A central concern of the Talmud is to analogize the prayer service to the Temple sacrifices elucidated in the bible. Once the Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed and the Jews are exiled from Israel, the Rabbis want to preserve the requirements of the Temple by analogizing prayer to the Temple sacrificial service. This analogy comes in Daf 14 as a discussion of things we can and can’t do before we pray in the morning. In particular, seeking out people to greet them or performing our personal business before we greet God and offer prayers are forbidden.

In Berakhot 14 we jump right back in to the circumstances in which we can interrupt our recitation of the Shema. In particular, the Talmud considers whether we can interrupt our recitation of the Shema if we are in fear for our life (yes!), if we encounter a person of a higher status, whether we can interrupt to return a greeting as opposed to give a greeting and whether we can interrupt to ask about the welfare of someone who comes by. Recitation of the Shema is biblically mandated. The Rabbis briefly consider rabbinaclly mandated prayers like the Hallel (Psalms 113-118 recited on festivals) and reading of the Megillah (the book of Esther) on Purim. Obviously, the rules should be stricter for the biblically mandated prayer than the non-biblically mandated prayers.

If we can interrupt the Shema, can we interrupt a fast? In particular, if we are fasting, but we are cooking for the post-fast meal, can we taste the food for seasoning? The Talmud concludes that we can (although some scholars insist that we spit out rather than swallow). Indeed, the Talmud considers the maximum amount of food we can taste and still be considered fasting. The Rabbis conclude we can have up to a reviis and still be considered to be fasting (apparently about 4 fluid ounces).

There is an interesting digression about dreams and sleep. Apparently, if you sleep for seven nights in a row without dreaming, you are a wicked person. However, studying scripture before bed means you are not a wicked person.

In the middle of the Daf, we come to an interesting divergence of opinion between sages in Israel and the sages in Babylonia (remember, we are studying the Babylonian Talmud which is the later and more accepted version of the Talmud). The dispute concerns how much of the third paragraph of the Shema do we need to recite in the evening. (I set forth all three paragraphs of the Shema here.) In particular, the custom in Israel was to omit the verses of the third paragraph that deal with tzitzis (fringes), because that is a commandment observed in the day, not at night. The sages of Babylonia are troubled by this practice because we had a previous debate about how you could not divide up a passage. The Babylonian rabbis conclude that practice differs in a different community, but in Babylonia, if we start the paragraph, we must do the whole paragraph. I find this episode interesting because the Rabbis recognized that different communities could have different rulings. We seem to have lost a lot of that spirit in modern times.

The Talmud is troubled by the fact that the third paragraph of the Shema actually precedes the first two paragraphs in the bible. The Talmud runs through several explanations of the order of the paragraphs. Ultimately, the reason seems to be that the first paragraph contains obligations to learn, teach and perform the commandments and therefore is more comprehensive than the other paragraphs.

The Daf concludes with a story of Rav. Rav is Rabbi Abba Arika who founded one of the first great Jewish academies in Babylonia. Contrary to accepted practice, Rav was seen saying Shema before he put on tefillin. Ultimately, the Talmud concludes that this is not a good practice, but Rav was forced to do it because of circumstances. At least we know that the great Rabbis we are supposed to emulate are human and sometimes have a bad day too!