ANSWERS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS
prepared by Rabbi Eliezer Chrysler
Kollel Iyun Hadaf, Jerusalem
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Pesachim 87
Questions
***** Perek ha'Ishah *****
1)
(a) If a married woman is living with her husband, and both he and her
father Shecht the Korban Pesach on her behalf, she eats from the Pesach of
her husband - because presumably, like most women, that is what she she
intended.
(b) According to the Tana of our Mishnah, if she is with her father ...
1. ... for the first Yom-Tov after her marriage - she eats from whichever
Pesach she chooses.
2. ... on subsequent Yamim-Tovim - she eats from that of her husband.
(c) The Beraisa, which says that on the first Yom-Tov she eats from her
father's Pesach and on subsequent Yamim-Tovim, from whichever one she
pleases - speaks when she is not happy in her husband's house and feels a
constant urge to return to her father's house; whereas our Mishnah speaks
when she is happy in her husband's house. (See Tosfos, quoting Rabeinu Tam,
whose explanation seems to comform better with the Pesukim that the Gemara
is about to cite - see 2a.).
(d) There is no proof for Bereirah from this latter Din, because her
preference is based, not on the time of eating, but on the time of
Shechitah.
2)
(a) We learn from the Pasuk "Az Hayisi be'Einav ke'Mutzeis Shalom" - the
concept of a wife who is happy with her husband, and who returns to her
father's house to tell him all about it.
(b) "Achos Lanu Ketanah ve'Shadayim Ein Lah", 've'Amar Rebbi Yochanan, Zu
Eilam she'Zachsah Lilmod ve'Lo Zachsah le'Lamed' - refers to Daniel, who
hailed from Shushan, the capital, and who learned a lot of Torah, but did
not teach it to the public.
(c) Bavel had the edge over Eilam in this regard - because Ezra, who lived
in Bavel and who learned Torah, also taught it publicly.
(d) In the Pasuk "I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers" - "the wall"
might also refer to Keneses Yisrael and "the breasts", to the Batei
Keneisiyos and the Batei Medrashos".
3)
(a) "Our sons are like saplings" - refers to the young men of Yisrael, who
did not taste the taste of sin; and "our daughters like corners - to the
young women, who are full of desire, yet they refrain from being intimate
with other men, waiting for their husbands to come home; alternatively, who
refrain from being intimate even with their husbands, when they become
Nidos.
(b) The Pasuk ends "Mechutavos Tavnis Heichal" - to teach us that both of
the above are so meritous that it is considered as if the Heichal was built
in their days.
(c) We learn from the Pasuk in Hoshei'a "Techilas Diber Hashem be'Hoshei'a"
- that Hoshei'a was greater than his three contempories - Yeshayah, Amos and
Michah.
4)
(a) When Hashem informed Hoshei'a that Yisrael had sinned, he should have
defended them. Instead, he replied "Ribono Shel Olam, the entire world is
Your's. Exchange them for another nation!'
(b) Hashem responded by telling him to marry a prostitute, to conceive
shildren from her, and then to order him to send her away. Should he be able
to do that, then Hashem too, would send Klal Yisraecl away'.
(c) One significant meaning of the name ...
1. ... Gomer - is that everyone used her to *complete* their desires;
alternatively, that the enemy wanted to *finish* the money of Yisrael in her
days, or that they even did so.
2. ... bas Divlayim - is either that she was a woman who had a bad name, who
was the daughter of a woman with a bad name ('Dibah Ra'ah bas Dibah Ra'ah -
since Divlayim is in the plural), or that she was sweet in the eyes of all
the men like a pressed fig, or that everyone threshed her like a pressed
fig.
87b---------------------------------------87b
Questions
5)
(a) Hoshei'a was instructed to call the name of his ...
1. ... first son, Yizra'el - because, Hashem said 'I am about to visit the
sin of Yizrael on the house of Yeihu (who, on the orders of Elisha,
destroyed the house of Ach'av in the valley of Yizrael, but who was then
accused of murdering them, because he went on to commit idolatry just like
Ach'av and his family did.
2. ... daughter - Lo Ruchamah - to signify that Hashem would no longer have
compassion on Yisrael.
3. ... his second son - Lo Ami - to inform them that since they did not
behave like His people, He would not behave like their G-d.
