Torah Blessings (Aruch ha-Shulchan)

13) After [the first bracha, la-asok b'divrei torah], we saying the following:

"May ha-Shem our God make the words of Your Torah pleasant, and may it be for us and all our descendants that [through them] they know Your name and learn Your Torah for its own sake. Blessed are you, ha-shem, who teaching Torah to your people Yisrael."

...

Tosafot and the Rosh have this as a single bracha combined with la-asok b'divrei Torah. For with this bracha we are praying that we should learning in sweetness for its own sake. And since there are many matters within the bracha, therefore it opens with a "baruch" and seals with a "baruch". Our version reads "v'ha-arev na", with a connective "vav" [i.e. 'and'], as above. But the Rambam understands it as an independent bracha, and his version reads "ha-arev na" without a "vav".

After that, we bless:

"that has chosen us from among the peoples to give us Your Torah. Blessed are You, ha-Shem, Giver of Torah."

And the language we use is present tense, "Gives", because at every time and every instant the K"BH favors us and gives to a person the understanding to understand through ha-Shem'sTorah. In particular, fresh insights of Torah are made anew each day.

Thus we find, for the Rambam, three brachot corresponding to Tanach, Mishnah, and Gemara. For Tosafot and the Rosh, two brachot corresponding to the Written Torah and the Oral Torah....

14) In the matter of these brachot: before making the bracha, is it like other brachot, where one blesses a mitzvah before doing it, and afterwards we are blessed to be given wisdom and understanding and sweetness and a pure heart, for the Torah's sake? Or because Talmud Torah is unlike all other mitzvot, that are mitzvot are performed with bodily limbs, while this mitzvah happens in the heart and the intellect (for if one doesn't understand what one has learned, then one hasn't learned anything; or if one's intention isn't learning for the Torah's sake, then one hasn't learned anything), therefore one needs to bless in the manner of a request, that ha-Shem should help one to know Torah and to learn it properly.

Then next we bless a thanksgiving blessing, that we have been chosen to receive ha-Shem holy and pure Torah....[unlike the blessings for an aliyah for reading from the Torah].

15) I have an important question about these two brachot [or three, according to Rambam]: They are "short" brachot, so why are they sealed with [another] "baruch"? I have found one who address this. It seems to me that even though the [ending phrase] 'Who gives the Torah' is the same subject as the opening ['who has chosen us and given us the Torah], nonetheless it has a different meaning. For the opening is about having received Torah at Har Sinai, a blessing for [event in] the past, while the closing, 'gives the Torah', this is being given to us every day (see Paragraph 13). Thus we find the seal is a different bracha, fixed together as an opening bracha and a sealing bracha.

It is taught in the Gemara (Brachot 11b) that if one doesn't learn Torah until after one has recited Kriat Shma, then it is not necessary to bless the blessings over Torah. One has already fulfilled one's obligation with "Ahava Rabah", which contains the subject of blessing Torah: "and please give us in our hearts to learn and to teach..." Even the essence of the bracha, through its opening and sealing, it seems to me, that both of them recognize the giving of the Torah. For when we say, "with a great love has ha-Shem loved us" (or "an everlasting love" [in Nusach Sefard]), and when we conclude, "who has chosen God's people Yisrael with love" -- this is really a blessing of Torah, for you cannot have a greater or more everlasting love than the giving of Torah.

17) Our teachers the Ba'alei Tosafot wrote as follows: In the Yerushalmi (1:5) there is a teaching that one has already fulfilled one's obligation [to recite blessings over learning Torah] via "Ahava Raba" [before the Shema] if one studies immediately. Meaning, immediately afterwards one learns in that same place. The R"I was asked: in our case, if we don't learn immediately after morning davenning, we're restless, and we walk somewhere without learning until the middle of the day or later -- why shouldn't we make the blessings over Torah another time, once we begin to study? The R"I answered: certainly "Ahava Raba" isn't at its heart a bracha for blessing the Torah, so one only fulfills one's obligations for blessing Torah by learning immediately afterwards, furthermore done without serious distraction. But the blessings "la-asok b'divrei Torah" and "asher bachar banu", which at their core are blessings over Torah -- one has fulfilled one's obligations for the entire day. And we don't worry about distraction. For at every moment, one is obligated to learn, as if one sat all day long without interruption. And the French are accustomed to say Torah verses, and the Priestly Benediction, and the Mishnah [from Peah], "these are the things [without limit]"...and thus writes the Rosh and the Tur.

