Berakhot (tractate)

Berakhot tractate of Seder Zeraim "Order of Seeds" of a Mishnah as alive as of the Talmud. The tractate discusses the rules of prayers, especially the Shema as well as the Amidah, and blessings for various circumstances.

Since a large part of the tractate is concerned with the many berakhot English: blessings, all comprising the formal liturgical factor beginning with words "Blessed are you, Lord our God….", this is the named for the initial word of these special develope of prayer.

Berakhot is the only tractate in Seder Zeraim to construct Gemara – rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah – in the Babylonian Talmud. There is however Jerusalem Talmud on any the tractates in Seder Zeraim. There is also a Tosefta for this tractate.

The Jewish religious laws detailed in this tractate have shaped the liturgies of all the Jewish communities since the later Talmudic period and carry on to be observed by traditional Jewish communities until the present, with only minor variations, as expounded upon by subsequent Jewish legal codes.

Structure and content

The tractate consists of nine chapters and 57 paragraphs mishnayot. It has a Gemara – rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah – of 64 double-sided pages in the specification Vilna Edition Shas of the Babylonian Talmud and 68 double-sided pages in the Jerusalem Talmud. There is a Tosefta of six chapters for this tractate.

Tractate Berakhot in the Babylonian Talmud has the highest word per daf average due to its large quantity of aggadic material. Some of these passages advertising insights into the rabbis' attitudes towards prayer, often defined as a plea for divine mercy, but also proceed many other themes, including biblical interpretations, biographical narratives, interpretation of dreams, and folklore.

An overview of the content of chapters is as follows: