Previous daf

1)

(a) 'I placed inside you a Revi'is of blood, and I warned you about (the Mitzvah of) blood (Nidah); I called you (Yisrael) 'Reishis', and I warned you about (the Mitzvah of) 'Reishis' (Chalah); the Neshamah that I placed inside you is called 'Ner', and I warned you about (the Mitzvah of) Hadlakas Ner - on Shabbos. If you do not keep them, then I will remove your Neshamah, and your blood and your title of Reishis will lose their significance.
(These three represent the three parts of man - Nefesh, Ru'ach and Neshamah - see Maharsha).

(b) It is particularly a woman who is punished on account of these three sins, because these Mitzvos were given first and foremost, to women - since she is in charge of household matters; and also, because she (Chavah) spilt the *blood* of Adam, who was the first (*Chalah*) of the world, causing his *lamp* (Neshamah) to be extinguished.

1. 'When the ox falls' etc. ... One strikes a person when he is down already, sparing oneself the need to have to knock him down especially.
2. 'The maidservant is guilty of many sins' ... Since the woman is already being punished for the sin of Chavah, through childbirth, one takes the opportunity to punish her for all her other sins at the same time.
3. 'Leave the drunkard' ... The woman is already down, and needs to pray for her recovery. Hashem will not answer her (if she is guilty), and she will die automatically.
4. 'The shepherd is lame' etc. ... As long as the woman is healthy, the Satan cannot find her guilty, because she has sufficient merits to save her from falling. When she is already in a state of danger, that is when he has it much easier (as Chazal have said - 'the Satan accuses at the time of danger').
5. 'At the door of the shop' etc. ... As long as she is healthy, she has many friends (angels who will defend her), but when she is at death's door, all her friends desert her, and she has nobody to speak on her behalf - because her Mazal is weak.

(a) The equivalent method used by Hashem to punish a man, is by punishing him whilst he is crossing over a bridge, or doing something else potentially dangerous - such as sitting beside a rickety wall.

(b) Shmuel would make a point of crossing by ferry together with a gentile, because, he argued, the Satan does not strike two nations simultaneously.

(c) Rebbi Yanai would inspect the ferry-boat for leaks before crossing, because, he claimed, Hashem does not so readily perform miracles with people, and, even if He does, the miracle will detract from his merits.

(d) Which is precisely what Ya'akov meant when he said "Katonti" - "I have become small (lost my merits) through all the kindnesses etc., that Hashem has performed with me."

1. We learn from "Ki Yipol ha'Nofel *Mimenu*", that the person who is due to fall must bring proof of his innocence. Consequently, a person should always Daven to Hashem that he should not become ill, so that he should not be called upon to prove his innocence;
2. And from Ki Yipol *ha'Nofel* Mimenu", we learn that the man who fell off the roof did so because he was guilty and destined to fall off - from the moment that he sinned (which is why the Torah calls him a 'Nofel' even before he has fallen - and all this was already known to Hashem since the six days of the Creation). Nevertheless, the person who failed to put up a parapet is guilty, and will be punished for causing the man's death, because Hashem brings about punishment through a person who is guilty.

(a) We tell a dying man to confess to his sins, because all dying men confess.

(b) We compare a man who ...

1. ... goes out into the street - into a domain where there are fights and where there are creditors, to someone who is being taken by a police-officer to court.
2. ... has a headache, to someone whose head is placed in the pillory.
3. ... is seriously ill, and is confined to bed, to someone who is awaiting trial in a court where only capital crimes are judged.

(c) According to ...

1. ... the Tana Kama, a man's stands a chance of recovery, if he does Teshuvah and good deeds, in which case, if even one in a thousand angels that he has created through his deeds, speak in his defense, he will recover.
2. ... Rebbi Eliezer, the son of Rebbi Yossi ha'Gelili, if one part in a thousand of the Angel who is accusing him (in other words, if even onr of the sins that he performed has one good side to it, that Angel will defend him), speaks in his favor, he will survive.

