5) THE PROOF THAT BEIS SHE’AN IS NOT IN ERETZ YISRAEL

1. Answer (Rebbi): You must say, his ancestors left him room to aggrandize himself – also, my ancestors left room for me!
2. This teaches, if a Chacham says an innovative law, we do not Mezi’ach (separate him from his teaching); some say, we do not Mazni’ach (despise) his teaching; some say, we do not Mazchi’ach (attribute it to haughtiness).
(ii) Question (Yehudah, son of R. Shimon Ben Pazi): Can you say that Beis She’an is not part of Eretz Yisrael?!
1. “Menasheh did not disposess (the Kana’anim living in) Beis She’an”!
(iii) Answer: R. Shimon ben Elyakim taught, the nation that left Bavel (and returned to Eretz Yisrael, in the days of Ezra) refrained from sanctifying many cities that were conquered by the nation that left Mitzrayim (i.e. in the days of Yehoshua);
1. The sanctification by Yehoshua was temporary (it ended with the first exile); that of Ezra was forever;
2. They refrained from sanctifying many cities, so the poor could receive the tithe of the poor from this land in Shemitah.
(iv) Question (R. Yirmeyah): R. Meir only ate a leaf – even if Beis She’an was part of Eretz Yisrael, one need not tithe before a casual eating!
(v) Answer (R. Zeira): He ate from a bundle of vegetables.
1. (Mishnah): Vegetables normally bundled, once they are bundled one cannot eat them before taking Ma’aseros.
(vi) Question (R. Yirmeyah): Perhaps R. Meir forgot to tithe it!
(vii) Rejection (R. Zeira): Hash-m does not allow a pitfall to come even through animals of Tzadikim, all the more so through Tzadikim themselves!
(viii) Question (R. Yirmeyah): Perhaps he designated that the tithes should take effect on produce he had elsewhere!
(ix) Answer (R. Zeira): A Chaver is not suspected of that, he always separates the tithes near the food being tithed. (x) Question (R. Yirmeyah): Perhaps he mentally declared the tithes to take effect on part of the vegetable, and ate the other part!
(xi) Answer (R. Zeira): A great man testified about this, surely he gave all the pertinent factors so we do not learn the wrong law from it!
6) R. PINCHAS BEN YA’IR
(i) R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir was going to redeem captives. He came upon a river and asked it to split.
1. The river: We both go/flow to do the will of our Maker. You are doubtful if you will succeed; I will certainly succeed!
2. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: If you do not split, I will decree that water will never flow in you!
3. The river split for him.
4. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: There is a man with me carrying wheat for Matzos – this is also a Mitzvah – split for him also!
5. The river also split for the second man.
6. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: There is a man that was travelling with us – it is improper that we should abandon him!
7. The river also split for the man accompanying them.
8. (Rav Yosef): R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir is greater than Moshe and Yisrael (when they left Mitzrayim) – the water only split once for them, but it split 3 times for R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir!
9. Objection: Perhaps here also, it only split once (he merely requested that they should also be able to pass through safely)!
10. Correction: Rather, R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir is as great as Moshe and Yisrael.
(ii) They arrived at an inn; the innkeeper put barley before R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir’s donkey; it would not eat.
7b—————————————7b

1. He sifted the barley; it would not eat. He picked out stary matter mixed in; it would not eat.
2. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: Perhaps you didn’t tithe it!
3. They tithed it, and the donkey ate.
4. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: This poor animal goes to do the will of Hash-m, and you give it Tevel?!
(iii) Question: Is it really obligatory to tithe food for animals?!
1. (Mishnah): One who buys Demai for planting, for animals, flour for tanning, oil for lighting or &anointing vessels – there is no need to tithe it.
(iv) Answer: R. Yochanan taught, this only applies if it was initially bought for these purposes – but if it was initially bought for human consumption, and later he reconsidered, they must be tithed.
1. Support (Beraisa): One who buys food to eat, and later decides to feed it to an animal, he must tithe it.
(v) Rebbi heard that R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir was coming; he went out to greet him, and offered to give him to eat.
1. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: I consent! Don’t think that I vowed not to eat from Yisrael – Yisrael are Kedoshim!
à. I usually do not eat from others, for some people that offer want to give, but do not have the means;
á. Others have the means, but do not really want to give – “Do not eat from a stingy person … he tells you to eat, but is insincere.”
2. But you, Rebbi, are sincere and have the means! I am rushed now, but I will eat by you on my way back.
(vi) When he returned, as he entered Rebbi’s premises he saw white mules.
1. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: I cannot eat by someone that keeps the angel of death (damagers) in his home!
2. Rebbi heard this; he rushed to apologize – ‘I will sell them!’
3. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: “Do not put a stumbling block before the blind” (whoever buys from you will transgress)!
4. Rebbi: I will declare them ownerless!
5. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: Then they will damage even more!
6. Rebbi: I will cut off their hooves, so they cannot damage.
7. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: You may not cause pain to animals!
8. Rebbi: I will kill them!
9. R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir: That would be a waste of money, it is forbidden!
10. Rebbi kept trying to get him to agree to eat; a mountain grew between them.
11. Rebbi: If Hash-m does this Tzadik’s will (that he should not eat by others) thusly in his lifetime – how much the more so, after his death!
7) THE MERIT OF “TZADIKIM”
(i) (R. Chama bar Chanina): Hash-m does the will of Tzadikim after their death more than in their lifetime.
1. “They were burying a man…they cast him into Elisha’s grave; the man revived and got up in his feet.”
(ii) Question (Rav Papa): Perhaps he did not revive in Elisha’s merit, but rather to fulfill the blessing of Eliyahu – “Twice the spirit of Hash-m that was on &me, should be on you”.
(iii) Answer (Abaye): If so, the man would have lived longer – but a Beraisa teaches, he did not even reach his house.
(iv) Question: If so, when did Elisha revive another person, to fulfill the blessing?
(v) Answer (R. Yochanan): He cured Na’aman’s Tzara’as – a leper&Metzorah is considered as dead – “Do not let our sister be as a corpse.”
(vi) (R. Yehoshua ben Levi): White mules are called Yemim, because fear of them (Eimasam) is on people.
1. (R. Chanina ): No one ever asked me about a wound from a white mule, and survived.
2. Objection: But we see, people survive such wounds!
3. Correction (R. Chanina): No one ever asked me about a wound from a white mule, and the wound healed.
4. Objection: But we see, such wounds heal!
5. Answer: Not when the &end of the mule’s feet are white; R. Chanina spoke of such mules.
(vii) (R. Chanina ): “There is nothing other than Hash-m” – even witchcraft.
1. A woman was trying to weigh the dirt under R. Chanina ‘s feet – he let her, because the verse says that witchcraft will not work.
(viii) Question: But R. Yochanan taught, witchcraft is called Keshafim, for it weakens the Heavenly & (MaCHchiSHim FaMalya)!
(ix) Answer: R. Chanina is different – because his merit is so great, it cannot affect him.
(x) (R. Chanina ): A person does not stub his finger, unless this was decreed above – “The steps of man are prepared by Hash-m”; “A man does not understand his way”.
1. (R. Elazar): The blood that comes from a man stubbing his finger atones as the blood of a burnt-offering.
2. (Rava): This is when he stubs his right thumb, before it healed from the last time he stubbed it, when he was on his way to do a Mitzvah.
(xi) R. Pinchas ben Ya’ir never blessed on bread that was not his; from the day he matured, he never enjoyed a meal from his father.