Taanis 25
Summary
- Today’s *shiur* learns מסכת תענית דף כ"ה beginning from דף כ"ד עמוד ב’, and it frames the sugya around the greatness of רבי חנינא בן דוסא, whose *zechus* sustains the world while he himself lives in crushing poverty. It brings a פירוש from הרב דוד קרונגלס זכר צדיק לברכה בשם תורת חיים that after the מבול the הנהגה changes so that the צדיק bears the brunt of מידת הדין while the world receives מידת הרחמים, explaining why “כל העולם כולו ניזון בשביל חנינא בני” even though “דיו בקב חרובים.” The *gemara* then tells multiple *maasei nissim* about רבי חנינא בן דוסא, along with a lengthy story about רבי אלעזר בן פדת’s destitution and dream-conversation with הקדוש ברוך הוא, and then returns to public fasts for rain, the power and limits of speech toward Heaven, and criteria for ending a ציבור fast when rain arrives. It concludes with episodes about rain coming early or late, how to measure the ציבור’s praise, and why הלל הגדול is said only “על נפש שבעה,” with an exception for בני מחוזא.
- A *bas kol* goes out every day and says “כל העולם כולו ניזון בשביל חנינא בני,” while “חנינא בני דיו בקב חרובים מערב שבת לערב שבת.” Rashi explains that רבי חנינא בן דוסא “חסר לחם היה,” so the world receives sustenance in his merit even as he and his wife starve.
- The תורת חיים says the system of “ה׳ אלוקים” requires both מידת הרחמים and מידת הדין to find expression. The תורת חיים explains that before the מבול the צדיק receives מידת הרחמים while the דור receives the brunt of מידת הדין, and after the מבול this switches so that the צדיק bears מידת הדין while the world receives מידת הרחמים, as in “צדיק נתפס בעוון הדור.” The תורת חיים applies this to the *gemara* by saying a decree of hunger falls on the world, the world is sustained “בשביל חנינא,” and רבי חנינא personally bears the דין through hunger and “קב חרובים.”
- The wife of רבי חנינא בן דוסא regularly heats the oven every ערב שבת and produces smoke to avoid embarrassment because she has no bread. A bad neighbor knocks, the wife hides in an inner room in shame, and a miracle occurs so the neighbor sees the oven full of bread and the kneading trough full of dough. The wife says she went inside to bring a *mar’da/ma’sa* (baker’s shovel), and the *gemara* explains she truly entered for it “משום דמלומדת בנסים.”
- The wife asks how long they will suffer, רבי חנינא prays, and a hand-like form gives him “חד כרעא דפתורא דדהבא.” In the printed *girsa*, רבי חנינא sees in a dream that צדיקים eat in עולם הבא on a three-legged golden table while their table has only two legs, and his wife objects to lacking a leg in עולם הבא; the מהרש״א explains the three legs as תורה, עבודה, and גמילות חסדים, and the golden leg is taken from the reward of תפילה. Rashi and עין יעקב have a different *girsa* where his wife sees the dream and the dialogue shifts as “חזיה דביתהו בחלמא” and “אמר לה,” but the conclusion remains that they do not want to trade עולם הבא for עולם הזה.
- The wife tells רבי חנינא to pray that the golden leg be taken back, and after he prays it is removed. A ברייתא teaches “גדול היה נס אחרון יותר מן הראשון” because “דגמירי דמיהב יהבי מישקל לא שקלי,” meaning Heaven gives but does not usually take back.
- On a Friday night רבי חנינא sees his daughter sad because she lit Shabbos lamps with vinegar instead of oil. He says “מי שאמר לשמן וידלוק הוא יאמר לחומץ וידלוק,” and a ברייתא states the light burns the entire day “עד שהביאו ממנו אור להבדלה.” Rashi says he lights another lamp from it for benefit and then extinguishes the miraculous lamp like רבי יהודה’s instruction about מעשה נסים, while the יעב״ץ questions why benefit was taken all Shabbos and רב יצחק איזבי זצ״ל answers from Rashi that “ובמה דאפשר להתרחק ממעשה נסים יותר טוב ונכון,” so they avoid benefit only when there is an alternative.
- People complain that רבי חנינא’s goats damage their fields, and he says if they do, bears or wolves should eat them, and if not, each should return at night with a bear on its horns; each goat returns “דובא בקרניה.” A neighbor building a house says her beams do not reach wall to wall, he asks her name and says “איקו נימטו כשוריך,” and a ברייתא teaches the beams extend “אמה לכאן ואמה לכאן,” with an alternative that added sections were made. Plimo testifies he saw the house and was told “בית זה שקירה רב חנינא בן דוסא בתפלתו.”
- The *gemara* asks how רבי חנינא had goats though he was poor and though חכמים said “אין מגדלים בהמה דקה בארץ ישראל.” רב פנחס tells that a man left roosters by his door, his wife found them, and רבי חנינא said not to eat their eggs; they multiplied until they sold them and bought goats, and later the owner returned, provided a *siman*, and רבי חנינא gave him the goats, identified as “הן הן עזי דאייתו דובא בקרנייהו.” The text notes that עין יעקב omits these lines due to the difficulty of buying goats in ארץ ישראל, and it brings a better *girsa* בשם תוספות בשם הגאונים that רבי חנינא found goats directly, making it pure השבת אבידה.
