Study Berakhot folio 55A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
כל המאריך בתפלתו ומעיין בה — סוף בא לידי כאב לב, שנאמר: ״תוחלת ממשכה מחלה לב״. ואמר רבי יצחק: שלשה דברים מזכירים עונותיו של אדם, ואלו הן: קיר נטוי, ועיון תפלה, ומוסר דין על חבירו לשמים!
Anyone who prolongs his prayer and expects it to be answered, will ultimately come to heartache, as it is stated: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). Similarly, R' Yitzḥak said: 3 matters evoke a person’s sins, and they are: Endangering oneself by sitting or standing next to an inclined wall that is about to collapse, expecting prayer to be accepted, as that leads to an assessment of his status and merit, and passing a case against another to Heaven, as praying for Heaven to pass judgment on another person causes one’s own deeds to be examined and compared with the deeds of that other person. This proves that prolonging prayer is a fault.
הא לא קשיא: הא דמעיין בה, הא דלא מעיין בה. והיכי עביד? דמפיש ברחמי.
The Talmud resolves the apparent contradiction: This is not difficult. This, where we learned that prolonging prayer is undesirable, refers to a situation when one expects his prayer to be accepted, while this, where Rav Yehuda says that prolonging prayer prolongs one’s life, refers to a situation where one does not expect his prayer to be accepted. How does he prolong his prayer? By increasing his supplication.
והמאריך על שלחנו: דלמא אתי עניא ויהיב ליה. דכתיב: ״המזבח עץ שלוש אמות גבה״, וכתיב: ״וידבר אלי זה השלחן אשר לפני ה׳״, פתח במזבח וסיים בשלחן! רבי יוחנן ורבי אלעזר דאמרי תרוייהו: כל זמן שבית המקדש קיים — מזבח מכפר על ישראל, ועכשיו, שלחנו של אדם מכפר עליו.
As for the virtue of prolonging one’s mealtime at the table, which Rav Yehuda mentioned, the Talmud explains: Perhaps a poor person will come during the meal and the host will be in a position to give him food immediately, without forcing the poor person to wait. The rabbis elsewhere praised a person who acts appropriately at a meal, as it is written: “The altar, 3 cubits high and the length thereof, two cubits, was of wood, and so the corners thereof; the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were also of wood” (Ezekiel 41:22), and it is written in the continuation of that verse: “And he said to me: This is the table that is before YHWH.” The language of this verse is difficult, as it begins with the altar and concludes with the table. Rather, R' Yoḥanan and R' Elazar both say: As long as the Temple stood, the altar atoned for Israel’s transgressions. Now that it is destroyed, a person’s table atones for his transgressions.