Mishnah - Short Introduction to Tractate Berakhot - Sheet 2

The Rabbis of the Mishnah made a new pedagogical choice to order the Mishnah topically, and not according to the order of the verses in the Torah. The entire enterprise was divided into six major areas of law (seder/sedarim). The corpus was then further subdivided into tractates (masekhet/masekhtot) organized around specific subtopics. The first order, Zeraim, deals with agricultural law such as tithes and produce offerings in the Temple. However, this first tractate of the Mishnah does not neatly fit into this rubric. Despite a tenuous link to agriculture with a short discussion of blessings over fruits and vegetables (sixth chapter), the tractate stands out as different from the rest of the order. The topics Tractate Berakhot covers are the reading of the Shema and its blessings, prayer, made up of 18 benedictions, blessings before and after food, kiddush, and other blessings of praise and thanksgiving. This tractate, and the Mishnah as a whole, does not mention blessings over individual mitzvah performance. (The Mishnah only identifies blessings said over Temple sacrifices. See for example M. Pesahim 10:9.) It seems the blessings in this tractate lean closer to those we might identify with the colloquial term, “prayer/s.”

So why does the entire corpus of the Mishnah start with this tractate? Berakhot serves as the introduction to the entire Mishnah because it outlines the essential basis for a relationship with God after the destruction of the Temple. Without this, the rest of the oral law would have no meaning.

Today it is hard to imagine and grasp the full national trauma of the Temple’s destruction. Besides the devastating loss of national power and sovereignty, it was also a crushing blow to religious practice and belief. Does the Divine still reside in the midst of the Jewish people? Is it still possible for individuals to encounter and come close to God? Does God want that relationship and what would it look like? Before the destruction, the Jewish people were made up of many different (and, at times, rival) sects: Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots, the Dead Sea Sect and the Jesus Movement, to name a few. However, the only two groups that survived were the ones that found a way to build a meaningful religious life without the Temple. For the Jesus Movement, the transition fit smoothly with the group’s core beliefs. However, for the Rabbis of the Mishnah (the descendants of the Pharisees), the new ritual framework had radical innovative aspects. Tractate Berakhot is a presentation of this new spiritual and religious reality.

Due to the Rabbis’ initiative, the recitation of blessings is normative practice for Jews throughout their lives. However, its institution was quite daring. How could God’s name constantly be invocated by laypeople (as opposed to priests) outside the Temple?! Does this behavior risk taking God’s name in vain, a Biblical prohibition? Can one really reside in the Godly domain and stand before the presence of the Almighty when God’s residence has been destroyed?

The Rabbis were extraordinary self-aware of their bold actions. Tractate Berakhot ends with the following midrash as its very last line, which seemingly reflects back on the whole tractate (M. Berakhot 9:5):

There are times where uprooting the Torah is the only way to preserve it and, more importantly, to sustain the Jewish people’s relationship with their Creator. Tractate Berakhot, with its new structure of blessings, is the blueprint for the continued relationship between the Jewish people and God. Thus, it must be the opening text of the Mishnaic corpus.

In this opening tractate, the text is very transparent about the Rabbinic agenda. Besides discussing the individual’s relationship with God, it also gives a clear description of the Rabbinic enterprise and what the Rabbis see as their responsibility, as they partner with the Divine, in revealing Torah and God’s presence in this world.