One is permitted to recite the Keriat Shema until three hours in the day – a quarter of the day. So says Rabbi Yehoshua and so do we rule in accordance with him. But what about afterwards? May one still recite the Keriat Shema? Isn’t it just a part of the Torah in essence? And if so, it should be permitted. But what about its blessings?! Would it still be permitted to recite the blessings if indeed the time for reciting the Shema had already ended?
We start the next Mishna where we get some insight into the meaning of a few words in the Shema itself. Beit Shammai will teach us that these words teach us how to actually recite the Shema (how we should position ourselves), but Beit Hillel teach us that Beit Shammai’s school of thought doesn’t make sense, but rather the words they use to describe how we should recite the Shema actually tell us when we should recite the Shema, and that we learn the position we should be in from another word…
The Gemara then goes into great depth with a give-and-take discussion regarding the reasoning behind Beit Shammai’s opinion and that of Beit Hillel.
