M. VIII. 5; T. VI. 6. The Order of the Benedictions about Various Objects at the End of Sabbath

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

The Order of the Benedictions about Various Objects at the End of Sabbath.

M.VIII. 5. The School of Shammai say: Lamp and food and spices ⁵ and Habdalah. ⁶ But the

p. 69

M.[paragraph continues] School of Hillel say: Lamp and spices and food and Habdalah.

T.

T. VI. 6. R. Judah said: The School of Shammai and the School of Hillel had no dispute about the Benediction after the meal, that it is pronounced at the beginning (of the prayer), or over the Habdalah that it is pronounced at the end. About what did they dispute? About the lamp and about the spices. For the School of Shammai say [the Benediction] over the lamp, and afterwards [over] the spices; and the School of Hillel say: Spices, and after that, Lamp.

He who entereth into his house at the end of sabbath says the Benediction over the wine, and over the lamp, and over the spices, and says the Habdalah. And if he has only one cup he reserves it for after the meal, and strings them altogether [in a Benediction] after it; and one says the Habdalah at the end of sabbath, and at the end of a festival, and at the end of the Day of Atonement, and at the end of a sabbath for a festival, ¹ and the end of a festival for the ordinary day of the feast.

He who is accustomed [to use such forms] says many Habdaloth, ² and he who is not accustomed says one or two.

In the Lecture Hall, the School of Shammai say: One person says the Benediction for them all, and the School of Hillel say: Each single one says the Benediction for himself. ³

Footnotes

68:5 spices. As the custom of burning spices at the close of meals (M. VI. 6, supra, p. 48) "was intermitted on the sabbath, the bringing in of spices became associated with the end of the sabbath" (Abrahams on SA, p. 216).

68:6 Habdalah, p. 39.

69:1 for a festival. When a sabbath immediately precedes a festival.

69:2 Habdaloth. The plural may refer to vanity in the Benedictions, or in the citations from Scripture, or to the enumeration of various "distinctions."

69:3 Each . . for himself. Perhaps because they are continually coming and going. Cf. supra, p. 63.