CHAPTER 2 MISHNAH 4
Skilled workmen read while on the top of a tree or a row of bricks which they are not permitted to do in reciting the tefillah.

CHAPTER 2 MISHNAH 5
A bridegroom is exempt from reciting the Shema from the first night until the first Saturday night, if he had not yet performed the deed. It happened in the case of Rabban Gamliel that he read the Shema on the first night following his wedding. His disciples said to him, “Have you not taught us, our Master, that a bridegroom is exempt from reading the Shema on the first night?” He said to them, “I shall not listen to you to absolve myself from the Kingdom of Heaven even for a moment”.

CHAPTER 2 MISHNAH 4
Skilled workmen read while on the top of a tree or a row of bricks which they are not permitted to do in reciting the tefillah.

KEHATI
This Mishnah teaches that laborers read the Shema in their working hours. So the baraita states. “Bet Hillel say: They occupy themselves with their work and read (the Shema).”
Skilled workmen, who were on the job – standing on a branch and pruning a tree or picking fruit; or brick-layers perched on scaffolding and laying bricks – and the time for reciting the Shema arrived. In this event they do not have to descend to the ground to read the Shema, but read while on the top of a tree or a row of bricks which they are not permitted to do in reciting the tefillah. The word tefihlah, mentioned without qualification in the Mishnah, signifies the Shemoneh Esreh prayer. Now tefihlah is a petition for Divine mercy, so it requires concentration and devotional fervor. Workmen perched in precar ious positions would be distracted by the fear of falling. Consequently they must descend to the ground to recite their Teffillah. In respect of the Shema, however, devotional concentration is only required during the recitation of the first verse (so Gemara and Rambam as mentioned above), and it is possible to concentrate for this length of time even when the worshipper remains where he is. Rambam rules, nevertheless, that they are to cease from their labors while they recite the entire first paragraph, so that it should not be read indifferently (Laws of Reading the Shema 2:4).

CHAPTER 2 MISHNAH 5
A bridegroom is exempt from reciting the Shema from the first night until the first Saturday night, if he had not yet performed the deed. It happened in the case of Rabban Gamliel that he read the Shema on the first night following his wedding. His disciples said to him, “Have you not taught us, our Master, that a bridegroom is exempt from reading the Shema on the first night?” He said to them, “I shall not listen to you to absolve myself from the Kingdom of Heaven even for a moment”.

KEHATI
Having dealt with workmen preoccupied with their labors, the mishnah now proceeds to take up the laws pertaining to persons preoccupied in performing mitzvot (“His heart was preoccupied with and impatient to perform, a mitzvah” – Rambam). They are exempted from reading the Shema, since Scripture states: “And you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way.” The Sages infer from here:
“When you sit in your house” – you sit and are occupied with your household affairs, you are obliged to read the Shema, but if you are occupied with mitzvot , you are exempt. “And when you walk by the way”
- when you walk, going about your affairs, you are obliged to read, but when going to perform a mitzvah you are exempt. The implication is that even when you are busily engaged in your various affairs you are obliged to set them aside and read the Shema. The principle applies universally: A person engaged in the performance of one mitzvah is thereby exempted from having to perform another.

A bridegroom who had married a virgin is exempt from reciting the Shema from the first night of his marriage onwards until the first Saturday night. It was the custom in Talmudic times for weddings to be held on Wednesday (cf. Ketubot 1:1). Since the exemption lasted until and including the following Saturday night the mishnah rules that the bridegroom was given four nights, if he had not yet performed the deed, i.e., he had not consummated the marriage by then. The inference has been drawn by some that the exemption only applies to the nights, i.e., the bridegroom does not have to recite the Shema of the evening, but that he is still obliged to read the morning Shema, even on the day after the wedding (so Ravad). Others take the exemption to extend to the morning Shema until Shabbat as well (Rambam, Tur). After the first Saturday night, however, reading the Shema becomes obligatory once more, even if the marriage was not consum mated. By then, the bridegroom’s emotional excitement has subsided; he has become used to his wife, and is no longer distracted.

It happened in the case of Rabban Gamliel that he read the Shema on the first night following his wedding. His disciples said to him, to R. Gamliel: “Have you not taught us, our Master, that a bridegroom is exempt from reading the Shema on the first night?” Why do you act contrary to your own teaching? He R. Gamliel said to them, to his disciples, “I shall not listen to you to absolve myself from acknowledging the Kingdom of Heaven even for a moment”. This is a self-imposed stringency, so as not to stop himself from accepting the sovereignty of Heaven even for a short time.

R. Gamliel’s rejoinder was given the following explanation by R. Haim of Volozhin, which, in turn, was communicated to me by R. Isser Yehudah Unterman, then Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel: “In the normal course of events, individuals are so immersed in their day-to-day affairs that their minds remain occupied with profane matters. Therefore an ordinary person has to exert considerable effort to liberate himself from his affairs and to direct his thoughts to Heaven. Consequently, if it is said that he is exempt from reading the Shema, nothing is conceded to him. What is meant is that no fresh obligation is imposed upon him. Being preoccupied with another mitzvah (i.e., marriage), he is not required to perform the additional mitzvah of reading the Shema, which denotes acceptance of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. R. Gamliel and his like, on the other hand, devoted their entire lives to the service of God, and all their interest lay in sacred matters. For him, it was difficult to withdraw himself from holy thoughts, even where such preoccupation is forbidden (in the bathhouse, for instance). For him, then, there was no exemption, but rather a withdrawal from acknowledging the Kingdom of Heaven, which was his constant preoccupation.

That is why he told his disciples: “I shall not listen to you to withdraw myself from acknowledging the Kingdom of Heaven even for an instant.”