ANSWERS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS
prepared by Rabbi Eliezer Chrysler
Kollel Iyun Hadaf, Jerusalem
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Bava Basra 91
BAVA BASRA 91-95 - Sponsored by a generous grant from an anonymous donor.
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Questions
1)
(a) The Tana Kama of the Beraisa forbids taking wine, oil and flour ...
1. ... out of Eretz Yisrael. Rebbi Yehudah ben Beseira - permits taking out
wine, because the less wine there is, the less lightheadedness.
2. ... from Eretz Yisrael to Syria, because, even though David Hamelech
captured Syria - we have a principle that what a King captures in a private
capacity is not permanent.
(b) Rebbi - permits sending them from the last area in Eretz Yisrael to the
first area in Syria (because they are so close).
(c) When the Tana Kama of another Beraisa forbids making a profit from the
fruits of Eretz Yisrael (such as those we just mentioned), he means - that
the producer is not permitted to sell them to another party to sell, but is
obligated to sell them directly to the public.
(d) Rebbi Elazar ben Azaryah used to make a profit from wine, because he
held like Rebbi, and from oil - because in his town, there was an abundance
of oil.
2)
(a) Another Beraisa forbids making a profit from eggs 'Pa'amayim'. Mari bar
Mari cites a Machlokes between Rav and Shmuel. According to one of them,
this means that it is forbidden to charge double what one paid for them.
(b) According to the other one, the Beraisa forbids an egg-merchant to sell
eggs to another egg-merchant (so that the second merchant makes an extra
profit). To reconcile this with Shmuel (himself), who forbids earning a
profit of more than a sixth - we will have to differentiate between other
commodities and eggs, because a. they are not as indispensable as the
previous commodoties, and b. because it is such a bother for a poor man
(whom it seems, would be the one to peddle eggs) to purchase the eggs that
he needed to sell, added to the fact that there is little profit in eggs.
3)
(a) When the Tana of the Beraisa says 'Masri'in al P'rakmatya she'Huzlah,
Afilu be'Shabbos' - he means that one is permitted to Daven on Shabbos (see
Rabeinu Gershom) following a significant drop in the price of merchandise.
(b) Rebbi Yochanan restricts this to linen clothes in Bavel - which are
expensive, and whose price-drop is therefore of no benefit to the poor ...
(c) ... and to - wine and oil in Eretz Yisrael.
(d) For the concession to apply, the price of the merchandise must have
dropped from ten for a given price to six (a forty per-cent drop).
4)
(a) Similarly, one is permitted to leave Eretz Yisrael - if the price of
corn rises to the extent that two Sa'ah of wheat now cost a Sela (double the
regular price).
(b) Rebbi Shimon (bar Yochai or Rebbi Shimon ben Elazar) qualifies this
Halachah - restricting it to when wheat is also scarce, but not to when it
is readily available.
(c) And the same Rebbi Shimon describes Elimelech, Machlon and Chilyon - as
both spiritual and communal leaders of their generation, and attributes
their having been punished to the fact that they left Eretz Yisrael.
5)
(a) When the people of Beis-Lechem, upon seeing Naomi and Rus returning from
Mo'av, exclaimed 'ha'Zos Naomi!?', they meant to ask - 'Did you see
('ha'Zos' = 'ha'Chazis') what befell Naomi for leaving Eretz Yisrael?'
(b) And Rebbi Yitzchak (the author of the previous statement) also said that
on the very same day that they returned - Bo'az' wife died (because Hashem
always creates the cure before dealing the stroke).
(c) The adage attached to his statement is - 'Before someone dies, his
successor is ready to take over the household'.
6)
(a) Rabah bar Rav Huna states that ...
1. ... Ivtzan and Bo'az are one and the same person - thereby reinforcing
his other statement that Boaz had already fathered thirty sons and thirty
daughters (as the Pasuk in Shoftim records in connection with Ivtzan
[otherwise we would have thought that Ivtzan died without fathering any more
children, and that Boaz had only one son).
2. ... Bo'az made a hundred and twenty festive meals for his children -
sixty when they became engaged, and sixty when they married (see also
Rabeinu Gershom).
(b) We can learn from Boaz - that even someone who has many children, and
whose wife dies, should not hesitate to marry again and to have more
children, since one never knows which children will survive him.