(a) A woman is also likely to die at childbirth for washing her baby's dirty clothes on Shabbos, or for calling the Aron ha'Kodesh 'Arna' - both sins which were commonly performed in those days.

(b) An Am ha'Aretz is likely to die young for referring to a Shul as a central meeting- place.

(a) Rebbi Elazar says that women die for the above sins not 'Yoldos' - when they give birth, but 'Yelados', meaning that they die young. Therefore, Rebbi Yossi describes the three sins of a woman as '*Divkei* Misah', which cleave to her, and cause her to die young. Whereas the other Tana learnt like the Tana of our Mishnah, that the woman who transgresses them dies at childbirth. Consequently, he referred to them as 'Bidkei Misah', which examine her and kill her, if she is guilty, as we learnt above.

(b) In spite of the fact that Hekdesh, Terumos and Ma'asros are such major areas of Torah, the Torah leaves them in the hands of individuals, even Amei ha'Aretz, and trusts them in their dealings with Talmidei Chachamim, without asking them to prove that their movable objects are not Hekdesh, and that their crops have been Ma'asered.

8)

(a) One should avoid making Nidrei Hekdesh at all costs, because, due to Nedarim that are not kept, one's wife or one's young children, will die.

(b) We learn from "la'Shav Hikeisi es Beneichem" that one's children die because of false oaths, which are called 'Shevu'os Shav. And, in conjunction with the end of the Pasuk "Musar Lo Lakachu", we explain it to mean - "Did I smite your children for nothing? (I smote them because) you did not learn (Torah, which is called) Musar.

(c) When Rebbi heard from Rebbi Elazar b'Rebbi Shimon that one's children die young because of the sin of Nidrei Shav, he accepted it, and retracted from his own contention that it is due to Bitul Torah.

(a) Some Amora'im learn that children also die because of the sin of Bitul Torah, because "Lema'an Yirbu Yemeichem" etc. refers not only to the Mitzvah of Mezuzah which is mentioned in the previous Pasuk, but also to that of Talmud-Torah, mentioned two Pesukim earlier.

(b) Yet others learn from the Pasuk "ve'Gam bi'Chenafayim Nimtze'u Dam Nafshos Evyonim Neki'im", that one's children ("the poor innocent souls") will die because of one's laxness in the Mitzvah of Tzitzis.

(a) For keeping the Mitzvah of Tzitzis carefully, each Jew is due to receive two thousand, eight hundred servants, ten from each of the seventy nations - for each of the four corners on which one puts Tzitzis.

(b) The repercussions ...

1. ... of Sin'as Chinam are threefold: constant strife at home, one's wife losing her children and one's children dying young.
2. ...of laxness in the Mitzvah of Chalah: are no blessing in one's storehouses of wine, corn and oil; the soaring of prices in the market-place and the crops that one sows, being eaten by others. (From this section and onwards - until Daf 33, 2b - the Gemara appears to be speaking, not about individuals sins, but about communal ones.)
3. ... of keeping the Mitzvah of Chalah, is an ongoing blessing one's house.

(a) For negating the Mitzvah of Terumos and Ma'asros, there is no dew or rain, food becomes expensive, there is no profit to be made and people try, in vain, to make a livelihood.

(b) The Reward for Terumos and Ma'asros is rain and a bumper harvest the following year.

(c) "Ad Beli Dai" means, until one's lips get worn out from crying 'Enough!'

(a) The punishment for the sin of theft is a plague of locusts, hunger, and people eating their own children.

(b) The women of Mechuza used to eat from their husbands stocks and not work, which is akin to theft; alternatively, eating and drinking without working resulted in their eating and drinking excessively. This, in turn, caused their husbands to steal, in order to provide for their excessive needs.

(c) The Gemara explains "Ish Besar Zero'o Yochelu", as if it had written, instead of "Zero'o" - "Zar'o", to prophecy that, for the sin of theft (which is mentioned in the Pasuk in Amos - quoted in the Gemara), they would eat their own children in their hunger.