026a – מי שמתו – פרק שלישי – ברכות, כו ע”א

[A cloak placed in] a chest,^[1]

אקמטרא - a box for books. In Megillah (26b): kamtrei d'sifrei, "chests of books." So too Yonasan translates and in chests of rich apparel (Yechezkel 27:24) as "shining garments, placed in chests (kamtarin)." And likewise to the one over the wardrobe (Melachim II 10:22) is rendered "to the one over the chest (kamtara)."

is considered a vessel within a vessel.

ככלי בתוך כלי דמי - since the cloak is not their own container.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: For a Sefer Torah one must make a partition of ten.^[2]

מחיצה עשרה - and if not, he may not have marital relations [in that room].

Mar Zutra visited the house of Rav Ashi. He saw the place of Mar bar Rav Ashi,

לדוכתיה - the place of his bed.

where a Sefer Torah was lying, and he had made a partition of ten for it.

He said to him: "Like whom? Like Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi?!

Say that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said this when one has no other room; but you, Master, have another room!"

He said to him: "It did not occur to me."

לאו אדעתאי - I did not put my mind to it.

How far must he distance himself from them and from excrement? Four amos.^[3] Rava said in the name of Rav Sechorah in the name of Rav Huna: They taught this only behind him; but in front of him, he must distance himself as far as his eyes can see.

And the same applies to prayer.

Is that so?

But Rafram bar Pappa said in the name of Rav Chisda: "A person may stand facing a lavatory and pray"!

כנגד בית הכסא - at a distance of four amos.

Here we are dealing with a lavatory that has no excrement in it.

דלית בה צואה - that has been cleaned out.

Is that so?

But Rav Yosef bar Chanina said: "The lavatory of which they spoke — even if there is no excrement in it.

And the bathhouse of which they spoke — even if there is no one in it"!

בית המרחץ - it is forbidden to think [words of Torah] in it.

Rather, here we are dealing with a new one.

But Ravina asked: If one designated [a structure] as a lavatory, what is the law?^[4]

Does designation count, or does designation not count?

When Ravina asked, it was about standing on it to pray inside it; but facing it — no [there is no question].

Rava said: These Persian lavatories, even though there is excrement in them, are considered closed ones.

דפרסאי - they were dug out, with their opening far from the pit and on a slope, so that the waste rolls down and falls into the pit.

Mishnah

A zav who saw a seminal emission,^[5]

זב שראה קרי - even though he is impure with a seven-day impurity because of zivah, and this immersion does not purify him, he nevertheless needs immersion for words of Torah, by the enactment of Ezra, because of the emission. And so too a niddah, if she comes to pray Shemoneh Esrei.

and a niddah who discharged semen,

שפלטה שכבת זרע - she is like a ba'al keri, as we find at Sinai: "for three days; do not come near a woman" (Shemos 19:15) — because semen makes impure when discharged throughout three days. After that it has already decayed in her body and is no longer fit to fertilize, for a child to be formed from it. And this is the meaning: a niddah who now discharged [semen from] the relations she had yesterday, before she saw [blood].

and a woman who had relations and saw niddah blood —

require immersion.

And Rabbi Yehudah exempts.

ורבי יהודה פוטר - we now assume [his reason is]: since the impurity of zivah came first, and he is already impure with a severe impurity, which does not forbid him words of Torah — as we said in our chapter, zavim and metzora'im are permitted — the light impurity of keri can no longer come and forbid him.

Gemara

They asked: A ba'al keri who then saw zivah — according to Rabbi Yehudah, what is the law?

When Rabbi Yehudah exempted there, it was for a zav who saw an emission, since from the outset he was not fit for immersion.

לאו בר טבילה הוא - for words of Torah, even though his impurity is severe; and keri can no longer come and require it of him.

But a ba'al keri who saw zivah, who from the outset was fit for immersion, is obligated.

Or perhaps there is no difference?

Come and hear: "A woman who had relations and saw niddah blood requires immersion.

