14 April 2008

Birkat HaMapil Article Published

My article on ברכת המפיל (birkat hamapil) (the Jewish blessing before going to sleep) was, indeed, published and is now available in Milin Havivin 3 (in other words, Drew Kaplan, "Birkat Ha-Mapil: The Rabbinic Pre-Sleep Blessing", Milin Havivin 3 [2007]: 155-168.). It mainly tries to deal with the blessing in the Talmud, including going through over a dozen manuscripts and other medieval versions of the blessing, as there are quite a few different versions of the blessing.
Initially, I had included, also, two appendices: one on saying the Shema' upon one's bed and the other on the term "my bed" in rabbinic literature. However, the former one got excised and is available as "The Institution of Shema' Recital Upon One's Bed". As to the latter, it also got excised, but was condensed into a footnote (pp. 165-166, n. 69), although it may be read in full as "The Phrase 'My Bed' in Rabbinic Literature: A Connotational Shift for the Amoraim" (if, when reading the footnote, you get somehow confused or don't find that the information is altogether well laid out, consult this latter work).
I am not planning, at this time, to do a critique of this piece, like I did for my previous article in Milin Havivin, but I am open to comments, questions, and queries.

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