Berachot 16a-17a

A Talmud Tour session on Berachot 16a-17a, using the Steinsaltz elucidation with comments drawn from Chassidic teachings. It covers why a groom (and anyone engaged in a mitzva) is exempt from reciting the Shema, Rabban Gamliel's unusual conduct in mourning his wife and his servant Tavi, the teaching that only three Patriarchs and four Matriarchs are so named and the qualities every Jew inherits from them, and Rabbi Elazar's reading of Psalm 63 as referring to the Shema and the Amida.