[Avodah] Shofar and guf naki

[Micha Berger]

There is a question of how many birkhos haTorah one makes in the
morning. Is veHaarev Na the start of a new berakhah, one that lacks a
pesikhah because it's semuchh lechaverta? Or is it the body of "la'asoq
bedivrei Torah", which in turn would be a berakhah arukhah.

There seems to be a leshitasam between this and the role of the learning
done immediately after. The Baal haMaor and Rabbeinu Yonah hold three
berakhos and therefore point to three kinds of learning that follow it:
the miqra, mishnah and gemara (the beraisa of R Yishmael's 13 middos).

See the RI ben Yaqar, who discusses both sides. His argument in favor of
veHaarev being its one berakhah is the change in tense from avar to
aside and thus from shevach/hodaah to baqashah.

Rabbeinu Tam, OTOH, understands Berakhos 11b as saying that R' Yehudah
spells out "la'asoq bedivrei Torah" and when it says "R' Yochanan mesayeim
bah hakhi" is means a siyum to that very berakhah. he holds that there
is no berakhah hasemukhah lechaverta when the first berakhah is short.
Therefore, veHaarev can't be a new berakhah.

And according to Rabbeinu Tam, after the two berakhos we learn two kinds
of Torah -- TSBK and TSBP -- no need to be careful to have separate
mishnah and gemara.

Birkhos Kohanim and Eilu devarim serve the same role(s), and thus allow
for placing birkhos hashachar before qorbanos.

Since I personally can't keep up with the minyan, I skip the newer
addition and begin at home with:

Asher Yatzar, E-lokai Netzor, Birkhos haTorah - body, soul and mind --
which some rishonim make a point of making a triad. Others see Asher
Yatzar as a necessary prelude, E-lokai Netzor as semukhah to haMapil
the night before, and Birkhos haTorah as standing by itself.

For Qorbanos, I make sure to say the following:
Tamid -- since that ties my tefillah not only to Anshei Kenesses
haGedolah, but puts it in a mesorah that dates back to the Yemei Milu'im
and the first qorban Tamid.
Qetores -- someone convinced me to say this as a segulah when I was
laid off. Now that I have a job, how can I stop?
The pesuqim after Qetores make a good hispa'alus for bitachon
Abayei hava mesadeir -- covers all my bases in case I never get to the
rest of qorbanos
Techinas Rabbi Nechaniah ben haKaneh - "Ana Bekoach", just because its
beauty is obvious enough for my eye

At this point I have my cup of tea and head off to shul. Insert repeated
reminders to the boys to hurry up already.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             When a king dies, his power ends,
micha at aishdas.org        but when a prophet dies, his influence is just
http://www.aishdas.org   beginning.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                    - Soren Kierkegaard