Kriyat Shema and its Blessings – קריאת שמע וברכותיה: Foundational Texts - Mishna (Berachot and Tamid) & Yerushalmi Berachot 1:5, 3c

^{26 Tishrei 5781 l October 14, 2020}

Rabbi Jeffrey Fox

Rosh Yeshiva and Dean of Faculty

The next section of the siddur that I will analyze is the Shema and its blessings. As opposed to Pesukei d’Zimra, which had very few texts from chazal that overtly dealt with the topic, we now encounter a portion of the siddur with ample rabbinic material. These texts provide fertile ground for rishonim to struggle with the section’s deeper meaning and function.

These essays will proceed as follows. First, I present a few foundational texts that serve as the basis for subsequent deliberation. The remaining installments seek to answer the following three questions:

1. What is the relationship of Shema and its blessings to the Amida? (סמיכת גאולה לתפילה)
2. How do the berachot of Shema function relative to the Shema itself? (ברכות המצוה או ברכת שבח)
3. How do the berachot function relative to each other? (ברכות מעכבות)

While these questions are somewhat technical in nature, they also provide a framework to help unpack some of the bigger themes of this section. Through a careful halakhic analysis, I hope to foreground some of the more spiritual messages that lie just beneath the surface of the Shema and its blessings.

Foundational Texts

The story of the berachot of Shema begins with a straightforward Mishna.

This Mishna outlines the basic structure of the entire section. We should be familiar with the idea of a central piece of Biblical text that is surrounded by berachot. This is the same as Pesukei d’Zimra and Hallel, both of which have opening and closing berachot enveloping the central recitation of an ancient text from the Tanakh. The same structure appears every time the Torah is read in public: an opening beracha followed by a Biblical text and then a concluding beracha.

As we proceed further into these essays, we will unpack the nature of the relationship of the berachot themselves to the Shema as well as the connection of this entire unit to the Amida. For now, I simply want to flag that the function of the berachot is entirely unclear from the Mishna itself. Are these meant to be a birkat ha-Mitzvah? If that were the case, the text of the berachot seems quite strange. If they are not birkot ha-Mitzvah, then what are they?

The Ba’al ha-Tanya asks the question like this (chapter מט):

The existence of at least one Beracha preceding the Shema appears to be an ancient practice. The Mishna in Tamid says:

This Mishna, which preserves part of the tefilot that were recited in the Beit ha-Mikdash, is significant for a few reasons:

1. This reflects the reality that some davening happened before the destruction of the Beit ha-Mikdash. To whatever extent tefila can be seen as a kind of replacement for the service of the Temple, some of its aspects overlapped with the existence of the Beit ha-Mikdash.
2. The blessings of Shema are very old. While the Talmud (Berachot 11a) debates which beracha in particular was recited, we clearly have a tradition of berachot before the Shema going back nearly 2,000 years.
3. This Mishna also seems to serve as a model of call and response, perhaps not dissimilar to what we know as Barchu.

Yerushalmi

The Mishna gives little background to the meaning of the berachot themselves. However, the Yerushalmi takes up that question with the citation of two pesukim.

This somewhat cryptic passage in the Yerushalmi quotes two different Biblical texts that serve as the basis for the section of Shema and its blessings: You shall meditate upon it day and night, from Joshua (1:8) and I praise You seven times, from the Psalms (119:164).

The idea that “the meditations of the day and the night be equal” is explained by the P’nei Moshe as referring to the numbers of Berachot plus the paragraphs of Shema that are recited in the day and at night. During the day there are three blessings and three sections of Shema. At night there are four blessings and only two sections of Shema because the parasha of Tzitzit (va-yomer) was not always recited at night. In this way, day and night are parallel or equal. A similar idea is echoed in the Bavli Berakhot 11a/b, which we will analyze next time.

The idea that the day and the night should be parallel could simply be read as a desire for symmetry in liturgy. There is always something pleasing when numbers line up in this manner. In addition, I think this can also be understood as a reference to a deeper message of this section. The idea that the night and the day must be in balance and that they both come from God is a key message of the berachot of Shema.

How is I praise You seven times a day (Psalm 119:164) connected to the Shema? On a simple level, there are seven berachot recited in total every day before and after the Shema in the morning and evening. In addition, for Your just laws, may be a reference to the Biblical text of Shema itself. Here the number seven refers to just the blessings and not the paragraphs and Shema. In this presentation the verses do not reflect a different approach to the berachot or to Shema; rather, they are understood as referring to different passages.

How might we understand something deeper going on between R. Shmuel bar. Nachman – And you shall meditate upon it day and night – and R. Yehoshua b. Levi – I praise You seven times a day? One way to think about this is to look at directionality. And you shall meditate is a command from God to the prophet and to us. I praise you seven times is King David pouring out divine praise upward. The twice daily recitation of the Shema contains both of these aspects.

On the one hand, we are fulfilling a Mitzvah from the Torah. On the other hand, we are reaching toward the heavens with the praise of the angles. This interaction — from the heavens to us and from us to Hashem — is the secret of prayer. Davening is a two-way communication, and we need to train ourselves to hear the movement in our direction.