And Rabbi Yehudah exempts."

But "a woman who had relations and saw niddah blood" is like a ba'al keri who saw zivah, and Rabbi Yehudah exempts.

Learn from this.

Rabbi Chiya taught explicitly: "A ba'al keri who saw zivah requires immersion.

And Rabbi Yehudah exempts."

Masechta Berachos, Chapter Four

Mishnah

The morning prayer — until midday.

Rabbi Yehudah says: until four hours.^[6]

The afternoon prayer — until evening.

עד הערב - until dark.

Rabbi Yehudah says: until plag haminchah.^[7]

עד פלג המנחה - the Gemara explains it.

The evening prayer has no fixed time.

אין לה קבע - the whole night is its time; and the Gemara explains what the expression "has no fixed time" means.

And that of Musaf — all day.^[8]

Gemara

They contrasted: "Its mitzvah is at sunrise, so that one joins geulah to tefillah and is found praying in the day"?^[9]

מצותה - of the reading of Shema.

That was taught about the vasikin.

לותיקין - those who are early for mitzvos and strive to do a thing at its time and in its proper way; they hurry to pray right after sunrise. And when our Mishnah taught [until midday], it was for those who delay — that one should not delay beyond midday, for from then on the time has passed.

For Rabbi Yochanan said: The vasikin would finish it with sunrise.

And for everyone, until midday and no more?

וכולי עלמא - the rest of those who pray, who delay until midday — they may delay and no more.

But Rav Mari the son of Rav Huna the son of Rabbi Yirmeyah bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: "If one erred and did not pray Maariv, he prays two at Shacharis.^[10]

[If he missed] Shacharis, he prays two at Minchah"!

במנחה - that is, after midday.

He may go on praying all day.

Until midday they give him the reward of prayer in its time; from then on, they give him the reward of prayer, but the reward of prayer in its time they do not give him.

They asked: If one erred and did not pray Minchah, may he pray two at Maariv?

If you say that one who erred and did not pray Maariv prays two at Shacharis, that is because it is one day,

אם תימצי לומר - that is, if you answer my question from what we said, "if one erred and did not pray Maariv" etc.

as it is written (Bereishis 1:5): "And there was evening and there was morning, one day."

But here, prayer is in place of an offering,^[11] and once its day has passed, its offering is void.

וכיון דעבר יומו בטל קרבנו - and he does not bring it on another day if its time is fixed, such as the Musaf offerings of each day.

Or perhaps, since prayer is a plea for mercy, whenever he wishes he may go on praying.

Come and hear: "For Rav Huna bar Yehudah said in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: If one erred and did not pray Minchah, he prays two at Maariv, and this does not fall under 'once its day has passed, its offering is void'."

They objected: (Koheles 1:15) "'What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.'

'What is crooked cannot be made straight' — this is one who neglected the Shema of the evening or the Shema of the morning, or the evening prayer or the morning prayer.

'And what is lacking cannot be counted' — this is one whose companions were counted for a mitzvah and he was not counted with them"?

Rabbi Yitzchak said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: Here we are dealing with one who neglected it deliberately.

Rav Ashi said: The wording is precise too, for it teaches "neglected" and does not teach "erred" —

learn from this.

ספר תורה עושה לו מחיצה - specifically a Sefer Torah; and with Chumashim too one should be stringent, as with a Sefer Torah; but for other books a mere covering is enough.

תפלת השחר עד חצות וכו' תפלת המנחה עד הערב - And if you ask: why does it not say of the afternoon prayer "all day," as it says of the Musaf prayer? One may answer: the time of Musaf is all day, even from the morning, for the offerings may be brought right after the Tamid; so the Musaf prayer too may be said right from the morning — which is not so with Minchah, [whose time begins] only from six and a half hours. And so too in the first chapter of Avodah Zarah (4b): "One should not pray the Musaf prayer in the first three hours on Rosh Hashanah as an individual" etc. — implying that during the rest of the year he may. And therefore [the Mishnah] puts the afternoon prayer before the Musaf prayer, because it is frequent, every day,^[12] even though the Musaf prayer comes earlier [in the day].

