Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.
Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.
Straight after the verses of the priestly blessing:
אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאֵין לָהֶם שִׁעוּר הַפֵּאָה וְהַבִּכּוּרִים וְהָרְאָיוֹן וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים וְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה.
These are the things that have no fixed amount: the corner of the field, the first fruits, appearing at the Temple, acts of kindness, and learning Torah.
These are the things that have no fixed amount: the corner of the field left for the poor, the first fruits, appearing at the Temple on the festivals, acts of kindness, and learning Torah.
This sentence is the first line of Peah, a section of the Mishnah (the core text of the Oral Torah, edited around the year 200). No fixed amount: the Torah never says how much. The Rambam (Maimonides, Egypt, 1100s) explains why these five were listed: the more of them you do, the more reward there is.
Mishnah Peah 1:1, with the commentaries of the Rambam and Bartenuraאֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאָדָם אוֹכֵל פֵּרוֹתֵיהֶם בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְהַקֶּרֶן קַיֶּמֶת לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא,
These are the things whose fruits a person eats in this world, while the original sum stays whole for the World to Come,
Why would a good deed pay twice? The Rambam's answer: every commandment is rewarded in the World to Come. The ones that help other people also pay off here, because when you treat people well, others start acting the same way, and you gain from that too.
Rambam, Commentary on the Mishnah, Peah 1:1וְאֵלּוּ הֵן כִּבּוּד אָב וָאֵם וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים וְהַשְׁכָּמַת בֵּית הַמִּדְרָשׁ שַׁחֲרִית וְעַרְבִית וְהַכְנָסַת אוֹרְחִים וּבִקּוּר חוֹלִים וְהַכְנָסַת כַּלָּה וּלְוָיַת הַמֵּת וְעִיּוּן תְּפִלָּה וַהֲבָאַת שָׁלוֹם בֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ ובֵין אִישׁ לְאִשְׁתּוֹ
and they are: honoring father and mother, acts of kindness, getting to the study hall early, morning and evening, welcoming guests, visiting the sick, bringing a bride to her wedding, escorting the dead, paying attention in prayer, making peace between one person and another and between husband and wife,
They are: honoring your father and mother, acts of kindness, getting to the study hall early, morning and evening, welcoming guests, visiting the sick, bringing a bride to her wedding, escorting the dead to burial, paying attention in prayer, and making peace between one person and another and between husband and wife.
This list is a blend. The Mishnah as printed has only parents, kindness, making peace and Torah. Guests, the sick, prayer and the study hall come from a list by Rabbi Yochanan in the Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah). The Gemara says his items are already included in the Mishnah's. The bride and the funeral are in neither printed list.
Mishnah Peah 1:1; Shabbat 127a-127bוְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה כְּנֶגֶד כֻּלָּם.
and learning Torah is equal to them all.
And learning Torah is equal to all of them.
Equal to all of them, how? The Rambam: because learning Torah is how a person comes to do all the rest. The Gemara tells of rabbis who were asked which is greater, learning or doing. Rabbi Tarfon said doing. Rabbi Akiva said learning. Everyone there concluded: learning, because it leads to doing.
Rambam, Commentary on the Mishnah, Peah 1:1; Kiddushin 40bSay it right after the Torah blessings and the priestly blessing. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) says it is right not to pause between the blessing and learning. The Mishnah Berurah (a guide to daily Jewish law, around 1900) explains what you learn: verses, a Mishnah, then Talmud.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 47:9; Mishnah Berurah 47:21It asks for nothing. The siddur is still giving you Torah to learn right after the blessings (the reason is at Birkat Kohanim). You get three pieces: verses from the Torah (Birkat Kohanim), a Mishnah (the first collection of the Oral Torah) and a teaching from the Gemara (the rabbis' discussion of the Mishnah). The Gemara says to split your learning among those three.
Mishnah Berurah 47:21; Kiddushin 30aThe Tosefta (a collection of teachings from the time of the Mishnah) has the Mishnah's sentence in reverse: "For these a person is made to pay in this world, and the principal remains for the World to Come: idolatry, forbidden sexual relations and murder. And evil speech is equal to them all." On the good list, the last place goes to Torah study. On the bad list, it goes to how you talk about people.
