תלמוד על ברכות 1:2

Rebbi Yasa prayed at three hours¹⁹While in theory in Mishnaic times the recitation of Shema‘ and prayer were separate activities, the practice in Amoraic times was to unite them. It is stated in the Babli (9b) in the name of Israeli authorities that it is preferable to pray immediately after the last benediction of Shema‘. All authorities quoted here subscribe to this usage; the first two pray at the correct time for the recitation of Shema‘, the last one recites Shema‘ at the time of prayer according to Rebbi Yehudah.. Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba prayed at three hours. They saw Rebbi Berekhiah that he recited Shema‘ and prayed after three hours. But did we not formulate (Berakhot 1:5): “He who reads after that did not lose, he is like a man reading in the Torah.” We may say that he accepted the yoke of heaven in its time²⁰It is current practice to recite the first verse of Shema‘ during the preliminary benedictions recited immediately after one gets dressed in the morning. Then the remainder of Shema‘ is just recitation of verses of Torah and may be delayed, in particular on Sabbath and holidays..

Rebbi Samuel bar Ḥanina in the name of Rebbi Hoshaiah¹⁶⁹A Babylonian, student of Rav Yehudah and Rav Huna, who later emigrated to Israel and became student of Rebbi Yoḥanan.: “He Who forms light and creates darkness¹⁷⁰This is the beginning of the first benediction before the Shema‘, it appears here in the context of the recitation of Shema‘. The language is that of the verse (Is. 45:7) “He Who forms light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates evil.” In prayer, the verse is changed to “He Who forms light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates all” to soften the language. Rebbi Hoshaiah notes that one may not go so far as to eliminate the mention of darkness, in the words of the Babli (12a) “to mention night at day and day at night”, to negate any Zoroastrian dualism.”; one should not say: “He Who forms light and creates radiance.” Rebbi Ḥaggai¹⁷¹A Babylonian who went to study in Tiberias. in the name of Rebbi Abba bar Zavda¹⁷²A Galilean who went to study temporarily in Babylonia; he was a chief authority in Galilee after the death of Rebbi Yoḥanan. Both authors mentioned here were familiar with the Babylonian prayer ritual.: “There they sang for You¹⁷³In Halakhah 1:9, the Yerushalmi quotes the Babylonian version of a short benediction after Shema‘: “We thank You that You took us out of Egypt and redeemed us from the house of slavery to thank Your Name”. The Babli (14b) has the corresponding Galilean version: “We thank You that You took us out of Egypt and redeemed us from the house of slavery, did for us wonders and great deeds on the sea, and we sang for You”. The version “There they praised You” seems to be an alternative Babylonian form that is rejected here (since it is not a proper introduction to the required recitation of Ex. 15:11,19. In later times, the Israeli standard introduction to these verses was בגילה ברנה בשמחה רבה ואמרו כולם, retained in the Ashkenazic service on holiday nights.)”, one should not say: “There they praised You”. Rebbi Levi, Rebbi Eudaimon¹⁷⁴An Amora of the second generation. His name Εὐδαίμων “fortunate” shows that the pronounciation of Greek in his time was as today, that υ = f = ב. of Haifa, in the name of Rebbi Levi bar Sisi¹⁷⁵Levi who usually is quoted without title or patronymic.: one has to pronounce tizkeru voiced¹⁷⁶Since voiced z (ז) and voiceless s (שׂ,ס) are similar sounds, care is needed to distinguish between תזכרו (Num. 15:40) “you shall remember” and תסכרו “you shall dam up”, תשׂכרו “you shall hire”, and even, under the influence of Greek, which knows no sh sound, תשׁכרו “you will get drunk”.. Rebbi Jonah in the name of Rav Ḥisda: one has to pronounce ki lĕ‘ôlām ḥasdȏ voiced¹⁷⁷It is not clear why one should pronounce חַסְדּוֹ with a soft s. R. Zachariah Frankel notes that the two Aramaic verbs חֲסַד ḥăsad “to be loving” and חַסַּד ḥassad “to insult, degrade” differ in the quality of its s sound; hence, one has to take care that “truly, His kindness is forever” should not sound as “truly, His insulting is forever”. It seems that while s should not really sound like z, care has to be taken not to make it sound like ss. Maybe the same difference was once heard between Hebrew חסד I “to show kindness” and חסד II “to insult.”. It was stated: One does not take as reader anyone from Haifa, Beth Sheän or Tiv‘on since they read ח like ¹⁷⁸Western Ashkenazic pronunciation treated ח like hh until the middle of the sixteenth Century. Under the influence of Polish, which in contrast to German has only one ch- sound, Ashkenazic pronunciation lost the difference between ח (ḥ) and כ (kh). In all other Jewish dialects, the problem is not the identification of כ,ח but of ע . ח,ה is lost in all Ashkenazic pronunciations; it is retained in Italian and Portuguese Hebrew as ng.ה and ע like א. If his pronunciation was orderly, it would be permitted¹⁷⁹If he makes an effort and tries to realize the difference, even if he does not quite succeed..