T. V. 1-4. The Entrance on the Sabbath, the Meal, and the Benedictions

Tractate Berakoth, by , by A. Lukyn Williams, [1921], at sacred-texts.com

The Entrance on the Sabbath, the Meal, and the Benedictions.

T. V. 1. A man does not eat on the eve of the sabbath from the afternoon ⁵ and onwards, so that he may enter on the sabbath with desire. These are the words of R. Judah. R. Jose says: He continues to eat until the time that it is getting dark.

2. An incident [is related] of Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel and R. Judah and R. Jose, that they were reclining at a meal in Accho, and the holy

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day drew on. ¹ Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel said to R. Jose: Let us leave off for the sabbath. ² He said to him: Every single day dost thou prefer my words of Judah, and now thou preferrest the words of Judah to mine! "Will he even force the queen with me in the house?" ³

He said to him: If so let us not leave off. Perhaps you [two] will decide the Rule in Israel. ⁴ They say that they did not move thence until they had decided the Rule according ⁵ to the words of R. Jose.

3. In the case of guests who are reclining at a meal near the master of the house, and the holy day has drawn on, they move with the darkness to the Lecture Hall, ⁶ and, when they return, mix them the cup, saying over it the sanctification of the day. ⁷ Such are the words of R. Judah. R. Jose says: Each eats on until the time that it is dark. ⁸

4. When the first cup is mixed for him (the master of the house) he says over it the Benediction after the meal, and makes mention of the Benediction

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of the sabbath in the Benediction after the meal. And at the second [cup] he says over it the sanctification of the day.

Footnotes

57:1 three Benedictions. SA, pp. 280, 282. Because they all belong to the seven kinds, Deut. 8^{8, 10}, wheat, barley, vine, fig, pomegranate, olive oil, honey.

57:2 over them. B has "after them," which expresses the fact more clearly. See Deut. 8¹⁰.

57:3 SA, p. 290.

57:4 Ibid.

57:5 the afternoon (ha minchah), i.e. about 3.30 p.m. Vide supra, p. 28.

58:1 and the holy day drew on. Literally, "and the clay became holy upon them," i.e. the sabbath began, for darkness came on.

58:2 Let us leave off for the sabbath. For this meal belongs to the weekday; let us honour the sabbath by beginning a fresh one.

58:3 Esther 7⁸.

58:4 the Rule in Israel. Or perhaps, according to the Vienna MS., and T. J. Pesachim 37 ^b, "lest perchance a Rule be decided in Israel," one way or the other.

58:5 according to the words of R. Jose. That it was not necessary to leave off.

58:6 to the Lecture Hall. In order to be occupied with Torah when the sabbath begins.

58:7 the sanctification of the day. This was originally said only in the house, and its use in the synagogue "arose from the custom of entertaining and lodging wayfarers in the Synagogue precincts, and thus the rite was part of the meal provided for the communal guests" (Abrahams on SA, p. 124). See also Elbogen (p. 111), who dates the observance in the synagogue from the earliest Gemara teachers in Babylon (c. 200 A.D.).

58:8 dark. For not until then is it necessary to light the sabbath lamp, and to say the necessary prayer.