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Mishnah 1: When Does One Start to Read the Shema in the Evening1?

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Mishnah 1: When Does One Start to Read the Shema in the Evening1? JUtfXn pHD TIO'ND VV»? ο>?π3πψ nj^n VIP 'γι^μο H mxm (foi. 2a) D'n^riì ."»ìV^if n^T niivíon rmo^Nri ηίο -ry l^vurc .-»n^ri η!?ν?Ψ "TV υοίκ .imq *τϋ οη)?ίΝ Mishnah 1: When does one start to read the Shema in the evening1? From the time that the priests enter to eat2 their Terumah3, until the end of the first night watch4 are the words of Rebbi Eliezer5. But the Sages say until midnight. Rabban Gamliel says until the first sign of dawn6. 1 The Mishnah presupposes that lost its role as glottal stop, the Mishnah everybody knows that there is an in the Yerushalmi has VsiV for classical obligation to recite the verses Dent. 6:4- VÍ3KV in the Babylonian Mishnah. 9 since it is written (v. 7) "You shall 3 Terumah, the heave, is the gift to teach them to your children and speak the Cohen from agricultural produce about them when you sit in your house, (Num. 18:12) and also the Cohen's part when you go on the road, and when of the tithes given to the Levites from you are lying down and when you are produce (Num. 18:26). These gifts must getting up." Since it says "when you are be eaten in ritual purity (Num. 18:13: lying down" before "when you are "every pure person in your family may getting up", the obligation of the eat it.") There are several stages in the evening is discussed before that of the cleansing from ritual impurity. Serious morning. impurities (defilement by a corpse, a 2 The spelling of the Yerushalmi is leper, or a sufferer from gonorrhea) largely phonetic, in contrast to the need special rituals. More common Babli whose Hebrew spelling is his- defilements, such as touching a dead torical. Since the κ was silent in animal or coming in contact with a Galilean speech of the time and had more severely impure person, need 40 CHAPTER ONE immersion in the ritual bath (miqweh). Temple there were still places in Israel This immersion removes impurity but where the Cohanim could purify does not yet allow a person to touch themselves by the ashes of the Red sanctified food or to enter the Temple Heifer (in Galilee which was only before nightfall, as it is said (Lev. 22:6- minimally damaged by the two wars 7): "He may not eat of sanctified food with the Romans.) unless he immersed himself in water. 4 The night is divided either into When the sun leaves he shall be three (Babylonian) or four (Roman) purified and after that he may eat of watches. the sanctified food." [For the more 5 The name of R. Eliezer is attached severe kinds of impurity, a sacrifice is only to the statement about the night needed before the Cohen may eat watch. The start of the time of the sacred food in the Temple; this does evening Shema is accepted by every- not concern us here.] The Halakhah body. Rebbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was will discuss the exact meaning of "the one of the foremost students of Rabban sun leaving" and its relation to sunset Yohanan ben Zakkai, the founder of and nightfall. the Synhedrion of Jabneh after the Today, no Cohen may eat any destruction of the Temple. He was the Terumah and the minimal amount set most conservative of all teachers of his apart for Terumah must be burned; it is time and reputed to transmit old ritually unclean from the start since traditions most reliably. nowadays everybody is defiled by the 6 It will be seen that the difference impurity of dead bodies. That impurity between Rabban Gamliel and the other can be removed only by sprinkling sages is practical rather than theo- with water treated with the ashes of retical. They agree that "when you are the Red Heifer (Num. 19). The Mish- lying down" mfeans "all the time that nah was edited approximately between you are lying on your bed" and not 200 and 220 C. E. It must be assumed "when you are ready to go to bed". The that the rules of the Mishnah are latter interpretation is that of R. intended to be practical. It follows that Eliezer. 130 years after the destruction of the VP??? D>?rpny nvvP l?'?!· ΠΝ V"PP >riψπιρ M ηϊϊη •)ΓΙ>3 VP??? en* îiV^P 'S"! ^ïi -IW^T»? ^^ HALAKHAH1 41 ny^p NjVN .V1V Ion?! V?ï">i? ^Eì ïrçv nyyp .NID DV1 Hin Ηΐρφ vjJpvu^ irei!? VP»? cpírpny im TIN"! .NID Ν»>>> 'ΤΗΓΙ) Π^ψ Ί^? ÎJÎDÇl!? DIN nnpri tçN .ριψ .Νηνη >K>i?p YÙ >-m HQW NIDI N¡?