Yerushalmi Berakhot 5:3 ירושלמי ברכות ה׳:ג׳

MISHNAH: One silences someone¹¹⁵The reader in public prayer. who says “Your mercy will reach over a bird’s nest,¹¹⁶Probably in the benediction “He Who hears prayer” where one prays for Divine mercy. The reference is to Deut. 22:6–8.” “Your name shall be remembered on good things,” “we thank, we thank.¹¹⁷In the benediction “Thanksgiving.”” ¹¹⁸In the separate Mishnah, this is the start of Mishnah 4. Hence, in the Gemara text, the next Mishnah will be #5. If the one standing before the arc¹¹⁹The “emissary of the congregation”, שליח צבוּר, in English texts usually called “the reader” but who in Talmudic times was not a reader but leader of the congregation in prayers recited by heart or prayers of his own composition. If he stumbled, there was no way to correct him from a written text and one had to try another person. makes a mistake, another person should replace him and he should not refuse at that moment¹²⁰Usually, if a nonprofessional is asked to perform as “emissary of the congregation”, he is supposed to point out his unworthiness and accede to the summons only at the third call. In an emergency, if he knows that he can do the job, he has to agree immediately.. Where does he start? From the start of the benediction where the other person made the mistake.

HALAKHAH: Rebbi Phineas in the name of Rebbi Simeon: He is like one who quarrels with the measures of the Holy One, praise to Him: Your mercies reached¹²²All Mishnah manuscripts, all Yerushalmi sources of the Mishnah, and all Babli sources (Berakhot 33b, Megillah 25a) have יגיעוּ but all texts in the discussion have הגיעוּ. over a bird’s nest but did not reach this man¹²³“This man” in Talmudic speech means “me”. {The same usage is found in Greek (ὅδε) and Latin (hic), (E. G.).}! Rebbi Yose in the name of Rebbi Simeon: He is like one who makes finite the measures of the Holy One, praise to Him: Your mercies reach down to the bird’s nest¹²⁴His mercies reach down to a bird’s nest but not to insects and worms.. Some Tannaïm formulate “over”, some Tannaïm formulate “to”. He who says “over” supports Rebbi Phineas, he who says “to” supports Rebbi Yose. Rebbi Yose bar Abun said¹²⁵In Babli sources (Berakhot 33b, Megillah 25a), the statement is attributed either to R. Yose bar Abun or to R. Yose bar Zabida.: They do not act well who declare the measures of the Holy One, praise to Him, to be mercy. And those¹²⁶Targum Yerushalmi (Pseudo-Jonathan) to Lev. 22:28, with minor changes. who translate (Lev. 22:21) “My people Israel, just as I am merciful in Heaven so you should be merciful on earth. A cow or a mother sheep, it and its young you should not slaughter together on one day,” they do not act well because they declare the measures of the Holy One, praise to Him, to be mercy.

“One silences one who says ‘we thank, we thank.’¹²⁷Quote from the Mishnah, to be discussed.” Rebbi Samuel bar Rav Isaac said (Ps. 63:12): “For the mouth of those who speak lies will be dammed up.¹²⁸This verse explains that it is an obligation to “dam up, wall in” the mouths of those who speak lies. Its is not explained what the lies are of those who repeat “we thank.” In the Babli (loc. cit.) it is explained that the one who says so, like the one who wants to mention God’s name only on good things, gives the impression that there are two independent forces, God for the good and Satan–Ahriman for the bad. The Babli objects to the opinion expressed here that any repetition of sections of prayer texts is permitted in private for emphasis.” That is, in public. But in private it is supplication.

