Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, and Rabbi Akiva were dining together in B'nai Brak: Abarbanel asks many questions regarding this passage. Why did the sages uproot themselves from their homes to be together on Seder night when people usually go to great trouble to be with their own household on Passover. Why were they in a place called B'nai Brak? It was not a well known location; it is not even mentioned among the towns of the land of Israel or Babylonia. Abarbanel understands b'nai b'rak not as a name but as a description of the items they used on Seder night; he suggests that each of them was in his own home leaning on the finest pillows and couches which were like b'nai b'rak , 'shining items.' Abarbanel suggests that the if the sages were together, they were in the home of Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, who was a rich man and also the head of the Sanhedrin. Literally, however, B'nai B'rak is the name of a place.

**Our teachers, the time of the morning Sh'ma has arrived:**This comes to teach us that if they hadn’t feared missing out on the time in which the Sh'ma was to be recited they would not have stopped discussing the Exodus from Egypt.