9
votes
Why was a bat kol able to settle the dispute between Battei Hillel and Shammai?
The Encyclopedia Talmudit entry on “Bas Qol”, the paragraph about its impact on halachah focuses on the apparent conflict between the conclusion one would get from the Tanur Akhnai story and from the ...
- 9,408
6
votes
Accepted
Where does Rav Hai Gaon explain the meaning of the phrase צורבא מרבנן?
This is found in Shaarei Teshuva ch. 84
לרבינו האי ז"ל
וששאלתם צורב"א מרבנן הוא כמו צרב'ת השחין דבר חם המתחמם באשה של תורה האי צורבא מרבנן דרתח אורייתיה קא מרתחא ליה שנאמר הלא כה דברי כאש ד"א ...
- 35.4k
5
votes
Whose life comes first? Apparently contradictory Rabbinical statements
I just learned this in two different classes.
In the case of the two people in the desert, the one who drinks the water will live and the one who doesn't will die, but the one who drinks the water is ...
- 56.4k
4
votes
Can a person free himself from suffering?
The Maharasha (Bava Metzia; Berachos) defines the case in Bava Metzia as one where the suffering was accepted as suffering of love (יסורין של אהבה). He writes further (Berachos) that they each needed ...
- 479
4
votes
Ritva on Bava Metzia 6b saying one is exempt from doing a mitzva there a multiple shitas
I'll transcribe what Rav Nissan Kaplan said:
One reason (not to wear the murex techeiles) like Rav Elyashiv writes in the teshuva, that even if we know how to do the techeiles, there's like four or ...
- 19.6k
4
votes
Bava Metzia: Dual meaning of "Metzia"
They sound alike in English but I'm afraid there's nothing more to it.
The tractate's name is מציעא,
which is Aramaic for אמצע (middle). Mem-tzadi-'ayin. It goes between "Bava Kama" (first ...
- 131k
3
votes
Accepted
הפה שאסר הוא הפה שהתיר
While it's a little more complicated than this (and is, if I remember correctly, a machlokes Rishonim in how to understand both of these rules), this is more or less the difference.
"הפה שאסר הוא ...
- 3,548
3
votes
Torah as a bar metzra
The Torah is not only a gift. It's also referred to as an inheritance (מורשה קהלת יעקב, Deut. 33:4) and as a sale (מכרתי לכם תורתי, Shmos Rabbah 33:1). So the issue of bar metzra would still apply to ...
- 7,781
3
votes
Accepted
Please translate Gemara - Aramaic word מקני
The Hebrew and the Aramaic verbs in this case share the root קנ"ה. In the paal form (קָנָה) it means to buy or obtain something. ArtScroll helps you with the patach, which suggests a causative, ...
- 7,434
3
votes
In what way was the way of learning in Israel different from the Babylonian to cause R' Zeirah to fast?
Similar to @shayachagigah's idea, the Ben Yehoyada https://www.sefaria.org/Bava_Metzia.85a.21?lang=bi&with=Ben%20Yehoyada&lang2=en (Ben Ish Chai) says an intresting idea:
רַבִּי זֵירָא, כִּי ...
- 1,586
3
votes
Is 'A father and son sleeping with a betrothed young woman on yom kippur' an expression?
Although I never learned the sugya in Gittin, I actually just got through learning the sugya in Bava Metzia. When I learned that story, I understood that story quite literally: the man was such a ...
- 34.1k
3
votes
Why a Machloket ended so badly and unpeacefully?
Rabbi Eliezer refused to accept and teach the decision of the majority of the Sanhedrin. That was a cardinal sin. The object of the decision matters little. Same story with Rabbi Akaviah ben Mahalal'...
- 20.7k
3
votes
Was the bat kol right?
Sefer HaChinuch §496 cites the Ramban’s understanding and explicitly connects it with the story at hand:
ועל דרך ענין זה שעוררתיך, בני, עליו אפרש לך אגדה אחת שהיא בבבא מציעא בסוף פרק הזהב (בבא ...
- 34.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Why "for 700 zuz"?
The Art Scroll Gemora Daf 110b2 notes 22 and 23 explains the specific usage of 700 zuz (I do not have the Art Scroll Mishnayos which would also have this note). The reason for the specification of the ...