(c) He did not invite Mano'ach to all these parties - because he was 'a
barren mule' (he could not have children). See Agados Maharsha.
(d) Rav Chanan bar Rav informs us that Elimelech, Salmon and P'loni Almoni
(whose name was Tov) were all children of Nachshon ben Aminadav. Nachshon's
fourth son was - Naomi's father (which means that she married her uncle).
(e) We learn from Rav Chanan bar Rav's statement - that good Yichus (such as
that of Elimelech, Machlon and Chilyon) does not stand a person who leaves
Eretz Yisrael in good stead.
7)
(a) Rav Chanan bar Rava Amar Rav also stated the mothers of Avraham and
Haman - were both called Amaslai
(b) One of their grandfathers was Karnevo, the other Urv'sa - which we can
easily identify when we connect '*Kar*nevo' with *Kar*im (min ha'Tzon [fat
sheep) a Kasher animal, whereas Urv'sa, which is a female raven, is a Tamei
bird. It is now easy to work out which is which.
(c) Rav found it necessary to give us this information - because the Torah
supplies us with the names of Yitzchak and Ya'akov's mothers, so we need to
know that of Avraham too. And he only mentions Haman's mother because of the
similarity to Avraham's.
(d)
1. Nitzeves bas Ada'el was - David Hamelech's mother. We need to know this -
because the names of all the other kings mentioned in Melachim are
mentioned.
2. Tz'lalpanis and Nashyan are - Shimshon's mother and sister, respectively.
We need to know specifically the former - because the Navi talks a lot about
Shimshon, and besides, his mother and father are mentioned there too.
(e) All this is really a reply to the Minim (the non-believers), who would
be surprised if we did not know who these people were (for the various
reasons that we just gave).
8)
(a) Avraham Avinu was a captive for three years in Kuta and seven in Kardu.
(b) Rav Dimi (quoting a Beraisa) - reverses the two time-periods.
(c) Ibra Ze'ira de'Kuta is better known as - Ur Kasdim. The Halachic
ramifications of this information is - that if we see this spot, we are
obligated to recite a B'rachah ('she'Asah Nisim la'Avoseinu ... ').
(d) According to Rav Chanan bar Rava Amar Rav, all the world leaders stood
in a row and announced - 'Woe to the world who lost its leader! Woe to the
ship who lost its navigator!'
91b---------------------------------------91b
Questions
9)
(a) Rav Chanan bar Rava Amar Rav interprets the Pasuk "ve'ha'Misnasei
le'Chol le'Rosh" to mean - that every appointment is made in Heaven, even
the manager in charge of the rota for drawing water to water one's fields.
(b) Rav Chiya bar Avin cites Rebbi Yehoshua ben Korchah, who disagrees with
Rebbi Shimon (quoted on the previous Amud). Chas ve'Shalom, he claims, that
Elimelech, Machlon and Chilyon should have left Eretz Yisrael unlawfully.
They were punished, he says - for not praying on behalf of the people of
their generation.
10)
(a) Rabah bar bar Chanah Amar Rebbi Yochanan permits leaving Eretz Yisrael,
even if one can obtain four Sa'ah of wheat for a Sela - if money is scarce.
(b) To bear this out, Rebbi Yochanan recalled - when four Sa'ah could be
purchased for a Sela, yet people were dying of starvation, because there was
no money.
(c) Rebbi Yochanan recalled how ...
1. ... laborers would refuse to hire themselves out on the east side of the
city - because they would die from the tantalizing aroma of freshly-baked
bread that the west-wind carried across (some say the aroma killed them
because they were starving).
2. ... a thin stream of honey dripped - from the carab that he had just
broken in two on to his two arms.
3. ... a thin stream of oil dripped from the top of the wall to the ground -
from the juicy piece of meat that a raven had just carried there.
4. ... youths of sixteen and seventeen - boys and girls, would walk together
in the streets without sinning.
(d) And he remember them saying in the Beis-Hamedrash that someone who ...
1. ... concurs with what Nochrim say (i.e. flatters them [Agados
Maharsha]) - will fall prey to them (presumably in a spiritual sense).
