Talk:Berakhot (Talmud)

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[edit] Shorter Summaries

I think that this page is going into much to much depth regarding Berakhot. Someone coming to this article does not expect or want to read (the equivalent of) the entire book of Berakhot. I feel that the following would be more appropriate:

Summary

Shema

The first two chapters of Berakhot address the subject of the recital of the Shema.

First Chapter

The first chapter discusses how and when say to say the Shema in accordance with Deuteronomy 6:7. That verse indicates that the Shema is to be said "when you lie down and when you arise." The mishnah interprets this as refering to a certain time of day, and not necessarily at the exact time one lies down or wakes up.

The first two mishnayot (subsections) address the definition of the time period for recital of the evening Shema and the morning Shema, respectively (Berakhot 1:1, 1:2). The third mishnah discusses the proper posture for reciting the Shema. It addresses the question of whether the verse's instruction to recite the Shema "when you lie down" means that a person must be literally lying down, or only that one must say the Shema during the general time at which one lies down. (Berakhot 1:3)

The fourth mishnah states that the Shema is to be both preceded and followed by other, additional blessings. In the morning, there are two blessings that must be said before the Shema (Yotzer Or and Ahavah Rabbah / Ahavat Olam) and one after it (Emet V'Yatziv). In the evening, there are two blessings before (Ma'ariv Aravim and Ahavat Olam) and two after (Emet Ve-Emunah and Hashkivenu). (Berakhot 1:4)

The fifth mishnah states that the Exodus from Egypt must be remembered every day, in accordance with Deuteronomy 16:3. (This is accomplished in the first blessing following the recital of Shema.) (Berakhot 1:5)

I write this here because I see that Karimarie has gone to a great deal of trouble to write an in-depth summary of Berakhot, which is probably unnecessary and inappropriate for this venue.

Some other points:

• An article should only be linked to the first time the linked term appears in the article.
• English words should be used wherever possible (chapter instead of perek), or else the Hebrew term should be introduced so that the reader will understand what it means.

--Eliyak T·C 05:26, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

I currently have a substantially different version of the article in my workshop (User:Karimarie/Workshop/Berakhot (Talmud)) that takes a form similar to a Parshah or an article on a book of the Bible, just summarising the individual mishnayot into one or two sentences. The problem I see with your summary style is it doesn't really contain any of the actual decisions so much as summarising where they were discussed... I think an article on the Mishnah should incorporate the decisions that were reached instead.

Nontheless, I'm going to reorganise the text of the version in my workshop to something that flows a bit better for the average reader and remove some of the excesses. The current form is Seder > Masekhet > Perek > Mishnah, but I think Seder > Masekhet > Topic > Mishnayot reads easier rather than just rattling off Jewish legal decisions. Kari Hazzard (T | C) 03:55, 9 August 2006 (UTC)