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1)

(a) What are the two possible descriptions of the Me'oras ha'Machpeilah, and what are the corresponding interpretations of the word Machpeilah?

(b) Chevron is otherwise known as Kiryas Arba..
Why is it called by that name?

(c) Nimrod and Amrafel were one and the same person. If his real name was ...

1. ... Nimrod, then why was he called 'Amrafel'?
2. ... Amrafel, then why was he called 'Nimrod'?

(d) Some say that "va'Yakam Melech Chadash al Mitzra'im" (in Shmos) must not be taken literally. What then, does it mean, and what prompts them to learn like that?

(a) What is the one Chidush (regarding 'Keitzad Me'abrin' in our Mishnah) that Rebbi Yochanan learnt from Rebbi Oshaya in the eighteen days that he learnt by him?

(b) Why did he not learn more from him?
Was it because he was not such an outstanding Talmid-Chacham? In which respect did he compare him to Rebbi Meir?

(c) He did however, learn something from his disciples.
What was it?

(d) If we take Rebbi Yochanan's word literally, he might even have learnt quite a lot from Rebbi Oshaya.
How is this possible?

(a) What did Rebbi Yochanan mean to say, when he related how they would sit in front of him 'four to an Amah'?

(b) About whom did Rebbi give similar testimony?

(a) Rebbi Yochanan maintained that the heart of the early Rebbe Tana'im was as wide as the entrance of the Ulam (twenty Amos), and that of the later Tana'im, like that of the Heichal (six Amos). By earlier and later he may have been referring to Rebbi Elazar ben Shamua and Rebbi Oshaya, respectively.
What is the alternative explanation?

(b) To what did he then compare his own heart?

(c) How did Abaye continue the sequence with regard to his own ability to learn 'Gemara'?

(d) Rava and Rav Ashi concluded the sequence regarding Sevara, and Rav Ashi with regard to forgetting what he had learnt.
To what did they compare themselves?

(a) The Gemara attributes the B'nei Yehudah's success in retaining their Torah-learning (as opposed to the B'nei Galil, who did not succeed), to the fact that they would be careful to revise whatever they learnt from their Rebbes with the exact same wording as they had been taught, and to the fact that they would always make signs by which to remember it.
To which other two points can their success be ascribed?

(b) Who else had a similar edge over his predecessor (and father-in-law)?

6)

(a) We learnt earlier that the B'nei Yehudah were precise in their speech. How is that reflected in that Ben Yehudah, who described the cloak he wanted to sell as the color of 'Teradin Alei Adamah'?

(b) And why did they call that Galilean, who announced 'Imar le'Ma'an', a fool? Which four things might he have been referring to?

(c) What was Rebbi's maidservant hin ting when she said to the Talmidim ...

1. ... that there was no more wine left in the barrel?
2. ... that they could open a fresh barrel in which the wine was floating like a ship in the ocean?

(a) What did Rebbi Yossi ben Asi'an mean when he asked ...

1. ... for 'an ox in judgement on a poor mountain'?
2. ... 'Gevar Pum Dein Chai Mah Zu Tovah Yesh'?

(b) What did Rebbi Avahu mean when he said 'Asrigu li'Pechamin, Arki'u li'Zehavin, va'Asu Li Sh'nei Magidei ba'Alatah'?

(c) Rebbi Avahu told the Talmidim who were looking for Rebbi Ila'i 'Alatz be'Na'arah Aharonis, Achoranis, Iranis, ve'Hin'iraso'.
What did he mean (according to the Gemara's first and second interpretations respectively)?

(d) And what did Rebbi Ila'i mean when he told the Talmidim who were looking for Rebbi Avahu 'Nisya'etz ba'Machtir, ve'Higniv li'Mefivoshes'?

(a) Rebbi Yehoshua was a public figure, yet only three people in his whole lifetime outsmarted him (verbally): a woman, a young girl and a young boy. What were the three incidents?

(b) What was Rebbi Yehoshua's reaction to the young boy's sharpness?

(a) What did Rebbi Yossi ha'Gelili ask Beruri'ah when he met her on the road, and what did she respond?

(b) What did Beruri'ah do to that Talmid who was learning silently?

(c) What happened to the disciple of Rebbi Eliezer who used to learn silently?

(d) What do we learn from the Pasuk in Mishlei "Ki Chayim Hem le'Motz'eihem*, u'le'Chol Besaro Marpei"?