Yoma 28B

גמ׳ תניא, רבי ישמעאל אומר: ״ברק ברקאי״. רבי עקיבא אומר: ״עלה ברקאי״. נחומא בן אפקשיון אומר: ״אף ברקאי בחברון״. מתיא בן שמואל (אומר): הממונה על הפייסות אומר: ״האיר פני כל המזרח עד שבחברון״. רבי יהודה בן בתירא אומר: ״האיר פני כל המזרח עד בחברון, ויצאו כל העם איש איש למלאכתו״.

Talmud: It was taught in a baraita that the rabbis disputed the precise expression that was employed in the Temple. R' Yishmael says that the formula is: The light flashed; R' Akiva says: The light has risen, which is brighter than a mere flash. Naḥuma ben Apakshiyon says: There is even light in Hebron. Matya ben Shmuel says that the appointed priest in charge of the lotteries says: The entire eastern sky is illuminated all the way to Hebron. R' Yehuda ben Beteira says that this is what the appointed priest said: The entire eastern sky is illuminated all the way to Hebron and the entire nation has gone out, each and every person to engage in his labor.

אי הכי, נגה ליה טובא? לשכור פועלים קאמרינן.

The Talmud questions R' Yehuda ben Beteira’s version of the formula: If it is so that the people have gone to work, it has grown considerably lighter. People go to work after it is light. Apparently, R' Yehuda ben Beteira is referring to a time after sunrise, not a time adjacent to dawn. The Talmud answers: It is that people have gone out to hire workers that we are saying. Owners of fields rose early, adjacent to dawn, to hire workers so that they could begin working when it is light.

אמר רב ספרא: צלותיה דאברהם, מכי משחרי כותלי.

§ Rav Safra said: The time for the afternoon prayer of Abraham begins from when the walls begin to blacken from shade. When the sun begins to descend from the middle of the sky, producing shadows on the walls, that marks the beginning of the setting of the sun and then the afternoon prayer may be recited.