Tosefta Peah 1:2Seder HaYom (a guide to the daily prayers by Rabbi Moshe ben Machir, who lived near Tzfat, printed in 1599) asks why these mitzvot were singled out. One of his answers: none of them can be done fully unless your whole body is in it. Think of the list: going to the sick, walking with a funeral, getting to the study hall. Other mitzvot, he says, a person can do sitting in his place. Since the body did the work, it is right for the body to get a share. That share is the fruit in this world.
Seder HaYom, Order of Morning Blessings (in the Shabbat section)The second paragraph is stitched together. The Mishnah names four things: honoring parents, acts of kindness, making peace between people, and Torah study. In the Gemara, Rabbi Yochanan (a leading sage in the Land of Israel about 1,750 years ago) gives a list of six. Four of his are here: getting to the study hall early, hosting guests, visiting the sick, and concentrating in prayer. Two more, bringing a bride to her wedding and escorting the dead, are in neither list as it is printed today.
Mishnah Peah 1:1; Shabbat 127aWhen Rabbi Yochanan gives his six, the Gemara objects: the Mishnah has its own list, and his items are not on it. The answer: his are included in the Mishnah's. Rashi (the classic commentator on the Gemara, France, more than 900 years ago) sorts them. Hosting guests and visiting the sick are acts of kindness. Getting to the study hall early is Torah study. Concentrating when you pray also counts as kindness, and his proof is a verse in Mishlei (Mishlei): "A kind person does good to his own soul."
Shabbat 127a-127b, with Rashi; Mishlei 11:17Machzor Vitry (a prayer book from the school of Rashi, about 900 years ago) has only the Mishnah's four. A note in it says that visiting the sick and hosting guests "are not written in the Mishnah." Rambam (Maimonides, the great 12th-century authority on Jewish law) records eight: no bride and no funeral. Likkutei HaPardes, also attributed to Rashi's school, quotes a longer version of the list that has both, and the words "morning and evening" too.
Machzor Vitry, section 89; Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Order of Prayer; Likkutei HaPardes, Laws of the GroomThe Rambam and Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura (the standard commentator on the Mishnah, about 500 years ago) add a limit to "no fixed amount." Kindness you do with your body, like visiting the sick, has no ceiling. Kindness with money does. The sages said not to give away more than a fifth, so that you do not end up needing help yourself.
Rambam and Bartenura on Mishnah Peah 1:1; Ketubot 50aLook at what is on the list: visiting the sick, hosting guests, going to a funeral, making peace between people who are fighting. Then the last line says Torah study is equal to all of them together. That can sound backwards. Someone who only reads about kindness has not helped anyone.
The sages argued about exactly this. The Gemara describes a group of them sitting in an upstairs room in the town of Lod when the question was put to them: which is greater, study or action? Rabbi Tarfon said action. Rabbi Akiva said study. Then all of them answered: study is greater, because study leads to action.
Look at the reason they give. Study comes out ahead because of what it leads to. Rambam (Maimonides) says the same in his commentary on our Mishnah: Torah study is weighed against everything else because through it a person gets to all the rest.
And the law does not tell you to keep your head in a book while someone needs you. In the Mishneh Torah, his code of Jewish law, Rambam rules: if you are learning and a mitzvah comes up that other people can take care of, do not stop. If nobody else can do it, do the mitzvah and then go back to your learning.
Not every source ties it to action. In the Talmud Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel), one sage says that all the mitzvot of the Torah together do not equal a single word of Torah. The sources do not speak with one voice here.
One more thing. This paragraph is part of your first Torah learning of the day. What it has you learn is a list of things to go and do.
Kiddushin 40b,Rambam, Commentary on the Mishnah, Peah 1:1,Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Torah Study 3:4,Talmud Yerushalmi, Peah 1:1The Mishnah says a person "eats the fruit" of these mitzvot in this world. First on the list is honoring your father and mother. But everyone knows someone who did all this and still had a hard life.
The Gemara knows it too. Rabbi Yaakov, a sage of the Mishnah, describes a father who tells his son: go up to the tower and bring me some young birds. The son goes up, sends the mother bird away and takes the chicks. That is two mitzvot at once, and for both the Torah promises a good, long life. On his way back he falls and dies.
