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Berakhot 28 for kids: Eighteen White Hairs

ברכות כ״ח

🪑 This daf tells how young Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya became the leader and the study hall was opened to everyone. It also explores the Amida prayer: why it has eighteen blessings, and the short prayer a sage said entering and leaving the study hall.

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Stories from Berakhot 28

Words to know

Rashi and Tosafot on Berakhot 28 in simple English

Rashi on Berakhot 28a, in English Tab translation (26)
  1. They will remove you — They will depose you from the Nesius (the patriarchate) in favor of someone else.
  2. This is the correct version: 'Perhaps they will remove you' — he said to her: 'Let one use an expensive cup for one day, and let it break tomorrow.' And the reading 'one may elevate [a person] in holiness [but not lower him]' is not the correct text here.
  3. An expensive cup — A precious glass cup, called in Arabic 'arakia.' And people say, as a folk saying: let its owner use it for one day and be honored by it, and if it breaks, it breaks.
  4. You have no white hair — You have no white hairs of old age, and it is fitting for the head of the academy to be an elder.
  5. Eighteen rows of white hair — Eighteen rows of hair signifying old age.
  6. Rabban Gamliel was disheartened — When he saw that many students had been added that day, he worried that he would be punished for having kept them from entering during his tenure.
  7. Filled with ashes — meaning, that even these [additional students] are unworthy.
  8. Pending — left in doubt, not yet resolved, because the students had multiplied, bringing much sharpness and dialectical analysis [making it harder to reach a conclusion].
  9. The walls of his house were blackened — The walls of Rabbi Yehoshua's house, which were black.
  10. That you are a coal-maker — one who makes charcoal; and some say it means a blacksmith.
  11. I have wronged you — I spoke to you more harshly than was proper.
  12. The one who wears the garment — The one accustomed to wearing the robe [of office] should wear it, meaning: the one accustomed to the patriarchate should remain the Nasi.
  13. The sprinkler, son of a sprinkler — A priest, son of a priest, should sprinkle the waters of purification.
  14. Burnt ash — Ash that has been roasted in ovens and stoves, meaning simply ordinary ash.
  15. Whose Shabbat was it — This is discussed in tractate Chagigah.
  16. And that student — who asked whether the evening prayer is optional or obligatory is Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai.
  17. And is called negligent — one who delays it so much.
  18. He prays the Minḥa prayer — since its time has arrived, he should bring it forward to the start of its time, so that he not be called negligent regarding it as well.
  19. And afterward the Musaf prayer — since he has delayed its time, he does not transgress, for the Sages said that the time for Musaf is the entire day.
  20. For this is a time-bound mitzva that will pass — Rabbi Yehuda follows his own reasoning, for he holds that the time for Minḥa is only until the seventh hour and no longer.
  21. When the Sages passed by — students leaving the house of Rabbi Natan.
  22. Who said the halakha in the study hall — which of the students in the academy said in the study hall that the halakha follows Rabbi Yehuda?
  23. Is it singular to you, or is it new to you — [Does it mean] it is singular to you, since you learned nothing else in Rabbi Yoḥanan's name except this one teaching, and that is why it is dear to you? Or does it mean it is new to you, in that you had thought one of the others said it?
  24. This is the correct version: He said to him, 'It is new to me' — for I was uncertain whether it was said by Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi; I had thought that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said it.
  25. We read the text as 'Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said' — and we do not read it as 'that he said.'
  26. Mimo'ed — [explaining the word 'from the appointed time']: because they altered the appointed times of the prayers and the festivals, [the people] will be grieving, gathered in sorrow, and wasting away.
Tosafot on Berakhot 28a, in English Tab translation (3)
  1. And the musaf offerings throughout the day — Rabbeinu Shimshon (of blessed memory) raised a difficulty: we say in Pesachim (58a) that the musaf offerings are slaughtered at the sixth hour and the ladles (of incense) at the seventh hour. And if you would say that this applies only as the proper mitzva-time, but after the fact (bedieved) the whole day is also a valid time — yet in Temurah (chapter 2, 14a) it is implied that the musaf offerings were slaughtered together with the tamid and offered up together with it (which would contradict a later time being valid). He answered that the case there is discussing Shabbat.