2. ... trusts them - will lose whatever he owns to them (like happened to
Chizkiyah Hamelech, when he displayed his treasury to the messengers of the
KIng of Bavel).
11)
(a) Machlon and Chilyon are referred to in Divrei Hayamim as Yo'ash and
Saraf. Assuming their names to have been ...
1. ... Machlon and Chilyon, they are referred to as Yo'ash and Saraf -
because they despaired (from the word 'Ye'ush') of the redemption (from the
famine), and because they deserved to be burned.
2. ... Yo'ash and Saraf, they are referred to as Machlon and Chilyon -
because they defiled themselves by leaving Eretz Yisrael (Rabeinu Gershom
[or by marrying Nochri women, Agados Maharsha]).
(b) In the Beraisa that corroborates the first opinion, the Pasuk cited
there refers to ...
1. ... Yehoshua as 'Yokim' - because he established a treaty with the
Giv'onim.
2. ... the Giv'onim as Anshei Koziba - because they lied to Yehoshua.
3. ... Rus as Yishbi Lechem - because she returned (with Naomi) and cleaved
to the town of Beis-Lechem.
(c) "ve'ha'Devarim Atikin" ('the words are of old') means that the episode
with Rus is hinted in the Torah earlier. The two Pesukim "*Matzasi* David
Avdi" and "es Sh'tei Benosecha *ha'Nimtza'os*" hint - that Hashem found
David (see also Agados Maharsha) following the episode with Lot and his two
daughters, one of whom gave birth to Mo'av.
12)
(a) The Pasuk refers to ...
1. ... the sons of Yonadav ben Reichav (a descendant of Yisro) as
"ha'Yotzrim" - because kept the oath that their father took (not to drink
wine and not to build houses [because he foresaw the Churban
Beis-Hamikdash]).
2. ... Shlomoh as "Neta'im" - because, like a sapling, his kingdom grew
steadily.
3. ... the Sanhedrin as "Gadrah" - because they make 'Gedarim' (decrees) to
safeguard the Torah.
4. ... Rus as "Im ha'Melech bi'Melachto Yashvu Sham" - because she saw the
kingdom of her great-grandson Sh'lomoh (as if the Torah had written [not
"bi'Melachto", but] "be'Malchuso'').
(b) When the Pasuk writes "And he made a throne for "the mother of the
kingdom'', it refers to - Rus, his great-great-grandmother.
13)
(a) Commenting on the Pasuk in Bechokasai "va'Achaltem min ha'Tevu'ah
Yashan", the Beraisa explains 'without Salmanton' - which causes the crops
to rot.
(b) Rav Nachman explains this to mean 'be'Lo Retzinta' (without a sort of
worm). According to Rav Sheishes, the Tana means 'be'Lo Shedifa' - draught
which normally causes the crops to become hot and then to rot).
(c) Two Tana'im learn from the Pasuk "va'Achaltem Yashan Noshan ... ad Bo
Tevu'asah" - that in the time of B'rachah, Yisrael will eat the old crops
right up to the time that the new crops arrive (an assurance that they will
not go bad).
(d) We prove from the Beraisa which uses the Pasuk to counter the suggestion
that perhaps the old produce ...
1. ... will not reach completion (because it has been eaten by the
Retzina) - that Rav Nachman is right.
2. ... will go bad (even though it is complete) - that Rav Sheishes is
right.
(e) If the crops started to go bad prematurely - one would harvest them
early and roast the kernels.
14)
(a) The Tana of another Beraisa learns from ...
1. ... the Pasuk "va'Achaltem Yashan" - that they will eat Yashan (even when
the new crops are available), a proof that the produce will keep on
improving with age.
2. ... the additioal word "Noshan" - that this extends even to foods that
are not normally good once they are no longer fresh (such as summer fruits
which go bad quickly).
3. ... "ve'Yashan Mipnei Chadash Totzi'u" - that the storehouses will be
full of old produce and the granaries of new, and Yisrael will have to empty
the former to make room for the latter.
(b) They will use all that produce - for export.
(c) Despite the fact that the old crops are better than the new ones, they
will take the former out of the storehouses to make room for the latter -
because new crops mature better than old crops.
(d) Rav Papa lists only three things that are not good once they are no
longer fresh: dates, beer - and little fish.
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