"Where is this one's good life?" Rabbi Yaakov asks. "Where is his long life?" His answer: the promise is about the World to Come. "There is no reward for a mitzvah in this world." The Gemara says he saw this happen. It adds that, according to some, seeing a case like it is what led his grandfather, the sage Elisha ben Avuya, to leave the path of Torah.
The Gemara treats that as Rabbi Yaakov's own view. Our Mishnah does promise fruit in this world. What kind? The Gemara asks why sending away the mother bird is not on the list. Its answer comes from a verse in Yeshayahu (Yeshayahu) about a righteous person who is "good" and eats the fruit of his deeds. Good, it explains, means good to Heaven and good to people. Rashi spells it out: everything on the list is something other people benefit from.
Rambam explains how. The main reward for every mitzvah is kept for the World to Come. But when you treat people well, he writes, you also find good in this world, because others come to act the way you do, and you benefit from that too. On this reading the fruit is what life is like among people who do these things.
None of this explains why a particular good person suffers. But even the Mishnah calls what you get here the fruit. The principal is kept for later.
Kiddushin 39b,Kiddushin 40a, with Rashi,Rambam, Commentary on the Mishnah, Peah 1:1Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
What makes these acts special, that they pay fruit in this world? The Gemara (Kiddushin 40a) points to acts that are good toward Heaven and also good for people. The Maharal (Rabbi Yehuda Loew of Prague, who died in 1609) explains the picture. God is the root of everything, and the people He created are like the fruit. So an act that is good in both directions has both a principal and fruit. People live in this world, so the reward for being good to them comes here. The reward for being good toward Heaven comes in the World to Come.
כי השם יתב' הוא עיקר הכל והבריות אשר ברא נחשבים כמו פירות, ולפיכך טוב לשמים וטוב לבריות יש לו קרן ויש לו פירות
Maharal, Netivot Olam, Netiv Gemilut Chasadim, chapter 2How can one act be repaid in two worlds? Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) says time and eternity are two ways that reality shows itself. We meet them apart: time passes, eternity stays. But both flow from one source that is above them both. The acts on this list, he writes, are rooted in eternity, and their branches spread into time. So a person eats their fruit in this world, which passes, and the principal stays for the life that does not end.
שעקרם נטוע ביסוד הנצח, והסתעפיותיהם הולכות הן בתכונות הזמן
Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Eilu DevarimThe Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) teaches that what is done below wakes up something above. If a person does kindness in the world, kindness is awakened above. It rests on that day, and the day is crowned with it because of that person. Then, the Zohar says, that day stands over the person as a guardian at the hour they need it. It adds that a cruel act works the same way in reverse. Now read "acts of kindness" again, in both lists.
עָבִיד בַּר נָשׁ חֶסֶד בְּעָלְמָא, אִתְּעַר חֶסֶד לְעֵילָּא, וְשָׁארִי בְּהַהוּא יוֹמָא, וְאִתְעַטָּר בֵּיהּ בְּגִינֵיהּ.
Zohar, Parashat EmorThe list includes making peace between one person and another. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polonne (a leading student of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidut) says there is an even greater mitzvah here: making peace within yourself. The physical side of a person and the spiritual side are two opposites, he writes. When one rises, the other falls. The real person is on the inside, and the body is like clothing attached to it. So he reads "between a person and his fellow" as those two: a person and the body that goes with them.
עוד יש מצוה בזה יותר גדולה, לעשות שלום לעצמו בין החומר והצורה שהם ב' הפכים, כשזה עולה זה יורד
Toldot Yaakov Yosef, Parashat TzavWhy would learning be equal to the whole list? One explanation is in the Tanya (the founding book of Chabad Chassidut, by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who died in 1812). It cites the Tikkunei Zohar (a companion book to the Zohar): 248 of the commandments are the 248 limbs of the King. In a person, the life in the limbs is nothing like the life in the brain. In the same way, it says, the light of God in a mitzvah you do cannot be compared to the light of God in Torah you understand, each person according to their own mind.