  2. The halakha is that one prays the mincha prayer and afterward prays the musaf prayer — From this one should be careful on Yom Kippur to pray the morning prayer before six and a half hours (of the day), that is, before the time of mincha arrives; for otherwise one would have to pray the mincha prayer first. But the Ri (Rabbi Yitzchak) says this is not necessary, for what is said — that one should pray the mincha prayer first — applies only when a person has personal matters to attend to and will not be able to pray the mincha prayer at its proper time, so that he must pray both immediately, such as when he needs to go to a large feast like a wedding and is worried he might get delayed at the meal or become drunk. But if he has enough time to pray the mincha prayer at its proper time after praying musaf, he need not advance the mincha prayer; rather he should pray in the normal order — musaf and then mincha.
  3. As Rav Yosef translates: 'because the times of the festivals were delayed' — and if the verse were speaking of the pilgrimage festivals, the term 'delay' would not be applicable, since they have no make-up day (tashlumin); therefore the verse must be speaking of prayer.
Rashi on Berakhot 28b, in English Tab translation (29)
  1. Did not attend Rav Yosef's lecture — Rav Yosef was head of the yeshiva in Pumbedita, and he would teach on Shabbat before the Mussaf prayer; after the lecture they would go to the synagogue and pray Mussaf.
  2. They taught this in a communal setting — if he is in the synagogue with the congregation, he may not pray before them.
  3. MISHNA: What room is there — meaning, what is its purpose?
  4. And that I not fail — and that my colleagues not rejoice over my failure, for there would then be two evils caused by me: causing my colleagues to err and causing them to be punished [for rejoicing in my downfall].
  5. Those who sit on street corners — shopkeepers or common folk who engage in idle talk.
  6. From logic — do not accustom them to [digging into] Scripture more than necessary, because it draws [one toward heresy]. Another interpretation: idle chatter of children.
  7. Know before Whom, etc. — so that you will pray with awe and proper intention.
  8. The right pillar — Solomon set up two pillars in the Temple hall; the right one was called Yachin and the left Boaz (I Kings 7:15). 'The right one' always refers to something of significance.
  9. Hammer — one who shatters; in Old French, 'pic.'
  10. Imprisons me — binds me.
  11. Eternal death — referring to the World-to-Come.
  12. I would cry — from fear of His judgment, if they were leading me to judgment before Him.
  13. Only that far? — said in astonishment, meaning: is that fear no greater than the fear of flesh and blood?
  14. Would that — it were at least like the fear of flesh and blood, for then you would refrain from many sins.
  15. Sin — committed in secret, away from the fear of people, yet one knows that everything is revealed before the Holy One, who does not overlook it.
  16. Because of the impurity — the impurity of a tent over a corpse spreads throughout the whole house.
  17. To Hezekiah who came — to accompany me.
  18. MISHNA: An abstract of the eighteen [blessings] — explained in the Gemara.
  19. 'Save, O Lord,' etc. — this is a brief prayer.
  20. At every crossroads, etc. — explained in the Gemara.
  21. If he cannot descend — because he has no one to hold his donkey.
  22. He should turn his face — toward Jerusalem.
  23. On a raft — like 'You have put my feet in the stocks' (Job 13:27), referring to a prison, called 'cep' in Old French. Alternatively, it refers to pieces of wood bound together, called in Scripture 'rafsodot' (II Chronicles), in Old French 'radel,' and in German 'Floss' — they float them down the river to transport them from place to place, and one can walk on them as on a boat.
  24. GEMARA: 'Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty' — this alludes to the blessings of the Patriarchs, of [Divine] Might, and of the Sanctification of the Name, as we say in Rosh Hashanah (32a): From where do we derive that we say 'Patriarchs'? As it is stated, 'Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty,' etc.
  25. That they loosen — that the joints become visible; 'joints' are the connecting points, as we learned (Bava Batra 80b) regarding reeds and vines: 'from the joint above' — referring to the place where the hollow of the reed is plugged and sealed.
  26. Issar — two folds, one below and one above, with the width of an issar [a small coin] of flesh in between.
  27. One who pains himself — meaning it is apparent that he wishes to bow, but he is exerting himself with difficulty [to do so].
  28. They enacted it at Yavneh — after a long interval of time.
  29. The wool-seller — one who sells cotton wool, which is called 'kiton.'
Tosafot on Berakhot 28b, in English Tab translation (1)
  1. Once the time for the afternoon prayer has arrived, one may not taste anything, etc. — [This implies that] Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi holds that one must interrupt even a meal already in progress [in order to pray Mincha], but that is not so.

Sources

Kid summary and story cards written by Tab from the William Davidson Edition English (Sefaria, CC BY-NC 4.0).

Tab translation (machine-assisted) of Rashi and Tosafot, from the Vilna Edition Hebrew (public domain) on Sefaria. May contain mistakes.

In the app, the Gemara text comes from Sefaria (William Davidson Edition, CC BY-NC 4.0; Hebrew/Aramaic Vilna Edition). Rashi and Tosafot Hebrew: Vilna Edition (public domain) via Sefaria.

Also spelled: Berachot, Brachos, Berachos, Brachot 28.