“If the one standing before the arc makes a mistake.¹²⁹Quote from the Mishnah. However, the following statements apply mainly to one who errs in his private prayer.” Rebbi Yose ben Ḥanina in the name of Rebbi Ḥananiah¹³⁰A/k/a R. Ḥanina ben Gamliel. ben Gamliel: If one erred in one of the first three benedictions, he starts anew¹³¹Even though the Mishnah states that one returns to the start of the incorrect benediction, this does not apply to the first and last three benedictions, which are an obligatory part of any Amidah. Each one of these groups has the status of a single benediction in this respect.. Ada bar bar Ḥana¹³²There exists no Babylonian Amora of that name. The name is similarly corrupt in the Rome manuscript and the Genizah fragments. It must be either Abba bar bar Ḥana, cousin of Rav, or his father Abba bar Ḥana., Ganiva in the name of Rav: If one erred in one of the last three benedictions, he returns to “Temple Service.” Rebbi Ḥelbo, Rav Huna in the name of Rav¹³³There is no discrepancy between this statement and the prior ones, except that Rebbi Ḥelbo insists that the entire statement is Rav’s and that he adds the prescription how to behave if the error is committed in the middle benedictions. The last rule is parallel to the one given for errors in the recitation of Shema‘ in Halakhah 2:4.: If one erred in one of the first three benedictions, he starts anew; in one of the last three benedictions, he returns to “Temple Service”; if he erred and he cannot remember where he erred he returns to the place that is clear to him.

Rebbi Aḥa and Rebbi Judah ben Pazy were sitting in a synagogue. One came and stood before the arc and forgot one benediction. They went and asked Rebbi Simon. Rebbi Simon said to them in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: One does not remove an emissary of the congregation who forgot two or three benedictions¹³⁴But an individual has to repeat following the standards of the Mishnah.. They found a formulation that made a difference: One does not remove him for anything except if he did not say “He Who revives the dead”, “He Who subdues evildoers”, “He Who builds Jerusalem;” I say that he is a sectarian¹³⁵If he does not believe in resurrection of the body, he is a Sadducee. If he refrains from uttering the deprecation against Christians or expressing the hope that Jerusalem will be rebuilt before a Second Coming, he is a Christian.. Samuel Minor¹³⁶A Tanna of the second generation. He was the person who formulated the prayer against Christians in the first place (Babli 28b–29a), but after that he forgot what he himself had formulated. He is called “minor” because his stature was not as great as that of the prophet Samuel, but greater than everybody else in his generation. stood before the ark and forgot “He Who subdues evildoers.” At the end he started looking at them¹³⁷When at the end he realized that he had forgotten the benediction and also remembered that with the introduction of his formulation came the order to remove any “emissary of the congregation” who omitted that benediction, he started wondering about the reaction of his audience which according to the Babli was the Synhedrion at Jabneh. The Babli goes into a lengthy discussion why they did not remove him under suspicion of a belated sympathy with Christians. One answers that he started the benediction and only got lost in the middle; one removes only an emissary who leaves it out altogether. This is clearly in contradiction to the version of the Yerushalmi.
In Israel, the holy ark was movable and for prayer it was transported in front of the congregation; the emissary of the congregation then stood in front of the ark. Therefore, removal of the reader is denoted in the Yerushalmi by מחזירין “one returns him (to his seat in the synagogue)”. In Babylonia, the ark was built-in and the place of the reader was lower than the floor of the synagogue; hence removal of the reader in the Babli is expressed by מעלין “one moves him up (from the low place of the reader)”.. They said to him, the Sages did not take you as a yardstick.

Rebbi Jacob bar Aḥa, Rebbi Simeon bar Abba in the name of Rebbi Eleazar: If one is in doubt whether he mentioned the New Moon or not, one makes him repeat. Where does he return to? Simeon bar Abba in the name of Rebbi Yoḥanan, if he had moved his feet, he repeats from the start, otherwise from “Temple Service.”¹³⁸All this has been explained earlier in this chapter, Halakhah 2, Notes 79–80. Rebbi Judah ben Pazi said, if he let his thoughts wander that is as if he had moved his feet¹³⁹If the person praying did not move his feet but started thinking of other things, it is as if he had moved his feet.. The private supplications¹⁴⁰Private prayers said after the conclusion of the official 18 benedictions of the Amidah, as exemplified in the texts presented in Halakhah 4:2. They are certainly part of prayer and recited while standing still, but not part of official prayers. Hence, their status in respect to repetition is unclear. are a problem.

