Daf Yomi Day 1

Yesterday I took a bus trip to Allentown, Pennsylvania, to try to resolve some issues a client was having there. Since it would be an hour's trip to the Port Authority and another 3 hours bus ride from there, and since it was the first day after the siyum haShas, I decided to take along my gemara Brachot (Bavli) along, in addition to the yerushalmi Kiddushin I normally read on my commute.

I started with Rabbeinu Nissim Gaon's introduction. He has a very interesting explanation of the nature of obligation to do mitzvot, for both Jews and gentiles, which I won't get into here, but it is worth checking out. He continues by giving a bit of the history of the creation and recordng of mishna, tosefta, and gemara. He discusses the phenomenon of a sugya in one perek, masechet, or seder referencing via shorthand opinions (and sometimes discussing them) whose central place is in another perek, masechet or seder, (or occasionally referring to opinions only mentioned later in the same perek or a later perek) explaining it on the way the sugya was discussed and then recorded in shorthand. Some of his examples I would say are rather the result of a later savoraic layer discussing, comparing, and harmonizing different sugyas.

Rashi brings in the yerushalmi brachot that the reason Shema is said in shul is to lead into Shemoneh Esrei with Torah, because after all it is said too early. The real one, fulfilling that discussed in the mishna, would then be that said al hamita. Tosafot rejects this, saying that the one in shul is the primary one, and the one thus discussed in the subsequent gemara. I think he is mistaken in this, and many of the difficulties he has on brachot 2b are a result of this assumption.

Of all the suggestions made about how to negotiate the brachot of kriyat shema (and when to say them) and various obligations of Shema for Maariv (to lead in with Torah), for the obligation of saying Shema at day and night, and for saying it upon one's bed, I think R Hai Gaon's suggestion (brought down in Rabenu Yona, on the Rif) is the coolest and most elegant. He says to say Shema with the tzibur but omit the brachot (or at least the bracha elements at the beginning and end) and say Shema later at home, with the brachot, to fulfil the obligation. I like how he interprets the incident with Rav davening early on erev Shabbat, saying that it is clear that he did not say it with the brachot because it was too early, and cites this as evidence for his opinion. Tosafot meanwhile takes this same incident as proof that the time for maariv is earlier (immediately after the time for mincha is over) and Rav of course did say the brachot. Flashes to proofs Yaakov wore a yarmulke. Even so, my gut feeling is that Rashi, as understood by Tosafot in his objections to it, is the one with the correct reading. (That is, with brachot in shul, but this does not fulfil your obligation, followed by 1 parsha al hamita with no brachot, which does.)