Berachos

The Talmud's First Question

Berachos 2a

When may one recite the "Shema" in the evening?

This is the question which serves as the opening of the Babylonian Talmud.

In response the Mishnah cites the earliest time - when the stars appear and the kohanim who have immersed themselves in a mikveh to purify themselves from a state of tumah are eligible to once again eat terumah.

While there is a consensus on how early the Shema can be recited in the evening, there are several differing positions as to how late this mitzvah can be performed. Rabbi Eliezer limits this to the first third of the night, while the Sages extend it to midnight and Rabban Gamliel until the morning.

The differing opinions, explains Rashi (3a), are based on how to interpret the term "and in your lying down to sleep" (Devarim 6:7) which the Torah uses for the time frame of the evening Shema. Rabbi Eliezer's interpretation is that this refers to the time when people are involved in lying down to sleep. Since there are early retirers and late ones, this period extends to the first third of the night. Rabbi Gamliel and the Sages both interpret this not as when people go to sleep but to when they are actually sleeping, which is all night long. The Sages, however, limit the recital to midnight because they contend that there is a rabbinical decree requiring a person to recite the Shema before that hour in order to prevent him from falling asleep before reciting and missing out on the mitzvah entirely.

This is why the Mishnah concludes with the story of Rabban Gamliel's sons arriving home after midnight without having recited the Shema. Rabban Gamliel informed them that they could still recite the Shema because even the Sages who limit the time to midnight agree that the Torah gave a person the opportunity to recite the Shema as long as people are sleeping, which is until the morning. They only disagreed with his own opinion by insisting that a rabbinical decree required recital before midnight. But even they would agree that if one forgot to do so before midnight, he still had an opportunity to do so until daybreak.

Taharos

Raising the IQ

Niddah 70b

"What should a man do to become wise in Torah?" asked the Jews of Alexandria of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chanina.

"Let him spend much time studying and little time in business," was the Sage's reply.

"But many have done so," they persisted, "and have not succeeded."

"Then let him pray to the One to whom wisdom belongs."

Why, asks the Talmud, did he first mention the need for much study if, in the end, everything depends on prayer?

Rabbi Yehoshua taught the people of Alexandria that success in acquiring wisdom can only be achieved through a combination of study and prayer, and that one without the other is insufficient.

Maharsha points out that the wisdom referred to here is not the knowledge of Torah but the intelligence of the one studying Torah. The intelligence level of a person, say our Sages (Niddah 16b), is predetermined, for at the moment of conception an angel brings the seminal drop before Hashem and asks whether a wise man or a fool will be formed from it. Is man forever limited to this degree of predestined intelligence, asked the Alexandrians, or is he capable of breaking the barriers of this Heavenly decree?

Rabbi Yehoshua's response was that man can break the intelligence barrier by a combination of hard work and the Heavenly help gained through prayer and the merit of Torah study. One without the other will leave him with the level of intelligence decreed at conception. Together, however, they can make him a more intelligent person.

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