Brochas: Daf  Nun Daled amud beis

R. Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Four (types of people) must give thanks - Yordei haYam (seafarers), Holchei Midbaros (those travelling through deserts, one was ill and recovered, and one who was imprisoned and was released.

The Ben HaYehoyada raises a series of questions on this Brysa.

Q. Psalm 107 speaks first of travellers in deserts, and only then of seafarers. Why does the Brysa reverse the order? And why does the sick person precede the prisoner?

A. A ship requires a company of sailors, whereas those travelling in a desert can be few in number. The remaining cases refer to individuals, but the sick person is a more common occurrence than that of the prisoner.

Q. The Brysa's first two cases are in the plural while the third and fourth cases are in the singular. Why is this so?

A. The seafarer and desert caravan traveller take on the dangers of their profession of their own volition and have no need to separate themselves from their fellow man, unlike the sick person and the prisoner. In each of the two pairs, the more dangerous situation precedes the less dangerous.

Q. Why in the two final cases does it mention the means of redemption, recovery and release; whereas in the first two cases no mention is made of having survived the experience?

A. In the first two case one is required to give thanks even if there was no apparent danger i.e. even if there were no storms or robbers.

Brochas: Daf Nun Gimmel amud beis

Beis Hillel said to Beis Shammai, "according to your opinion, do you hold that someone who ate at the top of a mansion and forgot and went down and did not recite Birchas HaMazon, must return to the top of the mansion and recite it (even though this involves considerable effort?)" Beis Shammai responded to Beis Hillel "according to your opinion, one who forgot a purse on top of a mansion, would he not go up and retrieve it?  If he ascends on account of his own honour, how much more (should he be required to go up) for the honour of heaven."

The Ben HaYehoyada points out that the two cases do not seem directly analogous, in as much as it is impossible to recover the purse without going up again, but it is possible to recite Birchas HaMazon in the lower level of the mansion. He answers this by saying that while it is possible to send someone else to recover the money, typically in such a situation we show considerable alacrity in wishing to recover the money ourselves. This being the case, we should be careful to exercise at least the same alacrity in performing the Mitzva in a fashion which is undoubtedly preferable.

Brochas: Daf Nun Beis amud beis

We do not recite blessing (for Havdalah) over the flame of gentiles...

It is understandable in respect of a flame, for it did not rest (on the Sabbath)

Rashi seems to suggest that there is a transgression ("aveira"). Despite the fact that one would expect this to be acceptable given that a gentile is permitted to light the lamp on Shabbos (since he has no mitzva to keep Shabbos), there is still apparently a hint of an aveira, given that it would have been forbidden for a Jew to complete the same action. The Taz (Orach Chaim 298:5) comments that this Gezeira is implemented despite the fact that a Jew is permitted to make use of a lamp lit by a gentile for his own use, since the blessing (as opposed to the use) requires there should be no hint of "aveira."

This prohibition is not extended writes the B'eer Haitiv to a lamp lit by a Jew from a lamp lit by a gentile.

Brochas: daf Nun aleph

One takes the cup with both his hands...

And places the cup in his right hand... What is the law as to whether the left hand may assist the right hand? Rav Ashi said, since the earlier ones asked the same question without resolving it, one should act stringently (and not do so.)

He raises it a tefach above the ground. R. Acha the son of R. Chanina said, which verse is the scriptural source for this (Psalms 116:13) I will raise up the cup of salvations and call out the name of Hashem.

The Maharsha points out that the two hands represent Din (justice) and Rachamim (mercy). Since the right hand represents mercy it should end up holding the cup. The word Cos (cup) has the gematria 81, as does the word Elokim (the attribute of G-d represented by justice. Thus the Cos shel Brocha  (the cup of blessing drunk at the end of the meal) is a cup of salvation, achieved by calling on the name of Hashem (the attribute of mercy) to take precedence over Cos/Elokim, Din/strict justice.

R. Yochanan said: whoever recites Birchas HaMazon over a full cup is given an inheritance without boundaries, as it says in the verse "when filled with Hashem's blessing, West and South you shall inherit ("y'rosha")." R. Yose bar Chanina says, "he merits and inherits two worlds, this world and the world to come."

Tosfos explain that the word "y'rosha" could have been written without the initial "yud" and final "heh". And as the verse in Isaiah (26:4) which we say daily at the very end of our morning prayers says: "ki b'Ka Hashem tzur olamim," "Trust in Hashem forever, for in G-d (Yud Heh) Hashem is the strength of the worlds," which the gemara (Menachos 29b) explains is this world and the world to come.  See there for explanations as to why this should be so. 

Brochas: Daf Nun amud aleph

And from one's blessings it can be discerned whether or not he is a Torah scholar. How so? Rebbi says (if in the zimun blessing he says) "B'Tuvo" (Blessed is He of whose we have eaten and through whose goodness we live), he is a Talmid Chocham. (But if he says "U'MiTuvu" (and from whose goodness we live) he is an ignoramus.

The Ben haYehoyada writes that a Talmid Chocham is happy with his lot in life and has restrained material needs, focusing on his study of Torah. G-d provides what we need. Therefore, by definition what we are given is what we require; thus for him B'Tuvo represents complete good. By contrast the ignoramus is focused on his material wants; when he is given a hundred, he desires two hundred. "MiTuvo" is as Rashi comments a restrictive description. "From" implies less than all. He is focused on what he does not have, rather than what he does have. 

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Brochas: Daf Mem Ches amud beis

(The Chachomim) established the blessing of "HaTov v'haMaitiv" ("He who is good and does good to all") in Birchas haMazon, in response to those killed in Beitar (whose bodies did not decompose and who were eventually brought to burial.

The Anaf Yosef quotes the Tzlach who asks given that the bodies did not decompose what was the necessity of burial, since it is the decomposition which is the embarrassment for the body? His response is that burial is needed for the "nefesh" allowing the spirit to cleave to G-d. The Mekubalim explain that while each person's body is individual, his spirit is a fragment of a unified G-dly whole. That the body does not compose is Tov, good, but the good is confined to the individual; that the nefesh via burial can rejoin with the entirety of the G-dly whole, is Maitiv, it does good for the klal, for the community of Yisrael.