Berachos 4a - Part 5, Berachos 4b - Part 1

In the Mishna the Chachamim said that one reads Shema until chatzos. The gemara asks:

Question: Who do the chachamim follow? If they follow R' Eliezer let them say like him? And, if the follow Rabban Gamliel let them say like him?

Answer: They actually follow Rabban Gamliel. They only say that you have until chatzos in order to distance one from aveirah. This is as we learned in a beraissa:

Beraissa: The Chachamim made a fence for their words in order that a person shouldn't come from the field in the evening and say let me eat, drink, and sleep a little and then I will say Shema and daven. Then he will be grabbed by sleep and it will turn out that he has slept all night. Rather one should come from the field in the evening and enter the shul - if he usually reads he should read, if he usually learns he should learn and he should read shema and daven and eat his bread and bentch. And anyone who transgresses the words of the sages is liable to death.

The Gemara asks on the Beraissa:

Question: Why only here does the beraissa specify the death penalty?

Answer # 1: Because there is the chance of accidentally falling asleep.

Answer # 2: We are trying to go against the one who says that davening maariv is a reshus. This beraissa comes to teach it is an obligation.

Berachos 4a - Part 4

Question: The gemara previously quoted a pasuk (Tehillim 86) where King David refers to himself as a chassid. The gemara now questions this based on a pasuk in Tehillim 27 where King David says, "lulei he'emanti l'ros b'tuv Hashem". It was taught in the name of Rabbi Yossi - why are there nekudos on top of lulei? The idea is that King David says, "I am certain that You give reward to tzaddikim in the future. I am not certain if I am amongst them." Thus, it would seem that King David didn't consider himself a chassid!?

Answer: The Gemara answers that King David was afraid that he may sin in the future. This follows the teaching of R' Yaakov bar Iddi.

Teaching of R' Yaakov bar Iddi: There is a contradiction. In one pasuk (Beraishis 28) Hashem says He is guarding and protecting Yaakov Avinu. In another pasuk (Beraishis 32) it says that Yaakov was very afraid. The answer is that Yaakov was worried of of future sin.

This is as we find in a Baraissa.

Baraissa: The pasuk in Az Yashir (Shemos 15) says "ad yaavor amcha Hashem ad yaavor am zu kanissa". The first ad yaavor is the first entering into Israel. The second refers to the second entering into Israel. From this the Chachmim said that the Jews in the time of Ezra would've been worthy of miracles like the Jews in the time of Yehoshua. The only reason that they weren't was due to sin.