Berachos 62a

ברכות ס״ב ע״א

Berakhot 62a

Learn Berachos 62a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Berachos 62a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Conduct and צניעות in the בית הכסא: learning from one's רבי, the left hand, protection from מזיקין, privacy distances, and true modesty.

Overview

The amud is all about proper conduct in the בית הכסא. It opens with ברייתות in which רבי עקיבא and then בן עזאי followed their teachers into the bathroom to learn their practices. In each story the student defends himself with the same words: 'תורה היא וללמוד אני צריך'. רב כהנא uses the same words after hiding under רב's bed. The גמרא then gives several reasons, from אמוראים and תנאים, why one wipes with the left hand and not the right. Next come teachings and stories about how צניעות and silence protect a person from מזיקין in the bathroom, including the stories of אביי's lamb and רבא's wife. עולא and איסי בר נתן disagree about how far one must go for privacy, and the גמרא defends איסי בר נתן against sources from the laws of טהרות. A story about a eulogizer teaches that real צניעות is private behavior, and that false praise of the dead is punished. The amud ends with בן עזאי's advice to go early or late so as not to go far, and a protective formula against כשפים for someone who sat before preparing.

Opening lines

The steps (44)

1. Statementרבי עקיבא learns three bathroom practices from רבי יהושע
2. Challengeבן עזאי objects that this was disrespectful
3. Resolutionרבי עקיבא answers: it is תורה
4. Statementבן עזאי learns the same three practices from רבי עקיבא
5. Challengeרבי יהודה raises the same objection
6. Resolutionבן עזאי gives the same answer
7. Statementרב כהנא hides under רב's bed
8. Challengeרב tells רב כהנא to leave
9. Resolutionרב כהנא answers: it is תורה
10. QuestionWhy wipe with the left and not the right?
11. Responseרבא: the תורה was given with the right hand
12. Responseרבה בר בר חנה: the right hand is close to the mouth
13. Responseריש לקיש: one ties תפילין with the right hand
14. Responseרב נחמן בר יצחק: one points to the תורה's notes with the right hand
15. StatementThe same reasons appear in a dispute among the תנאים
16. StatementModesty in the bathroom protects from three dangers
17. StatementThe dangerous bathroom in טבריא
18. QuestionThe Sages ask: aren't you afraid?
19. ResponseTheir tradition: modesty and silence
20. Statementאביי's mother raised a lamb to accompany him
21. ChallengeWhy not raise a goat instead?
22. ResolutionA goat could be confused with a goat-demon
23. StatementHow רבא's wife protected him in the bathroom
24. Statementעולא: how far to go for privacy
25. Statementאיסי בר נתן: a stricter version
26. ChallengeChallenge from the workers at the olive press
27. ResolutionPurity laws are a special leniency
28. ChallengeA second purity source seems to clash with איסי בר נתן
29. ResolutionPeople who eat in purity are a special case
30. Resolutionרב אשי explains what איסי בר נתן meant by 'not seen'
31. StatementA eulogizer praises a dead man as modest
32. Challengeרב נחמן asks how the eulogizer could know
33. QuestionWhy did רב נחמן care so much?
34. ResponseEulogizers are punished for false praise
35. StatementA ברייתא defines who is truly modest
36. Challengeרב taught that a person should train himself so he will not need to go far
37. Challengeרבא and רבי זירא went close by at night
38. ResolutionChange the wording to 'in the same manner'
39. Resolutionרב אשי keeps the wording and applies it to a corner
40. StatementOpening a discussion of רב's teaching on its own
41. ProofA ברייתא from בן עזאי supports רב's advice
42. StatementPrepare first and then sit, not the other way around
43. QuestionWhat if someone forgot and sat first?
44. ResponseA protective formula to say when standing up