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1) THE BLOODSHED IN BEITAR

(a) (Rabah bar bar Chanah): 40 Se'ah of Tefilin were found on the heads of the victims in Beitar.
(b) (R. Yanai b'Rebbi Yishmael): 3 crates were found, each holding 40 Se'ah.
(c) (Beraisa): 40 crates were found, each holding 3 Se'ah.

1. All agree to the quantity found - 40 Se'ah of hand-Tefilin were found, and 120 Se'ah of head Tefilin.

(d) (Rav Asi): 40 Se'ah of brain were found on 1 rock.

1. (Rav Kahana): This is hinted at by "Happy is the one that will repay Bavel...and smash your babies on the rock".

(e) Question: "Precious children of Tziyon, Mesula'im with gold" - what does this mean?

1. Suggestion: They would cover the children with gold.
2. Rejection: d'Vei R. Shilo taught, 2 Se'ah of gold descended to the world - Rome received 1, the rest of the world got the other.

(f) Answer: Rather, their beauty made gold look bad (Mesula'im - a language of Solu, to withdraw from).

1. Initially, the most important Romans used to have relations in front of the images on their signet rings (to bear children in that image); once they took the children of Tziyon, they would tie them to the bed and have relations in front of them.
2. One child asked another: Where is this hinted at in the Torah?
3. The other: "Also every sickness and affliction that is not written in this Sefer Torah".

(g) (Rav Yehudah, citing R. Shimon ben Gamliel): "My eyes wail for my soul, from all the daughters of my city" - there were 400 synagogues in Beitar; each had 400 teachers (of children), each teacher had 400 children. When the enemy entered, they poked them with their sticks; when the enemy conquered them, they wrapped the children in Seforim and burned them.
(h) (Beraisa): R. Yehoshua ben Chananya was in Rome; he heard of a beautiful child that was a captive. He stood at the entrance of the prison and said "Who made it that Yakov should be despoiled, that Yisrael should be to the plunderers"?

1. The child: "For we have sinned to Hash-m, and did not desire to go in his ways, and did not listen to his Torah."
2. R. Yehoshua: I am sure that this child will make Torah rulings - I will not leave until I redeem him for anything they ask.

i. He redeemed him there for a large sum of money; soon, the child gave a Torah ruling.
ii. That child was the Tana R. Yehoshua ben Elisha.

(i) (Rav Yehudah): The son and daughter of R. Yehoshua ben Elisha were captured by different men. The captors met; each boasted of the beauty of his captive. They decided to mate the captives to produce beautiful children, which the captors would split. They put them in a room together.

1. The children sat in opposite corners - each thought that the other was a regular slave. Each lamented that (s)he, the child of a Kohen Gadol, would be mated with a slave; they cried all night; when morning came, they recognized each other, and died amidst crying.

i. On them Yirmeyahu lamented "On these I cry, my eye, my eye drips water".

(j) (Reish Lakish): There was a wondrously beautiful woman, the daughter of a Kohen Gadol. Her captor had his way with her that night; the next morning, he dressed her in 7 garments, and took her out to sell her.

1. A particularly repulsive man asked to see her beauty. The captor took off 6 garments; she tore the seventh and wallowed in the dust.
2. She beseeched Hash-m: If you will not have compassion on us, why not have compassion on your great name?!

i. On her Yirmeyahu lamented: "The daughter of my nation, gird yourself with sackcloth and wallow in the dust...suddenly the plunderer will come upon us".
ii. It says "On us", not 'on you' - it is as if the plunderere came upon Hash-m as well.

(k) (Rav Yehudah): "They oppressed a man and his house, a man and his inheritance" - this refers to a case of an apprentice that desired his teacher's wife.

1. The teacher needed to borrow money; the apprentice told him to send his wife, he would lend her. He did; she stayed there 3 days, and her husband came to look for her.
2. The apprentice: I gave her the money, and she left right away! I heard that she had relations with youths.
3. The apprentice counseled his teacher to divorce her; he offered to lend him the money to pay her Kesuvah, for it was large.
4. He divorced her; the apprentice married her. The teacher was not able to pay his debt on time; the apprentice asked him to pay the debt by working for him.
5. The teacher served his ex-wife and the apprentice, as they ate and drank; his tears flowed into the cup; as this time, the Churban was decreed.
6. Others say, it was decreed on account of 2 men that shared a wife.

