"The
refutation of Rav Hisda is a conclusive refutation" (Steinsaltz, p. 69). This phrase brought me up
short just a little bit, since so much of the Talmudic discussion up to this point has
been to explain, reconcile, domesticate, and otherwise minimize dissent, not
summarily dismiss it. But according to
Steinsaltz this is "one of the most fundamental talmudic expressions,"
occuring "when the statement of an amora is powerfully refuted by a
tannaitic source." It literally
means return, in the sense that his statement is thrown back to him.
But Hisda has a point. If reciting the Shema after the third hour is a
matter of reading Torah, the blessings that accompany the Shema are not Torah texts. I wonder if the Mishnah's view that one who recites
the Shema late is "like
one who recites from the Torah" was formulated
before the Shema acquired these additional blessings (i.e., Yotzer Or, etc.).
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