- 42.9k
3
votes
Accepted
Story between Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon and Rebbi
בבא מציא פד ב Bava Metzia 84b
דכי הוו יתבי רבן שמעון בן גמליאל ורבי יהושע בן קרחה אספסלי יתבי קמייהו רבי אלעזר בר' שמעון ורבי אארעה
When Rabban Shimon b. Gamliel and R' Yehoshua b. Karcha sat upon ...
- 18.5k
2
votes
Should you pay a shadchan if the shidduch was successful after a break up?
In 1980 I published an article in the Baltimore Jewish Times called, "What the Matchmaker Did and Didn't Do for Me." I interviewed many matchmakers and their clients and made myself (then single, of ...
- 15.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Sarah nursing idolaters' children
The woman is permitted to nurse if she has too much milk and it hurts (see Shul.Ar. YD 154, 2).
The Talmud quoted says that
נעשה נס בשרה אמנו ונפתחו דדיה כשני מעיינות והניקה את כולם
"her breasts ...
- 1,495
2
votes
Why did R"G admit that he acted inHalachicly?
Wrecking the ship is not for arguing with R' Eliezer, it's for putting him in Cherem (outcast him).
2
votes
Seforim Recommendations on Bava Metzia
If Chabad commentary is the priority, there is a Chabad "version" of the Gemara - it contains the regular Oz Vehadar text followed by a compilation of commentaries of the Rebbes. The chief ...
- 443
2
votes
Why does the man who guards the Red Heifer defile his clothes?
It’s not to deter him from moving a limb. If he moves a limb, he is impure mideoraita.
We worry that perhaps the guard inadvertently moved a limb, rendering himself impure. Due to this worry, the ...
- 41.8k
1
vote
Accepted
Torah as a bar metzra
The Sfas Emes that you mentioned in the question addresses this. Here is the background of the piece:
בלקיחה ניתנה לו יכול יתן דמים ת"ל מתנות כו'. כי מרע"ה הי' מוכן לקבל התורה בבחי' לקיחה… ...
- 10.6k
1
vote
Accepted
Acquiring assets by looking at it and saying "pick it up for me"
I am assuming, although you did not mention it specifically, that you are asking based on the Gemara Bava Metzia 118A that mentions looking at an ownerless item as a way to acquire it according to one ...
- 10.6k
1
vote
Why R' Yehoshua didn't mention the majority rule?
The whole argument is that Hillel (represented by Rabbi Yehoshua) goes after the qualified majority for halacha, & Shamai (R' Eliezer) goes after who is correct/sharper. (See into of Ktzot that ...
- 221
1
vote
Chayecha Kodmin - Your own life comes first for countries
Trump's logic that local communities come first is in line with Tractate Nedarim 80b:
מעיין של בני העיר חייהן וחיי אחרים חייהן קודמין לחיי אחרים
A spring in one town should be used for the ...
- 11.4k
1
vote
Chronological order of stories involving Rabban Gamliel
Partial answer:
בראש השנה אשתקד צעריה בבכורות במעשה דרבי צדוק צעריה. (emphasis mine). To me this means that a bunch of time had passed (a year?) between the first incident mentioned (Yom-Kippur) ...
- 3,698
1
vote
Why was a bat kol able to settle the dispute between Battei Hillel and Shammai?
As other answers have mentioned the Bat Kol in the dispute did not settle the matter, it merely accorded with the majority opinion.
However the question in general of to what degree one disregards a ...
- 13.6k
1
vote
Accepted
What is the point in the mnemonic פמג"ש ממקגט"י ככסע"ז?
Similar passages can be found in all shas. You rapidly can see dozen, this is particularly length. The particularity is that this sugia treat a simple topic with a long list of similar Ta Shma (an ...
- 22.7k
1
vote
Accepted
Is coin a mana?
We discuss for Kinyan Chalipin.
The question is about the Hava Amina that entails an additional teaching to exclude the possibility of Chalipin with coin.
The answer can be found in Kesef Mishne
...
- 22.7k
1
vote
Information about Arab Travelers in Aggadah
R. Hershel Schachter records R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik as stating that based on the Zohar "טייעא" is a term to refer to a Torah scholar, not an Arab merchant (at least in some of the cases):
Nefesh ...
- 49.1k
1
vote
How could Rebbi Zeira forcibly forget his learning?
Steinsaltz's commentary to Bava Metzia 85a provides a great explanation as to how to read this gemara:
(English translation adapted from Sefaria)
מלהגיע לדרך הלימוד של ארץ ישראל, שכיון ששיטת הלימוד ...
- 12k
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