- רבי אלעזר בן פדת is extremely poor, performs bloodletting, has nothing to eat, eats a clove of garlic, faints, and while asleep is seen crying and laughing with a ray of fire from his forehead. He says he saw שכינה בחלמא and asked “עד מתי אצטער בהאי עלמא,” and הקדוש ברוך הוא offered to overturn the world or restart his life so he might be born in a time of sustenance. He declines after learning most of his life is already over, and he is promised in עולם הבא “תלתין ושתא נהרוותא דמשחא אפרסמון דכיין” like כפרת ודגלת, and he challenges “האי ותו לא” and is told “ולחברך מאי יהבנא.” He answers “ואנא מגברא דלית ליה בעינא,” and a מלאך flicks his forehead with an *askutla*, creating sparks, and he hears “גירי בך גירי,” which Rashi explains as playful banter.
- רב חמא בר חנינא decrees a fast and rain does not come, and people compare him to ר׳ יהושע בן לוי; he says the other is greater and suggests gathering to concentrate and break hearts, but rain still does not come. He addresses the sky “רקיע רקיע כסי פנך,” and when it delays he calls it brazen until it finally clouds and rains. Levi decrees a fast, speaks sharply that God is above and does not have mercy, rain comes, and Levi becomes lame; ר׳ אלעזר teaches “לעולם אל יטיח אדם דברים כלפי מעלה,” and the *gemara* concludes Levi’s lameness comes from both his words and from demonstrating קידה before רבי.
- רבי חייא בר לולייני hears two clouds planning to give rain in עמון ומואב and prays that after Torah was offered to the nations and rejected, they should not receive the rain instead of ישראל, and the rain is redirected to ארץ ישראל. He expounds “צדיק כתמר יפרח כארז בלבנון ישגה” so that תמר teaches fruit and reward while ארז teaches regeneration for תחיית המתים, and the *gemara* challenges whether ארז regrows from a stump. The *gemara* answers it refers to “שאר מיני ארזים,” citing “עשרה מיני ארזים הם” and the פסוק in ישעיה, with additions noted from ראש השנה.
- A ברייתא tells of רבי אליעזר who decrees thirteen fasts and rain does not fall, and he says “תקנתם קברים לעצמכם,” the people cry out, and rain falls. Another time רבי אליעזר prays twenty-four blessings and is not answered, רבי עקיבא says “אבינו מלכנו אין לנו מלך אלא אתה… למענך רחם עלינו,” and rain falls. A *bas kol* says “לא מפני שזה גדול מזה אלא שזה מעביר על מדותיו וזה אינו מעביר על מדותיו.”
- The *gemara* asks how long rain must fall for the ציבור to stop fasting, emphasizing that this applies to a ציבור and not to a יחיד who must complete his fast. רבי מאיר says the measure is “כמלא ברך המחרשה,” and חכמים differentiate by soil: in hard ground one *tefach*, in medium two, and in plowed ground three. רבי שמעון בן אלעזר says one *tefach* from above evokes three *tefachim* from the *tehom*, another ברייתא says two, and the *gemara* resolves by distinguishing plowed and unplowed ground.
- When they pour water on *Chag* (סוכות), the *tehom* calls to its companion “אבע מימיך” because it hears the sound of the “שני רעים,” the wine and water. The *gemara* reads “תהום אל תהום קורא לקול צנוריך” as the channels of ניסוך on the מזבח, and רבה says he saw the angel רידיא, like a calf, standing between upper and lower waters and telling the upper to sprinkle and the lower to gush. The verse “וקול התור נשמע בארצנו” is read with *tor* as Aramaic for *shor*, referring to רידיא’s calf-like form.
- A ברייתא says if rain falls before הנץ החמה they do not complete the fast, and if after הנץ they complete it, according to רבי מאיר. רבי יהודה says the cutoff is חצות, and רבי יוסי says the cutoff is nine hours based on אחאב מלך ישראל, whose fasting from the ninth hour is treated as humbling that delays punishment. רבי יהודה נשיא decrees a fast and rain falls after נץ, he considers completion, and רב אמי rules “קודם חצות ואחר חצות שנינו.”
- שמואל הקטן decrees a fast and rain falls before נץ, and when people view it as their praise he compares it to a servant given his request so the master does not hear him. Another time rain falls after שקיעת החמה, and when people again see praise he compares it to a servant made to suffer until evening before being given his request. The *gemara* defines true praise as when they say “משיב הרוח” and wind comes, and they say “מוריד הגשם” and rain comes immediately.
- In לוד they decree a fast and rain falls before חצות, and רבי טרפון says “צאו ואכלו ושתו ועשו יום טוב,” and they later return between evening times to recite הלל הגדול. Abaye and Rava say they recite הלל only “על נפש שבעה,” because “נותן לחם לכל בשר” fits satiation. Rav Papa in אביגוור says הלל first and then eats and drinks, and the *gemara* explains “שאני בני מחוזא דשכיחא בהו שכרות” so they would forget if they ate first, and תוספות distinguishes הלל הגדול in פסוקי דזמרה from saying it later in the תפילה framework.
Previous Page
Next Page
Daf Images are property of Vagshal and may not be reproduced.
Suggestions