טעה ולא התפלל ערבית מתפלל בשחרית שתים - And if you ask: but Rav says below (Berachos 27b) that the evening prayer is optional,^[13] and we rule like him in matters of prohibition! And a further difficulty: it says below (Berachos 30b) that if one erred and did not say Yaaleh veYavo at night, he is not made to repeat, because the new month is not sanctified at night — why does he need that reason? Derive it from the fact that the evening prayer is optional! One may answer: when we say the evening prayer is optional, that is in face of another mitzvah that would otherwise pass — then we say the evening prayer is set aside for it; but for no reason, he should not neglect it. However, if he delayed until Minchah, it seems that its time has passed and its offering is void, since he waited so long; and after two prayers we do not find that the Sages instituted that one go back and pray if he forgot. And even a single prayer, if he neglected it deliberately, he cannot make up — and shortly below [the Gemara] calls this "what is crooked cannot be made straight."

איבעיא להו טעה ולא התפלל תפלת מנחה כו' - He does not ask about one who erred and did not pray Musaf, for certainly he does not pray it at Maariv: how could he recite the offerings when the time of Musaf has already passed? Also, the seven blessings of Musaf were instituted only because of "so we will render bulls [with] our lips,"^[14] and in this certainly "once its day has passed, its offering is void." But the other prayers are pleas for mercy — would that a person pray all day long! — and with another prayer there is no "its time has passed."

Notes

1. 1. Rava's statement begins at the foot of the previous amud (Berachos 25b): a cloak placed in a chest counts as a vessel within a vessel. The beraisa there forbids marital relations in a room holding a Sefer Torah or tefillin unless they are taken out or placed in a vessel within a vessel, and Abaye adds that a container made for them does not count.
2. 2. A partition at least ten tefachim high, the height that makes a separate domain in halachah. With it, the Sefer Torah is treated as if it were in another room.
3. 3. The Mishnah (Berachos 22b) rules that one may not recite Shema within four amos of urine or excrement. Here the Gemara asks which direction this distance applies to.
4. 4. Hazmanah, designation, is setting a place aside for a use before it has been used. Ravina's question is whether a new structure merely designated as a lavatory already has a lavatory's status.
5. 5. A zav is a man who has had a zivah discharge, which makes him impure for seven days. A ba'al keri is one who has had a seminal emission. Ezra enacted that a ba'al keri may not study Torah or pray until he immerses.
6. 6. Halachic hours are seasonal: the daytime is divided into twelve equal hours, longer in summer and shorter in winter. Midday is the end of the sixth hour, and four hours is a third of the day.
7. 7. Plag haminchah, "half of the Minchah," is one and a quarter hours before nightfall, the midpoint of the late Minchah period, as the Gemara explains below (Berachos 27a).
8. 8. Musaf is the additional prayer said on Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh and Yom Tov, corresponding to the additional offering brought on those days.
9. 9. Joining geulah to tefillah means saying Shemoneh Esrei immediately after the blessing ga'al Yisrael that follows the Shema. So the prayer itself is said right at sunrise.
10. 10. This is tashlumin, making up a prayer: one who missed a prayer by error says the next prayer twice. Since Shacharis can be made up at Minchah, its time seems to last all day.
11. 11. The prayers were instituted corresponding to the daily offerings in the Beis HaMikdash (Berachos 26b). An offering with a fixed day that passed without its being brought is not made up.
12. 12. The general rule is tadir kodem: when two mitzvos come together, the more frequent one comes first.
13. 13. Rav holds (Berachos 27b) that Maariv is optional (reshus), not an obligation like the other prayers.
14. 14. Hoshea 14:3: the words of our lips take the place of the bull offerings. Musaf stands in place of the Musaf offering, so it is bound to that offering's time.