Berakhot (tractate)

Berakhot (Hebrew: בְּרָכוֹת, romanized: bərāḵōṯ, lit. 'blessings') is the first tractate of Seder Zeraim (Order of Seeds) of the Mishnah and the Talmud. The tractate discusses the laws of Jewish prayer—particularly of the Shema Yisrael and the Amidah—and blessings for various circumstances.

Since a large part of the tractate is concerned with the voluminous berakhot of Judaism, many of which begin either the formal liturgical element "Blessed are you, LORD our God," the tractate is named for the initial word of said liturgical element: barukh (בָּרוּךְ, 'blessed').

Berakhot is the only tractate in Seder Zeraim to have Gemara—rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah—in the Babylonian Talmud. There are, however, tractates in the Jerusalem Talmud for all of Seder Zeraim. There is also a Tosefta for this tractate.

The Halakha detailed in this tractate has shaped the liturgies of all the Jewish communities since the era of the Amoraim, and it continues to be observed by traditional Jewish communities with only minor variations, as expounded upon by subsequent halakhic codes.