FIRST ARAMAIC · 5 OF 5
Read a short Aramaic passage
Reassemble familiar Berakhot phrases, write your own account, and carry one question word into a new source context.
In this lesson
Read, then explain
You have met a small set of Aramaic forms in Berakhot, the Talmud’s tractate about blessings and prayer. Now use them together. First reconstruct selected lines from the opening discussion on folio 2a. Then try a new, two-word question on 2b, the other side of the same folio.
The Mishnah gives our sages’ collected teachings; the Gemara discusses them. In the first exercise, the topic is evening Shema, our recitation of Torah passages. Work on paper or with a study partner. Keep the comparisons closed until you have made your own attempt.
The goal is a supported reading of short excerpts: locate the speaker’s move, identify a quotation, and explain the sentence. Use the guides for unfamiliar words rather than guessing from an English answer.
Bring the forms back
Before reading the excerpts, write a short English equivalent for היכא, מאי שנא, ברישא, דכתיב, דקתני, אי הכי and ואי בעית אימא. Put a question mark beside any you cannot yet retrieve. Then compare.
1. Check the forms you recalled.
היכא — where; מאי שנא — what is different / why this rather than that; ברישא — first; דכתיב — as/where it is written; דקתני — where he teaches; אי הכי — if so; ואי בעית אימא — and if you wish, say. These are the contextual readings used in this unit. Return to a previous lesson for any missing form.
Reassemble three source excerpts
These excerpts occur in this order in Berakhot 2a. They are selected lines, not a continuous passage: the intervening questions and elaboration are omitted. Keep each line separate before composing your account.
A · Opening question
תנא היכא קאי דקתני מאימתי
B · Scriptural answer
תנא אקרא קאי דכתיב בשכבך ובקומך
C · Alternative about evening-first order
ואי בעית אימא יליף מברייתו של עולם דכתיב ויהי ערב ויהי בקר יום אחד
Spacing and labels are editorial; English comparison below
Visible word guide. תנא — the teacher formulating the Mishnah; קאי — stands / relies; אקרא — on Scripture; מאימתי — from when; בשכבך ובקומך — when you lie down and when you rise; יליף — he learns / derives; מברייתו של עולם — from the creation of the world; ויהי ערב ויהי בקר יום אחד — there was evening and there was morning, one day.
- In A, mark the question word and the quoted Mishnah word. Explain what the question asks the reader to recover.
- In B, separate the teacher, his basis, the citation marker and the quotation.
- In C, bracket the alternative marker. Identify the claim and the verse it cites.
- Write an original five-sentence account: one sentence for each excerpt, one distinguishing their questions, and one explaining how the quotations support the reading.
Do not treat the label on C as its translation. Build the English from the words, and say what “he learns” refers to in this discussion.
2. Compare your reading of A.
“Where does the teacher stand, that he teaches ‘From when’?” In natural English: what prior basis does the teacher rely on when he begins by asking from when? היכא asks “where”; מאימתי is the Mishnah’s quoted opening. The question seeks the assumed basis, not the teacher’s physical location.
3. Compare your reading of B.
“The teacher relies on Scripture, where it is written, ‘When you lie down and when you rise.’” תנא names the teacher; אקרא קאי gives his basis; דכתיב introduces the Torah quotation. The answer points to Deuteronomy 6:7.
4. Compare your account of C and of the three lines together.
“And if you wish, say: He learns it from the creation of the world, as it is written, ‘There was evening and there was morning, one day.’” C offers another explanation of evening-first order, not a command to recite Shema derived from creation. A asks about the assumed basis; B points to Torah; C addresses the order question raised elsewhere in the opening discussion. Your account should retain these distinctions and identify Deuteronomy 6:7 and Genesis 1:5 as quotations within the discussion.
Try a question in a new setting
On Berakhot 2b, the discussion quotes a baraita, an early rabbinic teaching outside the Mishnah’s collection. This teaching cites two passages from Nehemiah while discussing when evening begins. It calls the verses a supporting indication rather than a proof. Here are the two citations in their order, with the original joining expression preserved:
“We were doing the work, and half of them held spears, from the rising of dawn until the stars came out.”
ואומר — “and it says” —
“They were to serve us at night as a guard, and by day for work.”
Nehemiah 4:15 and the end of 4:16, Hebrew verse numbering
English renderings by Messianic Yeshiva; explanatory joining gloss added
The Gemara then asks this short question. Read it before opening the comparisons:
מאי ואומר
Quotation boundary marked for reading
Your new reading. Identify the familiar question word. Locate the expression it picks up from the preceding teaching. Write a literal rendering, then a natural English question. Finally say whether the question concerns the number of workers, the meaning of dawn, or the need for the added citation. Explain your choice from the actual words.
5. Which word asks the question, and which words are being discussed?
מאי asks “what?” The quoted expression ואומר, “and it says,” is the join that introduced the second citation. The Gemara is examining a phrase from the preceding teaching; it is not simply adding a third verse.
6. Compare your translation and its target.
Literally, “What is ‘and it says’?” More naturally, “Why add ‘and it says’?” or “What is ‘and it says’ doing here?” The question asks why the teaching adds the second citation. You can identify that target without yet translating the Gemara’s longer answer.
Make the transfer explicit
Write three sentences without copying a comparison: explain what מאי contributes; explain how the preceding context identifies ואומר; and state one thing you have not yet established. Then compare your account. This final sentence is a reading skill: distinguish the question you have understood from an answer you have not yet studied.
7. What makes the new-context account complete?
A complete account says that מאי turns attention to a questioned expression; ואומר points back to the join before the second Nehemiah citation; and the question asks why that extra citation is needed. It also acknowledges that reading this two-word question has not yet explained the Gemara’s answer or settled the whole discussion of evening.
Return tomorrow
After a day, cover all English comparisons. Read A, B and C again with only the word guide. Then retrieve the two-word question from 2b and explain what it asks in its own setting. Ask a partner to choose one marker and have you locate its exact work in the source.
8. How can you tell what to review next?
If the letters are recognizable but the phrase is missing, return to that form’s lesson. If you can translate the words but cannot identify a quotation or the target of the question, reread the preceding context. If you can do both, compare your independent account with the source and explain it aloud without copying.
Keep reading in context
Berakhot 2a–2b supplies all Talmud excerpts. The first exercise draws on Deuteronomy 6:7 and Genesis 1:5; the new-context exercise uses the Nehemiah passages as quoted on 2b. Our English renderings are composed for these exercises. One question, another route examines a different inquiry on Berakhot 2b in more depth; return to the study desk to choose your next reading.