Rebbi Abba the son of Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba in the name of Rebbi Yoḥanan¹⁴¹Torah reading is discussed in tractate Megillah. The main place of this paragraph is in Megillah Halakhah 4:5.: If one became paralyzed while reading in the Torah¹⁴²In public, where every section read in public needs a benediction before and one after the reading. [Ezra Fleischer has recently published Genizah texts which might imply that private Bible readings also need benedictions before and after the reading: קטעים מקובצי תפילה ארץ־ישראליים מן הגניזה, קובץ על יד יג (כג) תשנ״ו.], the one who steps in for him should start from the place the first one started. For if you say from the place he stopped, the first verses would have been blessed before them but not after them, the last ones after them but not before them, but it is written (Ps. 19:8): “The Torah of the Eternal is perfect, restores the soul”, that it should be totally perfect.

It has been stated¹⁴³Tosephta Megillah 3:20. The parallel to this discussion is found in Yerushalmi Megillah 4:1. The Babli (Rosh Hashanah 27a) quotes only the result of the present discussion.: Two should not read the Torah¹⁴⁴Simultaneously, in public. and one translate¹⁴⁵It was the usage, as it is still today in some Yemenite congregations, that someone read one verse in the Torah and then another person, the meturgeman, translated the verse into Aramaic (Onkelos for Eastern, Yerushalmi for Western congregations). In Greek speaking congregations, the Greek text (Septuagint, later Aquila, Symmachos, or Theodotion) was used.. Rebbi Zeïra said, because of the benedictions¹⁴⁶On one text, only one set of benedictions is admissible.. But has it not been stated: Two should not translate and one read; could you say that is because of the benedictions? But it is because two voices do not enter into one ear.

It has been stated: “Two may read in the Torah but two may not read the haphtarah in the prophets.” Rebbi Ulla¹⁴⁷A student of Rebbis Yoḥanan and Eleazar who used to commute between Babylonia and Galilee. said, one calls several people to the Torah¹⁴⁸The baraita does not speak of simultaneous, but of successive readers. It asserts that the haphtarah after the Torah reading on Sabbaths, holidays, and fastdays, cannot be split between different readers, but the Torah reading should be split among different people for different sections. but one does not call several people for the prophets.

Rebbi Joshua the Southerner¹⁴⁹A Galilean Amora of the fourth generation, student of R. Jonah and R. Aḥa. A similar statement is quoted in the Babli (34a) as tannaïtic text. said: There are three things of which too little or too much is bad and average is good: sour dough, salt, and refusal¹⁵⁰This refers to the part of the Mishnah which declares that in an emergency, if a reader has to be removed, his replacement should not refuse. It follows that without an emergency one should refuse; the rules are spelled out here.. The first time he refuses, the second time he hesitates, the third time he runs and comes. Rebbi Ḥuna¹⁵¹In the Rome ms.: Rebbi Eleazar, the better reading. was sitting in a synagogue. The organizer came and importuned one¹⁵²Asked him more than three times and did not realize that if somebody refuses three times, he must have a valid reason not to be “emissary of the congregation.” to go up and he did not accept it. At the end, that one came to Rebbi Eleazar and said to him: My master should not be angry with me; I did not go up because I was not fully awake. He said to him: I am not mad at you but at the one who importuned.

Batitay was paralized at ophanim¹⁵³The second part of the Qedušah, the recitiation of Is. 6:3 and Ez. 3:12 in the middle of the first benediction of Shema‘. [The paragraph cannot deal with Qedušah in the Amidah since there ophanim are not mentioned in the introductory sentence and any error in the first three benedictions requires restarting anyhow.] Rebbi Abun’s answer shows that Baṭiṭai the reader was paralyzed not during, but after his recitation of the sentence connecting Is. 6:3 and Ez. 3:12 since the congregation already had answered the second verse.
The first part of the benediction speaks of the creation of the world and leads up to Qedušah; the second part after Qedušah is a hymn to God in His relation to man; it has a different subject. The Yerushalmi here assumes that the Qedušah before the Shema‘ could not be recited in private prayers. Hence, the two parts of the benediction, both of which can be recited in private prayer, in public service have the status of two distinct benedictions in the sense of the Mishnah.. They went and asked Rebbi Abun. Rebbi Abun said to them in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: His replacement should start at the place where he interrupted. They said to him: But did we not state: “He starts from the start of the benediction where the other person made the error?” He said to them: Since you answered Qedušah, it is as if you started a new benediction.