Wake Up, You're Royalty

~ Quick Thoughts ~
Wake Up, You're Royalty 
By: Daniel Listhaus

            The second mishna in meseches Berachos relates the machlokes (dispute) with regard to the latest time one may recite the morning shema. The Tanna Kamma and Rebbe Eliezer disagree about the earliest time one may be yotzei (fulfill the obligation of the morning shema), while Rebbe Eliezer argues with Rebbe Yehoshua with regard to the latest time. Rebbe Eliezer holds that the latest time one may fulfill his obligation of the morning shema is the time of neitz hachama (sunrise), while Rebbe Yehoshua maintains that it may be said for the first three hours into the day.

   The gemara explains that the root of this dispute is how to interpret the word "u'v'kumecha" ("and when you get up") which is the word from which we derive the chiyuv (obligation) to say shema each morning. Rebbe Eliezer understands it to simply mean the time that people get up, which is sunrise; while Rebbe Yehoshua understands it to refer to the span of time during which people get up - the latest presumably being those of royalty who have no obligations to work their own fields and therefore have the luxury to sleep in late. Generally we assume that the Torah speaks in the way that normal people do since the Torah is meant for us and it communicates in our language, and one might therefore think that Rebbe Eliezer's opinion follows that guidance while Rebbe Yehoshua's seems to consider the outliers. However, the reality that Rebbe Yehoshua is teaching is that royalty are not outliers at all. Even though we as a people throughout our exiles had to work very hard and often as second class citizens, we must never forget that we come from royalty. We are called banim la'makom (children of Hashem) and also directly come from the royal lineage of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.

  Indeed we pasken (rule) like the opinion of Rebbe Yehoshua, and whether we are early risers or not, when the Torah uses the terminology of "when you get up" to describe the proper time to say the morning shema it includes a span of time through the time that royalty tends to get up.

 As we approach Shavuos and accept our royal crowns and jewel of the Torah, may Hashem help us balance the dichotomy of remaining humble (especially in galus) and at the same time retain the confidence of asher bachar banu mikol haamim.

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