אֵין עֵרֶךְ וְדִמְיוֹן כְּלָל בֵּין הַחַיּוּת שֶׁבְּרַמַ״ח אֵיבָרָיו לְגַבֵּי הַחַיּוּת שֶׁבַּמּוֹחִין
Tanya, Likutei Amarim, chapter 37The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
The Mishnah Berurah's answer: then it does not count as learning. He says this about the Mishnah and Midrash said later in the morning (Eizehu Mekoman and Rabbi Yishmael's thirteen rules), which are there, like Eilu Devarim, so you learn Tanach, Mishnah and Gemara every day. In prayer, he writes, God knows what you mean even if you do not. But a Mishnah said without understanding "is not called learning." So learn what it means. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the code of law by the first Chabad Rebbe) rules the same.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 50:1; Mishnah Berurah 50:2; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 50:2You stop when the mitzvah needs you. The Rambam (Maimonides, 1100s) writes that Torah study is weighed against all the other mitzvot because learning leads to doing. Then he gives the rule, and the Shulchan Aruch repeats it: if a mitzvah comes up while you are learning and other people can do it, do not stop your learning. If nobody else can, do the mitzvah and then go back to your learning.
Rambam, Laws of Torah Study 3:3-4; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 246:18No. Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura (the standard Mishnah commentator, around 1500) explains: "no fixed amount" means kindness you do with your body, like visiting the sick. Kindness with money has a limit. For charity, the Shulchan Aruch rules: if you can afford it, give what the poor need. If not, up to a fifth of what you have is best, a tenth is average, less is stingy. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to it) adds: do not give away more than a fifth, so you do not end up needing help.
Bartenura on Mishnah Peah 1:1; Shulchan Aruch and Rema, Yoreh De'ah 249:1; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 34:4The Shulchan Aruch rules that every Jewish man, poor or rich, healthy or suffering, young or old, must set a time to learn Torah by day and by night. A note printed there adds that in a hard time, even one who only said Shema morning and evening has kept the verse about Torah not leaving your mouth. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short law guide from the 1860s) sums up: try to learn, "even only a little, every day and every night." Women, the Shulchan Aruch HaRav writes, must learn the mitzvot that apply to them.
Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 246:1; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 27:2; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 47:10On Tisha B'Av the Shulchan Aruch forbids learning Tanach, Mishnah, Midrash and Gemara, because Torah gladdens the heart. But it allows reading "the whole order of the day," and names the passages on the offerings and the Mishnah and Midrash after them. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law from around 1900) explains: what is part of the order of prayer is not like learning Torah. The Mishnah Berurah says the same for a house of mourning. None of them names Eilu Devarim itself. The siddur has it in that daily order.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 554:1 and 554:4; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 554:6; Mishnah Berurah 50:1אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאָדָם אוֹכֵל פֵּרוֹתֵיהֶן בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְהַקֶּרֶן קַיֶּמֶת לוֹ לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. כִּבּוּד אָב וָאֵם, וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים, וַהֲבָאַת שָׁלוֹם בֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ, וְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה כְּנֶגֶד כֻּלָּם.
These are the things whose fruit a person eats in this world, while the principal stays whole for him in the World to Come: honoring father and mother, acts of kindness, and making peace between one person and another. And Torah study is equal to them all.
אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: שִׁשָּׁה דְּבָרִים אָדָם אוֹכֵל פֵּירוֹתֵיהֶן בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְהַקֶּרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לוֹ לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, וְאֵלּוּ הֵן: הַכְנָסַת אוֹרְחִין, וּבִיקּוּר חוֹלִים, וְעִיּוּן תְּפִלָּה, וְהַשְׁכָּמַת בֵּית הַמִּדְרָשׁ, וְהַמְגַדֵּל בָּנָיו לְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה, וְהַדָּן אֶת חֲבֵרוֹ לְכַף זְכוּת.
Rabbi Yochanan said: There are six things whose fruit a person eats in this world, while the principal stays whole for him in the World to Come. They are: hosting guests, visiting the sick, concentrating in prayer, getting to the study hall early, raising your children to study Torah, and judging another person favorably.
הכנסת אורחים וביקור חולים היינו גמילות חסדים ועיון תפלה היינו בכלל גמילות חסדים דכתיב ... גומל נפשו איש חסד השכמת בית המדרש וגידול בנים לתלמוד תורה היינו תלמוד תורה דן את חבירו לכף זכות בכלל הבאת שלום.
Hosting guests and visiting the sick are acts of kindness. Concentrating in prayer is also included in acts of kindness, as it is written: "A kind person does good to his own soul." Getting to the study hall early and raising children to study Torah are Torah study. Judging another person favorably is included in making peace.
והצרפתים נהגו לומר פסוקים וברכת כהנים וגם אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור שהיא משנה ... ואלו דברים שאדם אוכל פירותיהן כו' שהיא ברייתא ... מפני הירושלמי דבעי שילמוד על אתר. אבל א"צ כמו שכתבתי כבר.
The Jews of France have the custom of saying verses and the priestly blessing, and also "These are the things that have no fixed amount," which is a Mishnah, and "These are the things whose fruit a person eats," which is a teaching from the time of the Mishnah, because the Talmud Yerushalmi requires a person to learn on the spot. But it is not required, as I have already written.
ונהגו לומר ג"כ אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור שהיא משנה ומימרא דאלו דברים שאדם וכו' כדי לקיים מקרא ומשנה וגמרא.
The custom is also to say "These are the things that have no fixed amount," which is a Mishnah, and the teaching "These are the things that a person...", so as to cover Scripture, Mishnah and Gemara.
לְעוֹלָם יְשַׁלֵּשׁ אָדָם שְׁנוֹתָיו: שְׁלִישׁ בַּמִּקְרָא, שְׁלִישׁ בַּמִּשְׁנָה, שְׁלִישׁ בַּתַּלְמוּד. מִי יוֹדֵעַ כַּמָּה חָיֵי? לָא צְרִיכָא לְיוֹמֵי.
A person should always divide his years in three: a third for Scripture, a third for Mishnah, a third for Talmud. But who knows how long he will live? The answer: it applies to his days.
נִשְׁאֲלָה שְׁאֵילָה זוֹ בִּפְנֵיהֶם: תַּלְמוּד גָּדוֹל אוֹ מַעֲשֶׂה גָּדוֹל? נַעֲנָה רַבִּי טַרְפוֹן וְאָמַר: מַעֲשֶׂה גָּדוֹל. נַעֲנָה רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא וְאָמַר: תַּלְמוּד גָּדוֹל. נַעֲנוּ כּוּלָּם וְאָמְרוּ: תַּלְמוּד גָּדוֹל, שֶׁהַתַּלְמוּד מֵבִיא לִידֵי מַעֲשֶׂה.
This question was asked in front of them: Is study greater, or is action greater? Rabbi Tarfon answered: Action is greater. Rabbi Akiva answered: Study is greater. Then they all answered: Study is greater, because study leads to action.
וימצא טובה בעוה"ז בעבור שנהג מנהג הטוב בין בני אדם כי כשינהג מנהג הזה ינהגו אחרים כמנהגו יקבל כמו כן שכר מהענין ההוא.
He will find good in this world because he behaved well among people. For when he behaves this way, and others come to behave as he does, he too will get the benefit of it.
הֲרֵי שֶׁאָמַר לוֹ אָבִיו: עֲלֵה לַבִּירָה וְהָבֵא לִי גּוֹזָלוֹת, וְעָלָה לַבִּירָה וְשִׁלַּח אֶת הָאֵם וְנָטַל אֶת הַבָּנִים וּבַחֲזִירָתוֹ נָפַל וָמֵת, הֵיכָן טוֹבַת יָמָיו שֶׁל זֶה, וְהֵיכָן אֲרִיכוּת יָמָיו שֶׁל זֶה?
Suppose his father said to him: Go up to the tower and bring me young birds. He went up to the tower, sent away the mother bird and took the young, and on his way back he fell and died. Where is this one's good life? Where is this one's long life?
אלו הדברים נפרעין מן האדם בעולם הזה והקרן קיימת לו לעולם הבא: על ע"ז ועל ג"ע ועל שפיכת דמים. ועל לשה"ר כנגד כולם.
For these things a person is made to pay in this world, while the principal remains for him in the World to Come: idolatry, forbidden sexual relations and murder. And evil speech is equal to them all.
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