[Avodah] New Brachos

[Arie Folger]

RAM wrote (replying to an idea of mine):
> I see what you're saying, but I'm far from convinced. I've always thought that the
> Gemara's discussion of Motzi and Hamotzi was "What text did they establish?",
> not "Now that we know the basic idea, what's the best way to express it?" But
> even if they did originally establish only the basic idea, allowing future generations
> to write the exact text, how is that extended to new basic ideas?

My idea is mukhra'h from the fact that historically, nussa'h
hatefillah, including the shemoneh 'essre, was a lot more fluid for a
lot longer than standard authorized kashered history claims. Thus,
there is strong evidence, including an explicit Yerushalmi and some
wavering in the Bavli, that the Anshei Knesset haGedolah did not
compose shemoneh 'essrei, nor most other blessings. At some point, in
EY, there seems to have existed a catalogue of berakhot, from which
people chose 18 for any given tefillah betzibbur. Before that, there
wasn't even a catalogue. Also, the form of these blessings was still
fluid.

What AKhG seem to have created are the basic rules for how blessings
are formulated. Then, additional rules were legislated in Bavel and in
EY, but these weren't always in sync, which is why we don't always
follow the rules of beginning blessings with shem umalkhut (Tos.
Pesa'him IIRC 104b has some trouble with that, and suggests
solutions), nor about closing with me'eyn ha'hatimah and more.
However, I do believe that AKhG did legislate some blessings, and they
are probably to be credited with Avot, Gevurot, birkot hahaftarah and
birkot qeriat shema' and some others.

The above is not just supported by genziah fragments, but also by
Rishonim, by old siddurm that even made it into print (how about shelo
'assani kuti, somekh noflim and other berakhot, not all of which
merited to be discussed by major Rishonim) and by a close reading of
the Talmudim and related material. Watch out for a forthcoming book by
R' Barry Freundel, where he covers many of these areas.
-- 
Arie Folger,
Latest blog posts on http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/
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