Last time, we introduced the fascinating position of Rav Amram, which explains the interruptions between the conclusion of the beracha of geula in Arvit as a result of the fact that Ma’ariv is not a full obligation. While there are a few echoes of this idea within the canon,¹ the vast majority of Rishonim roundly reject this idea. 

Let us take a step back and try to drill down to the debate between R. Yochanan and R. Yehoshua b. Levi. Perhaps a deeper understanding of what is happening there may shed light on this curious debate. The Gemara in Berachot 4b explains that their positions can be seen as revolving around a matter of logical reasoning or around Biblical commentary.

Both R. Yochanan and R. Yehoshua b. Levi concur that the piece of the redemption from Egypt that took place at night was not complete (גְּאוּלָּה מְעַלַּיְיתָא לָא הָוְיָא). However, R. Yochanan believes that even that first step towards freedom, which occurred under the cover of night, was sufficient to require the juxtaposition of the beracha of geula (recalling that moment) and Tefila. R. Yehoshua b. Levi claims that because that moment was incomplete, no such obligation exists.

The sugya goes on to show how they both use the same Biblical verse to support their position. In the first paragraph of Shema, we are told of the obligation to read the Shema “בְּשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ – when you lie down and when you rise (Dvarim 6:7)”. R. Yochanan says that the structure of prayers when you rise and when you lie down should be the same: Shema followed by the Amida. R. Yehoshua b. Levi says that the Shema should always be recited closer to the time when you are in bed; in the morning the Shema comes first while in the evening the Shema comes last. In this aspect of the debate, R. Yehoshua b. Levi appears more driven by what people do in their lives while R. Yochanan focuses on a more structural concern.

R. Yochanan and R. Yehoshua b. Levi appear to agree on many pieces of this puzzle. Was the minimal freedom of the night following the plague of the first born enough? How might the Jewish People have understood their own standing in Egyptian society at that moment? Do you mark a journey of redemption from its outset or when you can be certain it will be complete? Those are difficult questions to answer, and both approaches are reasonable. However, their debate around how to read the Biblical verse hints at a deeper debate beneath the surface. R. Yochana is not as concerned with linking the Shema to bedtime, while R. Yehoshua b. Levi appears to push the Shema in a direction of responding to human behavior.  

Rav Tzadok ha-Kohen appears to build on R. Yehoshua b. Levi in this short selection:

צדקת הצדיק אות ג

עיקר הקריאת שמע קבלת עול מלכות שמים ועול תורה ומצוות…ולא בבוקר וערב אלא בשכבך ובקומך…דיהיב הזמן בזה משום דהבוקר והערב הם שינויים בעולם ולא באדם…מפני השינויים שבאדם

Tzidkat ha-Tzadik #3

The essence of the [Mitzvah] of Reading the Shema is the acceptance of the yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom and the yoke of Torah and Mitzvot…[and the obligation was not grounded in] ‘morning’ and ‘evening’, rather in your ‘lying down’ and your ‘getting up’…And [the Torah] gave these times because ‘morning’ and ‘evening’ are changes in the world and not in humanity…because [the obligation to recite the Shema] is built on changes in humanity.

Reb Tzadok pushes us to see the two daily recitations of the Shema as linked to human behavior — when we go to bed, and when we wake up — and not connected to nature — day and night. This is in sharp contrast to one of the approaches to the Amida. The Yerushalmi Brachot 4:1, 7a and in parallel in the Midrash Breishit Rabba 68:9, quote the idea that the three daily Amidot are meant to be linked to the three times when the “day changes²”. Here the Rabbis make an explicit link between nature and the Amida. In contrast to that idea, Reb Tzadok understands the twice daily obligation of reciting the Shema to be removed from nature and linked to human experience.

Integrating prayer into our daily rhythms brings God into our lives. Learning to recite the Shema with this kind of awareness can change the experience of regular davening. Perhaps this understanding can shed light on the position of Rav Amram.

R. Yehoshua b. Levi insisted that the evening Shema should be recited closer to when we go to bed, highlighting the notion that the timing of the recitation of the Shema ought to be responsive to our behavior. R. Yochanan, by borrowing the idea of the juxtaposition of the beracha of geula to Tefila from shacharit and transplanting it onto Ma’ariv, limits the emphasis on the relationship between Shema and bedtime. For R. Yochanan, Shema is fundamentally a warm-up for the true encounter of the Amida. This is the way that Rashi read R. Yochanan time and again³.  

However, the second approach of R. Yona gave us a way into the beracha of geula that was not mostly about Tefila. Rather, R. Yona presented this beracha as a building block for bitachon, trust or faith in God⁴. 

Rav Amram could not simply pasken like R. Yehoshua b. Levi because the order of the prayers had already been set in accordance with R. Yochanan. However, what Rav Amram could do was limit the extent of the requirement for moving right from geula to Tefila, thereby reminding us that there is a completing value at play in Ma’ariv. While he could not upend the entire structure, he could gesture to R. Yehoshua b. Levi so that we would not forget the idea of connecting Shema to the human experience of rising and sleeping. The line from R. Yehoshua b. Levi to Reb Tzadok runs through Rav Amram.     

1. See תוס’ ברכות כז: ד”ה והלכתא, the שבולי הלקט in the ענין תפילה at סימן ח (end of the first full paragraph), in his commentary on the Siddur Rav Yehuda ben R. Yakar, the טור in או”ח ס”ס רלו. The most interesting reverberation of Rav Amram shows up in the שו”ת בנימין זאב סימן קעה where he refers to this position in approval without mention of Rav Amram at all (for the problematics of the בנימין זאב please not the יש”ש ב”ק פ”ח ס’ ע”ב as well as the שו”ת גבורות אנשים ס’ כט by the author of the ש”ך. In the שו”ת רמ”א ס’ קג עם ההערות there is an argument in his favor. The יד מלאכי כלל שארי מחברים אות מג appears to side with the ש”ך
2. כנגד ג’ פעמים שהיום משתנה
3. This is also the way that Pesukei d’Zimra was understood by many as well, see here for my analysis of those issues
4. והבטחון הוא עיקר היראה והאמונה ולפיכך זוכה בסיבתו לחיי עולם הבא – And faith (trust, בטחון) is the foundation of fear (יראה) and belief (אמונה). And therefore, you merit a place in the World to Come.