1)

(a)Ezra too, like Yehoshua, instituted ten Takanos. He established the Leining at Shabbos Minchah as well as on Mondays and Thursdays.

(b)He also established that Beis-Din should convene on Mondays and Thursdays ...

(c)... that ...

1. ... the family washing should be done on Thursday in honor of Shabbos ...

2. ... men should eat garlic on Friday ...

3. ... and that women should bake bread early in the morning, in case a poor man comes to the door and asks for food.

(d)And he instituted that women should ...

1. ... wear underwear (for reasons of modesty) ...

2. ... and that they should comb their hair prior to Tevilah.

2)

(a)The ninth Takanah was that peddlers should go round the towns selling women's spices and ornaments.

(b)And the tenth Takanah was that a Ba'al Keri (who had an emission) must Tovel before learning Torah (or Davening).

3)

(a)The Dorshei Reshumos interpreted the Pasuk "Va'yelchu Sheloshes Yamim be'Lo Mayim" to mean that Yisrael went for three days in the desert without Torah (which is why they were disgruntled).

(b)The Nevi'im of that time therefore instituted Leining on Shabbos morning, on Mondays and on Thursdays (so that three days would never pass without Torah being learned).

(c)The Nevi'im in Moshe's time established that either one or three people should Lein only three Pesukim, Ezra added that three people should Lein ten Pesukim.

(d)The three Pesukim that Moshe's generation established corresponded to Kohanim, Levi'im and Yisre'elim, the ten Pesukim that Ezra established to the ten Batlanim (the ten men from the community who gave up their worldly occupations, dedicating their lives to communal service, and who would arrive early in Shul to start the Minyan).

4)

(a)Ezra fixed specifically Monday and Thursdays as the days that Beis-Din should convene because many people from the surrounding villages were in town anyway to hear the Leining, sparing them from having to come into town specially to be judged.

(b)He established eating garlic on Fridays, based on the Pasuk in Tehilim "Asher Piryo Yiten be'Ito", which Rav Yehudah or ... or Rebbi Yochanan interprets to mean that Friday night is the right time to fix the Mitzvah of Onah (being intimate with one's wife), and garlic is good for this Mitzvah, because it increases the Zera.

(c)Garlic has five physical advantages: It satisfies, heats the body, and causes one's face to shine. Besides increasing the Zera, as we just explained it also kills the lice in one's stomach.

(d)Others add a sixth (spiritual) property it brings in love (in the wake of the happiness that it causes) and drives out hatred.

5)

(a)We learn from the Pasuk in Shemini "ve'Rachatz es Besaro ba'Mayim" from ...

1. ... the words "es Besaro ba'Mayim" that nothing may interrupt between the skin and the water (known as a Chatzitzah) when one Tovels.

2. ... the word "es" that the same applies to the hair (which may neither be knotted nor contain any dirt).

(b)A Chatzitzah in the hair is d'Oraisa, which simply means that one needs to examine it before Tevilah. What Ezra added was that a woman is obligated to comb her hair together with the examination.

6)

(a)Ezra was concerned about Shalom Bayis. That is why he instituted the Takanah of Ruchlin (peddlers), to prevent women from looking unattractive in the eyes of their husbands, a major cause in the breaking up of marriages.

(b)The Torah writes in Shemini "ve'Ish Ki Seitzei Mimenu Shichvas Zara, ve'Rachatz es Besaro ba'Mayim". Nevertheless, Ezra needed to institute Tevilah for Ba'alei Keri for Divrei Torah, since the Torah only requires Tevilah for eating Terumah and Kodshim.

7)

(a)The Tana says ten things about Yerushalayim. 'Ein ha'Bayis Chalut bah' meaning that the Din of Batei Arei Chomah (the purchase of a house within a walled city, which, unlike that of a house in an open city, becomes permanent already after one year).

(b)It neither brings an Eglah Arufah, nor can it be declared an Ir ha'Nidachas nor, says the Tana, are houses there subject to Tum'ah.

(c)Neither beams nor balconies are permitted to protrude into the streets of Yerushalayim.

(d)Neither trash-heaps nor lime-kilns are permitted, nor are gardens or orchards. The exception to the latter prohibition is the spice-gardens from the days of the early prophets (in where they grew the Kipas ha'Yarden for the Ketores).

8)

(a)We have already learned that chickens may not be kept in Yerushalayim. Finally the Tana forbids leaving corpses unburied there overnight.

(b)The above Halachos concerning a house of Batei Arei Chomah, Eglah Arufah, Ir ha'Nidachas, and Tum'as Nega'im, which the Tana extrapolates from the four Pesukim "ve'Kam ha'Bayis Asher ba'Ir Asher Lo Chomah li'Tzemisus la'Koneh Oso le'Dorosav" (in Behar), "Ki Yimatzei Chalal ba'Adamah Asher Hash-m Elokecha Nosen Lecha Nachalah le'Rishtah" (in Shoftim), "Arecha" (Re'ei) and ve'Nasati Nega Tzara'as be'Veis Eretz Achuzaschem", respectively, are all based on the same presumption that Yerushalayim was not divided among the tribes.

(c)Besides the concern for Ohel ha'Meis, beams and balconies may not protrude into the street because of the damage they are likely to cause.

(d)The reason for the prohibition of ...

1. ... trash-heaps is because when the Sheratzim that breed there die, they spread Tum'ah.

2. ... lime-kilns is because of the smoke that causes the walls to turn black (and it is not becoming for Hash-m's city to look ugly).

3. ... gardens and orchards is because of the putrid smell (that is caused either by the weeds etc. that one tends to throw to the sides of the field, or by the fertilizer which every field requires).

4. ... leaving a corpse overnight is tradition.

9)

(a)Chazal added the prohibition of keeping Chazirim, due to an episode that took place during the civil war between Hurkenus and Aristobulus. Those besieged in Yerushalayim (Aristobulus), managed to bring the Korban Tamid each day by letting down a basket of money to the attackers, for which they would receive in exchange, the two required lambs.

(b)That old man who had studied Greek philosophy advised Hurkenus to place a Chazir in the basket instead of the lambs, because, he claimed, as long as the besieged had the merit of sacrifices on their side, they could never be vanquished.

10)

(a)The Chazir, on its way up, dug its hoofs into the wall of Yerushalayim and the entire country shook.

(b)That is when Chazal pronounced a curse on anyone who rears Chazirim or who studies Greek philosophy.

(c)The significance of the fact that, that year, the Omer came from Gagos Tzerifim and the Sh'tei ha'Lechem from the valley of Ein Sochar is that the barley was not fresh.

(d)Normally, they brought them from close to Yerushalayim, in order to bring them to Hash-m fresh.