The Talmud Begins with a Question

b. Berakhot 2a

200–600

About This Entry

The Babylonian Talmud, compiled around 600 CE, opens not by repeating the Mishnah’s legal query but by interrogating it: Why does the Mishnah begin with “From when”? And why start with the evening Shema‘? The Talmud acknowledges that even an initial question rests on prior assumptions, as it anchors the Mishnah’s reading of scripture in assumptions about the prescription to recite “these instructions [ . . . ] when you lie down and when you arise” (Deuteronomy 6:7). From the outset, the Talmud signals its distinctive mode: probing the logic of tradition, turning statements into questions, and rooting rabbinic law in scripture. 

From when does one recite Shema‘ in the evening? 

[With regard to this question, the Gemara asks:] On the basis of what [prior knowledge] does [the] tanna1 of our mishnah ask: From when? [It would seem from his question that the obligation to recite Shema‘ in the evening was already established, and that the tanna seeks only to clarify details that relate to it. But our mishnah is the very first mishnah in the Talmud.]

[The Gemara asks:] And furthermore, what distinguishes the evening [Shema‘, that it was taught] first? Let [the tanna] teach [regarding the recitation of] the morning [Shema‘] first. [Since most mitzvot apply during the day, the tanna should discuss the morning Shema‘ before discussing the evening Shema‘.] [ . . . ]

[Response:—Ed.] The tanna bases himself on the verse as it is written: [You will talk of them when you sit in your home, and when you walk along the way,] when you lie down, and when you arise (Deuteronomy 6:7).

Translation from the Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli.

Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation unless otherwise noted.

[A tanna is a rabbi from the period when the Mishnah was being composed.—Ed.]

Credits

Bavli Berakhot 2a, from Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org.

Discussion Questions

  1. What can we learn about how the Talmud relates to the earlier Mishnah from its questioning of the Mishnah’s opening question? 

  2. The Talmud asks what prior knowledge the Mishnah assumes. Why is identifying unstated assumptions important for legal interpretation? 

  3. How does citing Deuteronomy 6:7 resolve the Talmud’s challenge? What role does biblical proof play in validating rabbinic law? 

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The Babylonian Talmud, compiled around 600 CE, opens not by repeating the Mishnah’s legal query but by interrogating it: Why does the Mishnah begin with “From when”? And why start with the evening Shema‘? The Talmud acknowledges that even an initial question rests on prior assumptions, as it anchors the Mishnah’s reading of scripture in assumptions about the prescription to recite “these instructions [ . . . ] when you lie down and when you arise” (Deuteronomy 6:7). From the outset, the Talmud signals its distinctive mode: probing the logic of tradition, turning statements into questions, and rooting rabbinic law in scripture. 

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