18) Our Rabbi, the Beit Yosef [Joseph Caro] in his great work, and all the great rabbis, refer to the conclusion of Tosafot, that the bracha "Ahava Raba" only fulfilled one's obligation when one learn's immediately after the bracha, and thus fulfills. But for the Blessings of Torah, it's not necessary at all to learn immediately after the bracha, and one has fulfilled one's obligation for the entire day. Even though every mitzvah with an action needs to be carried out in conjunction with a bracha, and even though an interruption between the bracha and the mitzvah means you must go back and repeat the bracha, for Blessing of Torah it's different. Because the obligation to be engaged in it [Torah study] is perpetual. Whether there's an interruption or no interruption, afterwards one is still obligated to study. This is to say: With torah, it's not connected to a break in one's attention, where one would be obligated to go back in bless again, when there's a break between the bracha and the learning.

19) Some say, if there's a break between Birkot ha-Torah to one's learning, it doesn't matter at all. Yet it's correct not to break between them. Thus the custom is to recite the paragraph for the Priestly Benediction connected to Birkot ha-Torah. In other words, even though technically it's not required, nonetheless it's better not to break. And it's possible to say Birkot ha-Torah before sunrise. Although we don't do the Priestly Benediction at night, nonetheless it's not said as the Priestly Benediction, rather as torah study, so it's not like you're someone who's required to say it only by the light of day. The Beit Yosef also writes that the blessing Ahavat Olam [or Ahava Raba for Ashkenazim] discharges the obligation for blessing the Torah, if one learns immediately, without a break, and is therefore effective for learning that entire day.

20) Now we can ask ourselves an important question about this: How can the Yerushalmi say (1:5), "if one learns immediately after"? For how could it be that one wouldn't learn immediately after? Doesn't one perforce learn immediately after the "Ahavat Olam" by saying the three paragraphs of the Shma? Or is it because one is fulfilling the mitzvah of Kriat Shma, that one isn't "studying" torah? This would be surprising. The explanation is that Kriat Shma and Tefilah are not considered "learning" in this respect. Supplication and prayer is one thing, studying Torah is another thing (see Beit Yosef and the T"az, discussed above in paragraph 7). Another explanation, that it's possible not to recite the Shma after "Ahavat Olam", as was done in the Beit Mikdash (see the end of the first chapter of Brachot). Because of this, as noted above in paragraph 8, one could have some doubt about the immediate conjunction to reciting Kriat Shma without a break. Therefore one should be careful to recite Birkhot ha-Torah before Ahavat Olam.

21) ...it's obvious that there's an obligation to learn a little immediately after Birkot ha-Torah, just as for any mitzvah which is required to be performed right up against when you say the bracha, without interruption; and if you're interrupted, you go back and say the bracha again. So the distinction between Ahava Raba and Birchot ha-Torah is only that the Birchot ha-Torah apply to the whole day, while Ahava Raba only takes care of what you learning immediately afterwards. So this is what the Yerushalmi means what it says, "and one that learns immediately after", namely: it only takes care of what you learn immediately after davenning. But then when there's some separation after *that*, even if you did learn immediately after davenning -- you're obligated to bless the Birchot ha-Torah, when you sit down to learn. This is the issue they asked of the R"I, whether everytime you sit down to learn, do you need to bless the Birchot ha-Torah; for if so, there would be no distinction between Ahava Raba and Birchot ha-Torah. He replied to them, that this is true only for Ahava Raba, but not for the Birchot ha-Torah themselves.