>ripn "prprniía Halakhah 1. When does one start to read the Shema in the evening?. We have stated7: "From the time that the priests enter to eat their Terumah". Rebbi Hiyya stated8: "From the time that people enter their houses Friday evening to eat their meal." We have stated: "Their opinions are almost identical." Come and see: "From the time that the priests enter to eat their Terumah' is still daylight and the stars start to appear9, "from the time that people enter their houses Friday evening to eat their meal" is one or two hours into the night. You want to say that the two opinions are almost identical? Rebbi Yose10 said: Explain it by people in hamlets who usually leave the roads when there still is some daylight because they are afraid of wild beasts. 7 'jn is the translation of Targum vocalization 'in is the prevalent one in Yerushalmi for Hebrew un "to tell the Yerushalmi Targumim. formally". It is a technical term that 8 Rebbi Hiyya is R. Hiyya bar Abba implies a statement of Tannai'm, the bar Aha Karsala from Kufra in Ba- teachers of the oral law who were bylonia, the greatest of the students active from Maccabean times to the and colleagues of Rebbi (Yehuda, the death of Rebbi Yehudah the Prince, the editor of the Mishnah). Rebbi Hiyya is compiler of the Mishnah. The credited with collecting the tannaitic insistence on this being taught, or material that Rebbi left out of the formulated, repeatedly, shows that a Mishnah. The collection known as the statement introduced by 'an is a formal Tosephta is probably based on his statement, carefully formulated for material even though in the current oral repetition, and not just an ad hoc form it is a Babylonian rearrangement. statement in a discussion. The Now the Tosephta (Berakhot 1,1) is 42 CHAPTER ONE quoted in the Babli (Berakhot 2b): the earliest moment which can be n'ansa ya© n'ip niipV i'Vnna td'kö declared to be night. Hence, the other 'anya ins bisxV j'djsj mx 'ja® nswo version of R. Mei'r, that people start to nvwo ο'Ίβίκ o'sarn νκο '3Τ nan nina«? eat Friday nights, must also mean an •innnra Via«1? p«3T Donane "When may early time. Since people return from one start to read the Shema in the work early on Fridays, being notified evening? From the time that people of the approching Sabbath by the enter to eat their meals on Friday sounding of trumpets (Babli Sabbat Evening, says Rebbi Mei'r, but the Sages 35b), they will eat early. In particular say from the moment that the Cohanim in Babylonia, where synagogues were are allowed to eat their Terumah." It out in the fields, Friday evening seems that the Talmud does not services were held so that people could indicate that R. Hiyya is reported here return to town before the unlit roads to quote the Tosephta but that there became completely dark. In Israel, on was a difference of opinion between the other hand, synagogues were in Rebbi and Rebbi Hiyya about which towns and often the sermon was held opinion of those mentioned in the on Friday evening. It is told in Lev. Tosephta should be accepted in the rabba 9(9) that R. Mei'r was preaching Mishnah as authoritative. Friday evenings and even women came There is a fundamental disagree- to hear the sermon at that time. Hence, ment between the two Talmudim in the the Sabbath meal was late. In Israel, R. interpretation of R. Mei'r's opinion. Mei'r's pronouncement was taken to The Babli quotes a second version of R. indicate a very late time. Meir, "from the time that the Cohanim 9 As noted in the preceding immerse themselves in order to eat comment, the Cohanim start to eat Terumah." Since the Cohanim have to when it is no longer day, but before it concentrate on their status of purity is completely dark. The exact de- between immersion and eating, in order finition of "day," "twilight," "night" will not to touch unclean matter be given later in the present section. inadvertently, it is clear that they will 10 This R. Yose is the late Galilean immerse themselves at or shortly after Amora R. Yose (probably, ben Zabida), sunset, when it is still clearly day and not the Tanna R. Yose ben Halaphta. no stars are visible, and start to eat at HALAKHAH 1 43 ji>33 nnw viip ρ on .innin >-r> N$n Nb p^ oiip N-iipn H* JIN^ np5?n Jin? nrçiN ΐηίρ γη »pv :mTin ïvj -»αϊ ^inn n^aipa iSnft tonin It was stated: "He who recites (the Shema') before that time did not fulfill his duty." If that is so, why does one recite (the Shema') in the synagogue? Rebbi Yose said: one does not recite it to fulfill one's duty but only to stand in prayer after the study of Torah11.
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