sleep, we recite Shema in bed from "Shema Yisrael" to "VeHaya Im Shamoa". After that, we say Blessed... Who makes the bands of sleep fall upon my eyes and slumber upon my eyelids, and illuminates the pupil of the eye. May it be Your will... that you make me lie down in peace and give me my portion in Your Torah, accustom me to mitzvot and do not accustom me to transgression, lead me not into error, nor into iniquity, nor into temptation nor into disgrace. May the good inclination have dominion over me and may the evil inclination not... Save me from an evil mishap and evil diseases. Let neither bad dreams nor troubling thoughts disturb me. May my bed be flawless before You that my progeny not be flawed. Enlighten my eyes in the morning lest I sleep the sleep of death, never to awaken. Blessed... Who gives light to the whole world in His glory.
The Gemara then details several specific blessings for different daily rituals, including when we awaken, hearing the sound of the rooster, opening our eyes, sitting up straight, dressing, standing up straight, descending from the bed to the ground, walking, putting on shoes, putting on a belt, spreading a shawl on one's head, wrapping on the tallit, donning phylacteries on the arm and then on the head, washing hands, washing one's face,
We end today's daf with a return to the idea that we should recite a blessing for the bad just as for the good. In this conversations, the rabbis discuss the notion that whatever G-d does is ultimately done for the good, whether or not we can recognize G-d's reasoning.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment