1)

(a)The Onein - does not recite any B'rachos before and after eating.

(b)When the Tana adds ...

1. ... 'Ein Mevorchin alav', he means - that it is not necessary for somebody else to be Motzi him with Birchas ha'Mazon.

2. ... 've'Ein Mezamnin alav' - he means that he cannot combine to make up a Mezuman for Benching.

(c)In fact, he is Patur from all Mitzvos (Asei). The three Mitzvos specifically mentioned by the Tana are - Kri'as Sh'ma, Tefilah and Tefilin.

(d)The Tana Kama - obligates the Onein to fulfill all the above on Shabbos.

(e)Rebbi Yochanan explains that Raban Shimon ben Gamliel's statement 'Since he Chayav these (Mitzvos [on Shabbos]), he is Chayav all the Mitzvos' - comes to include the Mitzvah of Onah (from which the Tana Kama exempts him).

2)

(a)The problem that the Beraisa now creates with 'Mutal Lefanav' in our Mishnah is - that it exempts an Onein from all the Mitzvos even once he has moved into another room.

(b)To answer the Kashya, Rav Papa establishes 'Patur ... ' in the Beraisa - with regard to the last case (where the Onein merely turned round to eat).

(c)Rav Ashi interprets 'Mutal Lefanav' in the Mishnah - to mean that the onus of burying the deceased kies on the Onein, and has nothing to do with location.

(d)He supports this from the Pesukim in Chayei Sarah "Vayakam Avraham me'al-P'nei Meiso" and "ve'Ekb'ra Meisi mi'Lefanai" - since we see that even though he got up from his original location in front of Sarah, he still used the expression "mi'Lefanai" (with reference to his obligation to bury her.

3)

(a)We now extrapolate from the word 'Meiso' in our Mishnah ('Mi she'Meiso Mutal Lefanav') - that it is only someone who is obligated to bury his deceased relative who is Patur from Mitzvos, but not someone who is guarding the corpse.

(b)The Beraisa implies that anyone who guards a Meis is Patur from Mitzvos, and not just someone watching a relative whom he is obligated to bury.

(c)A Meis needs guarding - against mice.

(d)We solve the problem - by splitting the Mishnah and the Beraisa into two independent P'turim, one pertaining on a relative who is Chayav to bury the deceased, the other, to the person who is guarding him.

4)

(a)The problem with the Mishnah and the Beraisa, which confine the prohibition either to someone whose deceased relative the Meis is or to the person who is guarding it is - that anyone who enters a Beis-ha'Kevaros wearing Tefilin shel Rosh and reading a Seifer-Torah transgresses ...

(b)... the Pasuk in Mishlei "Lo'eg la'Rosh Chereif Oseihu" (is insulting the dead).

(c)To answer the Kashya - we confine the latter prohibition to within four Amos of the grave, whereas the former ones are are not bound by distance.

(d)This answer is based on a statement of Mar, who said - that a Meis takes up four Amos of space.

5)

(a)In the above Beraisa ...

1. ... the Tana Kama rules that if two Shomrim are guarding a Meis - then one continues guarding whilst the other recites the Sh'ma; then they switch.

2. ... ben Azai rules that if two Shomrim are transporting a Meis on a boat - they leave the Meis in one corner, and recite the Sh'ma in another corner.

(b)Ravina attributes this to the fact - that, according to ben Azai, there are no mice on a boat.

6)

(a)Another Beraisa rules that someone who is transporting the bones of a Meis in a leather sack should not - place the sack on the donkey and ride on it ...

(b)... because it is disrespectful.

(c)He permits it however - to protect it against Nochri vandals or robbers.

(d)When he adds 've'Chein be'Seifer-Torah', he is referring to - the Heter in the Seifer ...

(e)... not to the Isur in the Reisha - as that would be obvious (since a Seifer-Torah has more Kedushah than the bones of a Meis).

7)

(a)Based on what we learned a short while back, Rachba Amar Rav Yehudah stated that somebody who sees a Meis passing and who does not accompany him - has transgressed "Lo'eg la'Rash ... ".

(b)Rav Asi teaches us that, in the event that he does accompany him, his reward lies in the Pasuk in Mishlei "Malveh Hash-m Chonein Dal", which refers to the Mitzvah of Halvayas ha'Meis (as there is nobody poorer than a corpse).

(c)Rav Asi now learns from the Pasuk - that someone who accompanies a deceased person becomes Hash-m's creditor.

8)

(a)What bothered Rebbi Chiyta when he and Rebbi Yonasan were once walking in a graveyard was the fact that the latter's Tzitzis were visible.

(b)When Rebbi Yonasan asked why he needed to lift them up and conceal them, he answered - 'Tomorrow we will join them, so how can we insult them today?'

9)

(a)Rebbi Yonasan was surprised by Rebbi Chiya's reply - since he did not believe that the Meisim really know what's going on in this world ...

(b)... and he supported his theory by citing the Pasuk in Koheles - "ve'ha'Meisim Einam Yod'im Me'umah".

(c)When Rebbi Chiya retorted 'Im Karisa Lo Shanisa' Im Shanisa Lo Shilashta', he meant that - Even if Yonasan learned it, he did not revise it, and if he revised it he did not repeat it a third time.

(d)And he continued - 've'Im Shilashta Lo Pirshu lach!' - that even if he repeated it a third time, they did not explain it to him.

10)

(a)Rebbi Chiya then proceeded to explain the Pasuk in Koheles to Rebbi Yonasan. He explained the phrase ...

1. ... "Ki ha'Chayim Yod'im she'Yamusu" - with reference to Tzadikim who are considered alive even after their death.

2. ... "ve'ha'Meisim Einam Yod'im Me'umah" - with reference to Resha'im who are considered dead even during their lifetime.

(b)The first source for the latter explanation is the Pasuk in Yechezkel "ve'Atah Chalal Rasha, N'si Yisrael", which the Navi said to Tzidkiyahu.

(c)The second source is the Pasuk in Shoftim "Al-pi Shenayim Eidim O Sheloshah Eidim Yumas ha'Meis". He learn it from there - since the Pasuk refers to the Rasha as dead, even though at the time when he is put to death, he is still alive, yet the Pasuk calls him dead.

11)

(a)He learns the former explanation from a Pasuk in Sh'muel, where the Navi refers to Benayahu ben Yehoyada as "ben Ish Chai" ...

(b)... from which Rebbi Chiya extrapolates - that Tzadikim are called alive even after their death, since otherwise, why does it refer to Benayahu as the son of a live man (as if everybody else are sons of dead fathers.

(c)He explains ...

1. ... "Rav Pe'alim mi'Kabtze'el" to mean - that he gathered many workers together to study Torah and ...

2. ... "ve'Hu Hikah es Sh'nei Ariel Mo'av - that he left behind nobody who could compare with him in either the first, or the second, Beis-ha'Mikdash.

(d)The first of two interpretations of the continuation of the Pasuk "ve'Hu Yarad ve'Hikah es ha'Ari be'Toch ha'Bor be'Yom ha'Shaleg" is that he broke the ice in order to Tovel (See Mesores ha'Shas). The second is - that he studied the Beraisa of Sifra in the winter (See Tosfos DH 'Sifra ... ').

12)

(a)When sons of Rebbi Chiya once went to tend to their property - all their learning slipped their minds.

(b)When one of the brothers - wondered aloud whether their deceased father was aware of their suffering, the other cited the Pasuk in Iyov "Yechabdu Banav ve'Lo Yada" (indicating that he does not).

(c)The first brother countered by citing Rebbi Yitzchak in connection with the very next Pasuk "Ach Besaro alav Yich'av, ve'Nafsho alav Te'abel", from which Rebbi Yitzchak extrapolated - that a worm that eats the flesh of a dead body feels to the deceased like a needle piercing the flesh of a live person ...

(d)... which his brother refuted - inasmuch as the fact that a dead person feels his own pain is not an indication that it feels the pain of others (whoever they may be).

13)

(a)So the first brother cited a Beraisa in connection with a certain Chasid, who once gave a Dinar to a poor man on Erev Rosh ha'Shanah. He ran run away and spent the night in a graveyard - to escape his wife who began scolding him for what he had done.

(b)In the graveyard, he overheard one spirit suggest to the other - that they fly around the world and find out what punishment Hash-m has in store for the world in the coming year.

(c)Her friend replied - that she was unable to do so, since she herself was buried in a mat made of canes, but that - her friend should go and report to her what she heard.

(d)When the spirit returned and informed her friend that the crops of whoever sows after the early rain will be destroyed by hail - he went and planted his crops after the second rain.

(e)Everybody else's crops - were subsequently destroyed and only his grew successfully.

14)

(a)The following year - after the Chasid went on his own initiative to spent Rosh ha'Shanah night in the graveyard, he overheard the same conversation that took place between the spirits ...

(b)This time however, the same spirit discovered 'from behind the curtain' - that crops that would be planted after the second rain would be ruined by a drought.

(c)So the thrived whereas everybody else's was destroyed.

