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(Between the recital of the benediction before eating and ingesting the food, we do not interrupt with idle chatter. Such a disruption would require the recitation of a new blessing, for the benediction previously said is rendered invalid by the interlude, according to the Talmud.
Our sages explain that certain pertinent phrases may be said in the interim, since they are not considered a digression of thought (B. Berachot 40a). Thus one who pronounced the benediction over bread but is yet to taste the food, can pass a piece of bread to someone else and say: "Take, recite the blessing." According to another sage, even if the one who recited the blessing said: "Bring salt, bring relish," the initial blessing is not rendered null. The final opinion brought in the talmudic passage allows one to even say "Mix the food for the oxen," without voiding the initial blessing. It is a commandment in Judaism to feed our animal before ourselves.)
The cup was held high, the same way the priests would hold the sacrifice high, acknowledging G!D in His heavens and for the people to see. It elevates the mundane grape and wine, into a holy act.
I will end with the why the use of the right hand.
As we have learned and studied, the Talmud, redacted in its Mishna from circa 200 CE and in its Gemorah additional form in circa 500 CE was a 1000 year old text derived from oral tradition, predating in some areas, back to Torah, perhaps. Each rabbis opinions were recorded, none were censored, and even when they were angry at each other and called each other names, this was included. In times of peace, since rabbis are humans, we read peaceful wisdom, and in times of tribulation, we can sense the bitterness in the pages.
Rabbi Aha was one of the Savorai Rabbeinu, who lived near the end of the 4th century CE. Jerusalem was vanquished by the Romans 300 years before, and Christianity, was now the state religion of Rome, who controlled what was left of Eretz Israel. Rabbi Aha loved life. The rabbinic rule forbidding dancing was ignored by him [Bava Betsa 30] but the immodesty of concentric male and female circles, carried the day. Ignored was Ketubbot 17a, which described Rabbi Aha dancing with a woman on his shoulders. Kiddushin 82 teaches that intent and not the fact of contact, when between male and female who are not married or dating, determines propriety. This point tends to be lost on some of our Jewish sects today.
Rabbi Aha was no fan of Rome nor of Christianity, as both were oppressive to Jews. Rabbi Aha declared: "there was a man, the son of a woman, who would rise up and seek to make himself God, and cause the entire world to err . . . . If he says that he is God, he lies; and in the future he will cause to err - that he departs and returns in the end. He says, but will not do . . . . Alas, who shall live of that people that listens to that man who makes himself God?" (Yal. Simeoni on Num. 23:7).
Hence the use of the right arm to raise the Shabbat Kiddush cup was significant to Rabbi Aha. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy" (Psalm 137). By remembering Jerusalem, which he could walk by and view in ruins, and by using his right arm, he helped make each Shabbat a reminder of the world to come, when the Temple would be rebuilt, in Jerusalem, and the exiled Jews, would be gathered together in 'the land.'
For liberal Jews echoing the words of Rabbi Gustavus Poznanski , of 1841 Charleston, SC, USA, who was moved to say "This synagogue is our Temple, this city our Jerusalem, and this happy land our Palestine," we can still find meaning in Rabbi Aba's ritual as Shabbat is a spiritual mystical time, and a time when we can step out of the secular, into the holy, and prayer and direct ourselves to do Tikun Olam, to repair the world, as G!d's human partners, for Shalom, tsadakah and chesed.
L'Chaim!!
Shavuah Tov,
Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal
The Yerushalmi, the Talmud produced in the Land of Israel, is something like
the ugly sister who never gets any attention when compared with the Bavli
,
the Talmud of Babylonia. So this new year, well attempt to address that
wrong. The Yerushalmi has glories to rival the Bavli's ,so let's get
started! (She ends up being quite as pretty as her sister!)
We'll begin with something that just about every Jew owns: a Kiddush cup.
Whether you got it when you were 13 or when you were getting married or you
collect them, the Yerushalmi has this to say about it:
The earlier sages asked: Can the left hand help the right hand hold the
Kiddush cup when we are saying the blessing? We learn from this question
three things:
You must hold the cup in your right hand.
You must hold your hand up at least a handbreadth above the table.
You must pay attention to the cup while saying the blessing it (i.e., you
don't set it down to check the oven, for instance).
Said Rav Aha: Three things were said concerning the Kiddush cup:
It must be full.
It must be decorated.
It must be clean. (Y. Berachot 7:5)
Discussion Questions
First some words on the Yerushalmi. There are two versions: the Venice
edition which has all the tractates in one volume and the P'nei Moshe
edition in 7 volumes. The latter looks more like a page of Bavli. However,
always, in the Yerushalmi, a mishnah is called a halachah, so if you're
looking into the actual text itself, don't let that trip you up.
The only complete translation of the Yerushalmi into English is edited by
Jacob Neusner, entitled, The Talmud of the Land of Israel, in 35 volumes
from University of Chicago Press. You can buy individual volumes, so you
can
go for the tractates which most interest you. Finally, the Yerushalmi has
Talmud on Mishnah tractates that the Bavli does not so we're in for a
fun ride!
Now, to the questions:
1. How does your cup stand up to these standards? (I was appalled, thinking
how much silver polishing I'm going to have to do to bring ours up to
snuff!)
2. Why do you think the cup had to be decorated?
3. Why must you hold the cup in your right hand? Why do you have to hold
it up?Enjoy! R. Abrams
Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.
