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1) EZRA'S ENACTMENTS

(a) Ezra made 10 enactments:

1. We read the Torah at Minchah on Shabbos;
2. We read the Torah on Mondays and Thursdays;
3. Beis Din sits to judge on Mondays and Thursdays;
4. One should launder clothes on Thursday;
5. We eat garlic on Friday;
6. A woman should rise early on Erev Shabbos and bake (bread);
7. A woman should wear an apron (like short pants);
8. A woman should comb well her hair before immersing;
9. Spice peddlers should go around in cities;
10. One who had an emission of seed must immerse.

(b) (Beraisa): We read the Torah at Minchah on Shabbos.

1. This is on account of idle people that do not come to hear it on Mondays and Thursdays.

(c) (Beraisa): We read the Torah on Mondays and Thursdays.
(d) Question: This was enacted by Ezra!

1. (Beraisa): "They traveled 3 days in the wilderness, and did not find water" - expounders say, this refers to Torah - "All that are thirsty, they should come to water".
2. Because they went 3 days without Torah, they wearied; prophets among them enacted to read the Torah on Shabbos, Mondays and Thursdays, so there will never be 3 days without Torah.

(e) Answer: At first, they enacted that 1 man read 3 verses - alternatively, 3 men will read 1 verse each;

1. Three corresponds to Kohanim, Leviyim and Yisraelim;
2. Ezra enacted that 3 men should read 10 verses, corresponding to the 10 men that are always in synagogue.

(f) (Beraisa): Beis Din sits to judge on Mondays and Thursdays.

1. This is because people come to the city on those days to hear the Torah.

(g) (Beraisa): One should launder clothes on Thursday.

1. This is to honor Shabbos (by having freshly laundered clothing for Shabbos; nevertheless, we do not launder on Friday, lest there will not be enough time to prepare the other needs of Shabbos).

(h) (Beraisa): We eat garlic on Friday.

1. Because (garlic increases a man's seed, and) Shabbos is the ideal time for relations - "(Hash-m) will give its fruit in its time";

i. (Rav Yehudah): The verse speaks of one who has relations only on Friday nights.

2. (Beraisa): Garlic does 5 things: it satiates, it warms a person, it makes his countenance radiant, it increases a man's seed, and it kills intestinal lice.

i. Some say, it also increases love and dispels envy.

(i) (Beraisa): A woman should rise early on Erev Shabbos and bake (bread);

1. This is so bread will be available for the poor.

(j) (Beraisa): A woman should wear an apron.

1. This is a safeguard from immorality.

(k) (Beraisa): A woman should comb her hair before immersing.
(l) Question: The Torah requires this!

1. (Beraisa): "He will wash Es Besaro (his flesh) in water" - nothing should separate between his flesh and the water;
2. "Es Besaro" - what is secondary to his flesh.
3. Question: What is this?
4. Answer: Hair.

(m) Answer: Mid'Oraisa, it suffices to look if any hairs are tied, or if anything is in the hair;

1. Ezra enacted that she must wash and comb.

(n) (Beraisa): Peddlers should go around in cities.

1. In order that perfume will be available to women, so they will not become repulsive to their husbands.

(o) One who had an emission of seed must immerse.
(p) Question: That is mid'Oraisa!

1. "A man that will have an emission of seed...will wash his flesh in water."

(q) Answer: The Torah obligates him to immerse before eating Terumah or Kodshim - Chachamim obligated him to immerse before learning Torah.

(a) (Beraisa): Ten things are special about Yerushalayim:

1. If one sells a house in Yerushalayim, he may redeem it whenever he wants (i.e. in any case, it returns to him in Yovel);
2. Yerushalayim does not behead a calf (if it is the closest city to a murdered corpse) ;
3. It cannot be condemned to be (burned as) a Nidachas city (even if the majority of its residents are executed for idolatry);
4. Houses in Yerushalayim do not become Tamei through Tzora'as;
5. We may not have beams or balconies sticking out of houses;
6. We do not make wasteheaps in the city;
7. We do not have furnaces (to make pottery) in the city;
8. We do not have gardens or orchards in the city, except for the rose gardens (which were needed for the incense) from the days of the first prophets;
9. We do not raise chickens in the city;
10. We do not leave a corpse overnight in the city.

(b) (Beraisa): One may redeem a house whenever he wants, in Yerushalayim.

1. Normally, a house in a walled city may not be redeemed after 1 year, as the Torah states, "The house in the walled city will remain the buyer's forever, for his generations." However, the Tana of this Beraisa holds that Yerushalayim was not divided among the tribes, and any city that was not divided among the tribes returns to its original owner on Yovel, whether or not it has a wall. (It is likewise excluded from any law by which the Torah speaks of your land or inheritance.)

(c) (Beraisa): Yerushalayim does not behead a calf.

1. It says, "If you will find a corpse in the land that Hash-m gives you for an inheritance".

(d) (Beraisa): It cannot be condemned to be a Nidachas city.

1. It says "(If people will serve idolatry in one of) your cities".
(Beraisa): Houses in Yerushalayim do not become Tamei through Tzora'as.
2. It says "...Tzara'as in a house of the land of your inheritance".

(e) (Beraisa): We may not have beams or balconies sticking out of houses.

1. Such protrusions can impart Tum'ah (if one is under them at the same time as Tum'as Mes is under them); also, people coming for the festival may get hurt on them.

(f) (Beraisa): We do not make wasteheaps in the city.

1. Rodents breed in wasteheaps (and this would cause a spreading of Tum'ah).

(g) (Beraisa): We do not have furnaces (to make pottery) in the city.

1. They make smoke, which would blacken the city wall - that would be a disgrace.

(h) (Beraisa): We do not have gardens or orchards in the city.

1. This is because people cast out weeds; also, they fertilize them with rotting manure.

(i) (Beraisa): We do not raise chickens in the city.

1. They can cause Tum'ah to Kodshim.

(j) We do not leave a corpse overnight in the city.

1. We have a tradition for this.

(a) We may not raise pigs anywhere.
(b) (Beraisa): When the Chashmonai kings were fighting each other, Hurkenus was inside Yerushalayim, Aristobulus was besieging it from outside. Every day, those inside would lower a basket of coins from over the wall, and those outside would give them lambs fit for the daily sacrifice, which would be lifted back over the wall.

1. An old man told the besiegers, in the language of Chochmas Yevanis, that they will not conquer it as long as the sacrifices are being brought. The next day, the besiegers gave a pig instead of lambs. When the pig was halfway up, it stuck its claws into the wall; the entire Eretz Yisrael shook, 400 Parsah square.

i. Chachamim imposed a curse on anyone that will raise pigs or teach his son Chochmas Yevanis.

2. Regarding that period we learned that the Omer offering was brought from barley from the gardens of Tzrifin and the 2 breads of Shavu'os were brought from wheat of Ein Socher.