15)

(a)The Chasid's wife discovered what had happened - after asking her husband why it was that, on two consecutive years, everyone else's crops were struck by natural calamities, whilst his survived.

(b)On the following Rosh ha'Shanah night, the spirit turned down her friend's suggestion that 'they' go out once again to discover what punishment awaits the world - because, she said, their discussion had become known to the living.

(c)What happened was that a dispute arose between the Chasid's wife and the second spirit's mother, and the former said to the latter 'Come and I will show you where your daughter is buried in a cane-mat!'

16)

(a)One of the sons of Rebbi Chiya tried to prove from there - that the dead do know what transpires in this world.

(b)His brother refuted the proof however, inasmuch as - the spirits may have known only because a third spirit informed them.

17)

(a)When, after depositing money with the inn-keeper by whom he was staying, Ze'iri returned from the Yeshivah, he discovered - that she had died.

(b)So he after he to the Beis-ha'Kevaros.

(c)She informed him that he would find the money - in the hole under door of the inn into which the hinge fitted.

18)

(a)The spirit ask Ze'iri to obtain from her mother - her comb and the stick with which she used to apply her eye-paint ...

(b)... which he could get to her - via a certain young girl who was destined to die the following day.

(c)She wanted them - to increase the pain because she died so young.

(d)The one son of Rebbi Chiya tried to prove from this episode - from the fact that the spirit knew that the young girl was destined to arrive the very next day - that the spirits do know what goes on in this world.

(e)The other son refuted the proof - by pointing out that she may have heard it from an announcement by Dumah, the angel in charge of the deceased spirits.

19)

(a)The same brother supports his argument from another episode cited in a Beraisa, this time in connection with the father of Shmuel (Rav's Chaver), with whom they had deposited money belonging to Yesomim. The problem that arose after he died was - that Shmuel's father had not informed him where the money was hidden.

(b)People began calling Shmuel - the man who 'eats; the money of Yesomim.

(c)'Aba' - was the name of Shmuel's father.

(d)When Shmuel followed his deceased father to the Beis-ha'Kevaros and asked for Aba, 'they' reply - that the graveyard was full of people with that name.

(e)When he asked to see Aba ...

1. ... bar Aba - he met with the same answer.

2. ... bar Aba the father of Shmuel - they told him that he had already left for the Yeshivah shel Ma'alah.

20)

(a)When Shmuel asked Levi (his deceased Chaver) why he was sitting outside the Beis-ha'Medrash - he replied that the same period of time that he caused Rebbi Efes pain by not entering the Beis-ha'Medrash, he now had to remain outside the Yeshivah shel Ma'alah.

(b)What was unusual about Shmuel's father when he eventually came out of the Beis-ha'Medrash was - that he was both crying and laughing at the same time.

(c)He was ...

1. ... crying - because Shmuel was destined to die shortly, and ...

2. ... laughing - because he was considered important in the Heavenly Realm.

21)

(a)When Shmuel's heard the latter, he reacted - by putting in a request for Levi to be allowed to enter the Yeshivah shel Ma'alah immediately.

(b)His request was granted forthwith.

(c)Shmuel's father then told him he would find ...

1. ... in the top and lower section of the mill - their personal money.

2. ... in the middle section of the mill - the money belonging to the Yesomim.

(d)He did that - to protect the latter, because thieves would be most like to search first in the top and bottom sections of the mill.

22)

(a)The one brother tried to prove from this episode - that the dead know what happens in this world ...

(b)... from the fact that Shmuel's father knew that his son was destined to die shortly.

(c)The other brother refuted the proof however - by claiming that, because Shmuel was important in the other world, they announced his imminent arrival in advance.

23)

(a)Based on a statement of Rebbi Shmuel bar Nachmeni in his name, Rebbi Yonasan retracted from his original stance - that it is permitted to enter a graveyard with one Tzitzis sticking out, since the dead do not know what is going on in this world anyway.

(b)In his current statement, he learns from the word "Leimor" (in the Pasuk in ve'Zos ha'Berachah [where Hash-m said to Moshe] "Zos ha'Aretz asher Nishba'ti le'Avraham ... Leimor ... ") - that Hash-m instructed Moshe to go and inform the Avos that he had kept His promise to give their children Eretz Yisrael.

(c)He proves from there - that the dead must know about what goes on in this world, otherwise the information would be meaningless to them.

(d)The problem with that is - that if, on the other hand, they already knew about Hash-m having fulfilled His promise, what was the point of telling them about it?

(e)The answer is - to display gratitude to Moshe for being the harbinger of good news.