Talmud zu Bereschit 41:60

HALAKHAH: It is written (Ps. 24:1): “The Eternal’s are the earth and what is in it, the dry land and its inhabitants.” He who profits from the world commits larceny⁴Since he uses God’s property, not his own. until good deeds will permit him⁵The obligation to say Grace after a meal is spelled out in Deut. 8:10. The obligation to recite blessings before one eats is not mentioned explicitly in the Torah. Since Grace is only treated in the next Chapter, one has to find here Biblical allusions to this duty and (in the next section) to the duty of reciting a benediction before fulfilling specified commandments.
The verse appears in the Babli (35a) in the name of Samuel. R. Levi compares the verse (Ps. 115:16) “Heaven is the Eternal’s heaven but the earth He gave to mankind”, explaining that before a benediction everything is the Eternal’s property but after a benediction it becomes human property. While Rebbi Levi is a Galilean teacher, the Yerushalmi rejects his combination since in the third paragraph earthly enjoyment is only “as if one ate from one’s own”. The text of the Yerushalmi is from Tosephta Berakhot 4:1 which is identical with the Talmudic text except that there it says “until all good deeds will permit him”, meaning that only if the preparation of food is completely within the commandments of the Torah then the last step of the preparation, the recitation of the benediction, will allow the food to be given to man as his own.. Rebbi Abbahu said, it is written (Deut. 22:9) “Lest the fullness of the seed that you sow and the yield of the vineyard should be forbidden.” The entire world and its contents are like a vineyard. What is its redemption? The benediction⁶This argument is very difficult to understand and the commentators either chose to ignore it or give very incongruous explanations. The best explanation is that of R. Eliahu Fulda who in his Yerushalmi edition suppresses the word פֶּן “lest”. One would have to assume that Rebbi Abbahu’s text did not have the word but that later scribes added it from memory. By it the negative implication of the verse (which speaks about growing different kinds of plants in a vineyard) are changed to a positive one which now should be translated: “That you shall sanctify the fullness of the seed that you sow and the yield of the vineyard.” Since the sanctity is not that of sacrifices, the sanctity may be removed by redemption (Lev. 27:11). However, there can be no monetary redemption of anything not explicitly authorized in the Torah. Hence, the redemption is non-monetary and is the traditional praise given to God in benedictions. [The simple sense of the verse is that produce grown in a vineyard becomes forbidden for private use as if it were dedicated for sacrifice.]. Rebbi Ḥizqiah, Rebbi Abun in the name of Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish: (Ps. 16:2) “Say to the Eternal, You are my Master⁷The translation follows the Biblical text, not the text written here., my good is only with You.” If you ate and recited the benedictions then it is as if you ate from your own. Another explanation⁸The verse is extremely hard to understand; the next two interpretations have nothing to do with the topic on hand; they are only added to indicate translations that might be considered if בל is not a negation but a verb form derived from בלל, which may mean either “to give food” (Jud. 19:24) or, more frequently, “mixed with fluid, moistened.”: “My good is בל with you”, I am feeding My goodness to your body. Another explanation: “My good is בל with you”, all good things may be mixed together and come to you. Rebbi Aḥa said, what is “only with you?” I shall not bring any good things to the world without you. As it is said (Gen. 41:44) “Without you nobody may lift his hand.⁹Taking בל as shorthand for בִּלְעֲדֵי “without”.” Rebbi Ḥiyya stated: (Lev. 19:24) “Holy for praises”, this shows that it needs benediction before and after. From here did Rebbi Aqiba say that nobody should taste anything before he gives praise¹⁰This is also quoted in the Babli (35a); the source of both Talmudim is Sifra on the verse. The verse speaks of the fruits of a vineyard in its fourth year when the grapes can be used for the first time after having been forbidden for the first three years. This is only a hint for any other food..

Originally there were only two as it is written (Gen. 41:43): “He made him ride in his two-horse carriage.” Pharao came and made them three, as it is written (Ex. 14:7): “three-horse over everything.” The evil kingdom⁵⁵A standard name for the Roman government. arose and made it four.

¹⁸³The original story is in Qohelet Rabbati 1(19); a text parallel to the Yerushalmi in Gen. rabba 89(10). A woman came before Rebbi Eliezer. She said to him, I saw in my dream the pillar¹⁸⁴The unexplained word תיניתא is translated following the text in Gen. rabba which has שוריתא. of the house breaking. He said, you will give birth to a male child. She went and gave birth to a male. After some time she came and asked for him. His students said, he is not here. They asked her, what do you want from him? She said to them, this woman¹⁸⁵I. e., I. saw in my dream that the pillar of the house was breaking. They said to her, you will give birth to a male child¹⁸⁶The version here is telescoped from the text in Qohelet Rabbati. There, R. Eliezer himself told her twice that she would have a son; the students made the bad interpretation only the third time. and the husband of that woman¹⁸⁷I. e., you. dies. When Rebbi Eliezer came, they told him what happened. He said to them, you killed a person for the dream goes only after its interpretation as it is said (Gen. 41:13): “It was just as he had interpreted it for us, so it happened.”

²⁶[Cf. ARN XXXVIII, 3, above pp. 191ff.] When R. Simeon b. Gamaliel and R. Ishmael came [to be tried], it was decreed against them that they should be put to death. Whereupon R. Ishmael broke into tears; and R. Simeon said to him, ‘Abrek,²⁷A title of honour (cf. Gen. 41, 43). It was interpreted by the Rabbis as the initial letters of the Heb. phrase, ‘father in wisdom though tender in years’; cf. Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, XC, 3 (Sonc. ed., p. 829). why do you weep? Two steps more²⁸i.e. immediately. and you will be in the bosom of the righteous, and yet you weep!’ He replied, ‘Do I then weep because we are about to be executed? It is because we are about to be executed [in the same way] as murderers and desecrators of the Sabbath’. He said to him, ‘Perhaps you were having a meal or you were sleeping when a woman came to ask [a ruling] concerning her ritual impurity or her cleanness, and your servant told her that you were asleep. And the Torah states, Ye shall not aflict²⁹Keeping an anxious woman waiting is a form of affliction. any widow or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise—for if they cry at all unto Me, I will surely hear their cry.³⁰Ex. 22, 21f. And what is written after this? My wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword’. Some say that it was [47b] R. Simeon b. Gamaliel who was weeping and R. Ishmael who answered him in these words.
When R. Simeon and R. Ishmael were executed and the report reached R. ‘Aḳiba and R. Judah b. Baba, they arose, girded their loins with sackcloth, rent their garments and exclaimed, ‘Our brother-Israelites, if good were destined to come to the world, at first none would receive it but R. Simeon and R. Ishmael; but now that it is revealed before Him Who spake and the universe came into being that eventually great punishments will come upon the world, they have consequently been taken out of the world; [as it is stated,] The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart,³¹Isa. 57, 1. and it continues, He entereth into peace, they rest in their beds’.³²ibid. 2.