[Avodah] havdallah, and other berachos

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 11:49:46PM -0700, Harvey Benton wrote:
: what is the history of the berachos that we have, including the shemone
: esre, [the extra] v'malshinim, the shabbas candles bracha, chanukah candles
: bracha, matza bracha on pesache, etc, 
: 
: do they all have the same validity as the original shemone esre?

The original Shemuneh Esrei was arranged by AKhG, as RZS already wrote,
but the actual blessings we say were coined by the tannaim. Which makes
them not much older than the insertion of Velameshumadim. (Which was
then toned down to "Velamalshinim" mishum eivah.) The decision of where
to put Havdalah in benching was also resolved by tannaim.

One thing you quickly notice after learning Mes' Berakhos in both shasin
is that in EY they had many more and more specific berakhos than in Bavel.
(E.g. R' Chaggai says Rebbe made a "borei minei nefashos" before meat
and eggs, more berakhos on different smells, etc...) We follow the Bavliim.

But the concept of making a berakhah before and after food or before
doing a mitzvah, rather than the particular berakhos we make when these
opportunities arise, also predates the tannaim.

The only question of legitimacy is after the gemara, because the Rosh
says that no such berakhos exist, and yet we have berakhos that do.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Our greatest fear is not that we're inadequate,
micha at aishdas.org        Our greatest fear is that we're powerful
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Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Anonymous