I goofed and owe all my readers a big apology. My last post concerned Berakhot 30. In The Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud I am using, Berakhot 30 spans the end of volume 1 and the beginning of volume 2. I did not realize that fact in preparing my entry for Berakhot 30 and only summarized the material in volume 1. I apologize to you for the error and can only say I hope I remember this episode when we come to the end of volume 2.

Volume 2 does begin with a new chapter, Chapter 5, and we start with our first Mishnah of Chapter 5. We learn that we should say the Shemoneh Esrei prayers with an attitude of reverence. Indeed, “the early pious ones” would wait for an hour and then pray to put themselves in the proper frame of mind. If you remember the long discussions about whether or not we can interrupt our recitation of the Shema to greet someone of a higher stature, today’s Mishnah makes clear that we cannot interrupt the Shemoneh Esrei to return the greeting of a king. Indeed, we cannot interrupt our Shemoneh Esrei if their is a snake at our feet.

To find support for the Mishnah’s requirement that we pray Shemoneh Esrei with reverance, the Gemara first turns to the story of Hannah in I Samuel. This story will feature prominently for a couple of days. A recap of the story of Hannah is therefore in order. Hannah is the wife of Elkinah who is barren. Elkinah has another wife, Peninnah, who has sons and daughters. Before the construction of the temple in Jerusalem, Elkinah and his family would go to Shilo to offer sacrifices where Ely was the head priest. Hannah is very bitter about her inability to have children. One evening in the sanctuary in Shilo, Hannah prays alone while she cries. Ely sees her lips moving, but does not hear her. Ely assumes Hannah is drunk and he chastises her. Hannah tells Ely what’s what and he tells Hannah to go in peace. That year she had a son. When the son was weaned, she brought him to Ely to train. The son was the Prophet Samuel.

The Gemara begins with I Samuel 1:10 (“In her wretchedness, she prayed to the Lord, weeping all the while”). The Gemara takes this passage to mean that we should not pray with frivolity, but the Gemara does not find this a convincing proof. The Rabbis next turn to Psalms 5:8 (“But I, through Your abundant love, enter Your house; I bow down in awe at Your holy temple”). The speaker of this line is King David and the Rabbis are concerned that he is different than the average Jew.

The next possible source is Psalms 29:2 (“Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; bow down to the Lord, majestic in holiness”). The Gemara reinterprets the word for majestic (‘B’hadrat’) as awe (b’cherdas). The Rabbis are not convinced with this proof because they frequently did adorn themselves in majestic clothes for prayer. They are interpreting “majestic in holiness” as modifying “bow down” not the Lord.

At the end of today’s Daf, the Rabbis turn to Psalms 2:11 (“Serve the Lord with awe, and rejoice with trepidation”). The Rabbis believe the statement “rejoice with trepidation” means that we should not get so joyful that we are silly and forget ourselves. The Daf ends with stories of Rabbis who get carried away with joy and they are reminded to temper themselves. I am going to end here, because there is a far better example of this kind of story tomorrow.