(b) Hoshei'a was expected to be like Moshe Rabeinu - who separated from his
wife, when Hashem spoke to him. He responded by stating that he was unable
to do so, since he had two sons and a daughter from her.
(c) Hashem replied that if Hoshei'a was unable to separate from a wife who
was a prostitute because of children which he could not even guarantee were
his, how could he expect Hashem to separate from Yisrael, who were after
all, the children of the ones He had tried - Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'akov?
(d) The three acquisitions of Hashem, besides Yisrael, are Torah, Heaven and
earth and the Beis Hamikdash (for some reason, the Gemara omits the fifth
aazquisition mentioned in Avos - 'Avraham' (see Agados Maharsha).
6)
(a) When Hoshei'a realized that he had sinned, and began to pray for mercy
for himself, Hashem said to him, 'Instead of praying for yourself, why don't
you pray for Yisrael, on whom I just issued three decrees because of you?'
(b) Hoshei'a responded by blessing Yisrael, that their numbers should
correspond to sand by the sea-shore, and that all the previous curses should
be transformed into blessings.
(c) Yeshayah and most other prophets spanned the reigns of at least four
kings - because of the maxim 'Woe to rulership, because it buries its
incumbents!' (meaning that rulership tends to go to a person's head - and
'Pride comes before a fall').
(d) Yerav'am ben Yo'ash is mentioned together with the kings of Yehudah - as
a reward for not accepting Lashon ha'Ra about the Navi Amos (by refusing to
believe that he had prophesied his death - and even if he had, he argued,
then that was the will of Hashem, and there was nothing he could do about
it).
7)
(a) the Gemara Darshens the Pasuk in Hoshei'a ...
1. ... "Ki Lo Osif Od Arachem es Beis Yisrael" - as if there was a comma
after the word "Od", which then translates 'Because I shall not continue (to
be angry), I will have compassion on Beis Yisrael.'
2. ... "Ki Lo Naso Esa Lahem" - which is really to be understood as a
rhetorical question ("Will I favor them"), yet the fact that Hashem uses the
term 'favor' is a good sign.
(b) We learn from here that even when Hashem is angry with Yisrael, He still
remembers them with compassion.
(c) Rebbi Elazar learns from the Pasuk "u'Zera'tiha Li ba'Aretz" or from
"ve'Richamti es Lo Ruchamah, and Rebbi Yochanan from *ve'Amarti le'Lo Ami,
Ami Atem"* - that just as a person only sows in order to reap, so too, did
Hashem send Yisrael into Galus (which the Navi refers to as sowing) in order
to glean converts (that those who are not Hashem's people will become His
people).
8)
(a) We learn from Hoshei'a, who was taken to task for speaking in a
derogative manner about Yisrael - that, no matter how wicked the Jewish
people become, one should not speak about them in a derogatory manner.
(b) Hashem performed an act of charity with Yisrael by scattering them among
the nations - because now the gentiles would find genocide far more
difficult to accomplish.
(c) That Roman heretic boasted to Rebbi Chanina - how *they* were far more
tolerant than Yo'av was; why, Yo'av had only been in Edom for six months,
and he had already destroyed all the males there, and look how Yisrael had
alrerady spent so many years in Galus, yet the Romans had done them no harm!
(d) Rebbi Oshaya answered him - with the concept that we just explained;
that in reality, they wanted to commit genocide, but that, due to the fatc
that Yisrael was so scattered, they could not find the means to achieve this
- the heretic admitted that that was the absolute truth.
9)
(a) According to Rebbi Chiya, Hashem exiled Yisrael to Bavel (at the time of
the first Churban) and not to Edom - because the Babylonians were not as
cruel as the Romans.
(b) The analogy 'because it is common for a husband who is cross with his
wife to send her to her father's house' - refers to Galus Bavel, which is
where Avraham, the founder of Yisrael, originated i.e. Ur Kasdim.
(c) The fourth reason for exiling Yisrael to Bavel - is because Bavel was
known for its abundant dates, which would enable Yisrael to eat their fill
and study Torah (because they would never go hungry).
(d) The money which they took from Egypt eventually returned there, when
Shishak, King of Egypt, attacked Yerushalayim and made off with a large sum
of money; and the letters that were engraved on the Luchos, that Hashem had
carved there, returned to Heaven when Moshe smashed the Luchos.
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