(a) (Mishnah): Reuven bought land from a Sikrikon (and then from Shimon, the original owner - the sale is void).
(b) (Rav): This only applies if Shimon told him to acquire the land through Chazakah, but if Shimon wrote a sale document, the sale is valid.
(c) (Shmuel): Even if he writes a sale document, the sale is void, unless Shimon writes (that he accepts) Acharayus (to reimburse Reuven if the land is taken from him).

(d) A Beraisa supports Shmuel.

1. (Beraisa - R. Shimon ben Elazar): Levi bought land on which was a lien to pay the Kesuvah of Yehudah's wife Leah. If he first bought it from Leah and then from Yehudah, the sale is valid; if he first bought it from Yehudah and then from Leah, the sale is void, unless she writes Acharayus.
2. Suggestion: This refutes Rav
3. Rejection: No - Rav explains, 'Acharayus' means a document (i.e. something which prevents her from collecting the land).

(e) (Beraisa): Reuven bought land from a Sikrikon and used it for (3) years of Chazakah in front of Shimon (the original owner), then sold it to Levi - Shimon has no claim against Levi.

1. Question: What is the case?

i. Suggestion: Levi claims that Reuven bought the land from Shimon.
ii. Rejection: If so, the Beraisa should have taught a simpler case: Reuven never sold it, he claims that he bought it from Shimon - Shimon has no claim against him!
iii. Suggestion: Levi does not claim that Reuven bought the land from Shimon.
iv. Rejection: If so, (not only Reuven would lose if he didn't claim to have bought it from Shimon,) even Levi does not keep the land!

2. Answer (Rav Sheshes): Really, Levi does not make this claim; in cases as this, we claim on behalf of one that inherits or buys property.

i. However, we do not claim on behalf of Reuven, for he knows how he got the land; if he does not claim himself, he loses.

(f) (Beraisa): The law of Sikrikon (that Reuven can buy the land from the Nochri and give Shimon a quarter of the price) does not apply to a Nochri that took Shimon's land as payment for a debt, or as mere extortion (when there was no concern that he would kill Shimon);

1. By extortion, it must remain by the Nochri for 12 months (if not, the land belongs to Shimon).

(g) Question: But we said that the law of Sikrikon does not apply to extortion!
(h) Answer: Rather, the Beraisa means that by a Sikrikon, the land must stay by the Nochri for 12 months.
(i) (Rav Yosef): There is not extortion in Bavel.
(j) Objection: But we see that there is!
(k) Correction: Rather, the law of extortion does not apply in Bavel.
(l) Question: Why not?
(m) Answer: There is an official to whom complaints may be filed; if Shimon did not complain, we see that he allows the Nochri to keep the land.
(n) (A landowner in a valley went away.) Gidal bar Rilai arranged with the neighbors that he would work the land and give the appropriate share of the tax (as was the custom). He paid 3 years of taxes in advance to the king; the owner returned.

1. The owner: You gave the taxes for the first year and consumed the produce - now I will pay the tax and use my field.
2. Rav Papa was going to rule that Gidal collects what he paid for the other 2 years from the neighbors (even though they will have to pay the full tax - since Gidal is not a landowner in the valley, what he paid will not count).
3. Rav Huna brei d'Rav Yehoshua: If so, you give the king the law of Sikrikon (by saying that Gidal gets back what he paid, as the revised version of the Mishnah when Shimon could have redeemed his own land) - but there is no Sikrikon in Bavel (the king only collects taxes)!

(a) (Mishnah): This is the first version of the Mishnah; later, it was enacted that when Reuven buys from a Sikrikon, he gives Shimon a quarter of the price.
(b) (Rav): He gives a quarter of the price he paid, in land or in money.
(c) (Shmuel): He gives a quarter of the land; if he pays in money, he gives a third of the price.

1. Question: On what do they argue?
2. Answer: Rav holds that a Sikrikon sells for 4/5 of the true value; Shmuel says, for 3/4 of the true value. (Therefore, Reuven pays Shimon what he saved.)

(d) Question (Beraisa): This is the first version of the Mishnah; later, it was enacted that when Reuven buys from a Sikrikon, he gives Shimon a quarter of the price;

1. Shimon may demand to be paid in land or in money.

(e) This applies when Shimon could not have redeemed the land himself; if he could have, he may take back his land (and pay Reuven what Reuven paid);
(f) Rebbi convened a Beis Din, who voted and enacted that if the land was by the Sikrikon for 12 months, anyone may buy it, just they must give a quarter to Shimon, in land or money.
(g) Answer (for Shmuel - Rav Ashi): The Beraisa calls it a quarter (in money), for 1 quarter of Reuven's expenditure goes to Shimon (i.e. a third of what he paid the Sikrikon).