I blame my wife for my inability to lose weight (not really, but she makes a convenient scapegoat). My wife, amongst her many talents, is a true foodie. She is a delicious and adventurous cook who can enter a kitchen, see what is available and prepare something delicious with no recipe. Her signature item these days is her sourdough bread. The crust is hard and golden brown. The inside is soft and feathery. When it freshly comes from the oven, the smell fills the house! She made a sourdough starter five or six years ago and has been baking delicious bread (and sometimes pancakes and pizza crusts) ever since. She has the recipe down pat, but don’t think it is easy. She generously provides pieces of her starter to her friends who want to try their hand at baking. Their bread doesn’t always turn out like Anna’s because they have not perfected the balance of yeast, salt and flour the way Anna has. In today’s Daf we learn, “Three things are bad in excess but fine in moderation. And they are: yeast, salt and refusal.”

The Daf is not actually today’s Daf. Remember, I let life take precedence over my blogging for about a month. I missed 32 Dafs before I restarted with the new tractate. I intend to go back and make posts about the pages I missed. This is my first makeup.

We start with a Mishnah concerning what to do if the prayer leader becomes confused during the Shemoneh Esrei. We should have another person take the leader’s place and start from the beginning of the blessing in which the leader erred. If asked to replace a prayer leader, we should not refuse. In ancient times, the Kohanim (the priestly caste descended from Aaron) would bless the congregation during the Shemoneh Esrei. See Numbers 6:22-27. Now we only do this on holidays. The Mishnah cautions the prayer leader not to respond “Amen” to the blessings of the Kohanim so the leader does not become confused. If the prayer leader is the only Kohen, the leader should not turn and bless the congregation unless the leader is confident that he or she will not lose their place. In modern congregations with prayer books, we don’t have to recite prayers by memory, so we rarely follow these rules.

We begin our discussion of this Mishnah by discussing how we should act if we are asked to lead the service. This is a great honor. If we accept it too eagerly, then we are like “cooked food without salt.” If we overdo our reluctance, then we are like “cooked food that has been oversalted”. We then learn that there yeast, salt and refusal are good in moderation, but bad in excess! We then discuss from where the new leader should begin. We divide the Shemoneh Esrei into three sections. The first three blessings are like a servant’s words of praise to his master. The middle section are where we ask for benefits, after properly praising our master. The last three blessings are our expressions of gratitude to our master. We should only make personal supplications in the middle section. When we are praying for someone to be healed, we do not need to mention that person’s name. We learn this from Moses who prayed that his sister Miriam would be healed in Numbers 12:13 (“So Moses called out to the Lord, saying, ‘O God, pray heal her.'”)

At four times during the recitation of the Shemoneh Esrei we bow. We discuss the exact (and only) places where we should bow and the method of bowing. We also learn that the Kohen Gadol and the king bow at different times than we do.

We now get our last Mishnah of Chapter 5. We learn that erring during our prayers is a bad omen and the prayer leader erring is a bad omen for the congregation. The discussion of omens leads the Talmud to a whole discussion of rewards. The Rabbis distinguish between the Messianic Era, when our messiah will come and the Jews will take their rightful place as an equal (or first) among nations and the World to Come. The Rabbis debate how miraculous the Messianic Era will be. Some believe the Jews restoration of sovereignty is all that will occur. Others argue that many more miraculous things will happen. All agree that the World to Come (after the Messianic Era) will be a paradise that none of us are capable of describing. As the Rambam wrote:

A human being does not have the capacity to properly comprehend the goodness of the World to Come. No one knows its glory, beauty and potency except God Himself. All the benefits that the prophets predicted for Israel are only physical matters, which the Jewish people will enjoy in the Messianic era, when their soverignety will be resotred. The goodness of the life of the World to Come is immeasurable and utterly beyond comprehension. The prophets did not describe it by means of analogy lest they cheapen it by doing so.

The Daf ends with stories of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa curing the children of other sages. Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa apparently knew immdeidately if he would receive a favorable answer to his prayers by the way the prayer came out of his mouth. If the prayer came out easily, then the person would be cured. If he had difficulty reciting the prayer, then his prayer would not give a favorable reception.

One last matter from this Daf. When I have attended services at more traditional synagogues, I wonder what the point of praying in Hebrew is. I can sound out the words, but I am not fluent enough to understand what I am reading. Also, the prayers in these synagogues move at warp speed. I don’t have time to think about what I am saying. The Talmud contains the following quote about prayer and understanding, “One who prays ought to concentrate his thoughts properly in reciting all of the blessings. But if he cannot concentrate in reciting all the blessings, let him at least concentrate in reciting . . . .[the first blessing of the Shemoneh Esrei.” A note in The Schottenstein Edition states, “Understanding the meaning of the words, although desirable in all the blessings, is crucial only in the first blessing. But awareness that one stands before God is basic to prayer; any blessing that is recited without such awareness has no validity at all.” I took comfort in that note, as sometimes I don’t entirely understand the English translation. However, I always know the text is a prayer.

Ok, One makeup Daf down. 31 more to go!