(a) What is the significance of the 2 alternative readings of Rav Elazar's answer as to who was greater -- the generations after the destruction of the first Temple or the generations after the destruction of the second Temple. Rav Elazar answers by saying "look at the Birah" or alternatively "the Birah is your witness". Is there a difference between these 2 answers? If not, why did the Gemara see it as significant to present the 2 versions? If yes, what is the difference?
(b) Also, earlier Rav Yochanan answered Reish Lakish by saying the earlier generations were greater by saying "the Birah will prove it". It sounds like (from a simple reading), Rav Yochanan is referring to Birah as the Temple. But this would contradict Rav Yochanan's opinion of Birah on 2a that it is a place in the Temple? I suppose the answer could be that he is answering Reish Lakish and therefore "speaking in his terminology" (v'lei lo svirah lei). Is there an alrernative explanation?
Thanks
Howie Schiffmiller
(a) An "Ika d'Amri" does not necessarily mean that the Gemara is changing from its first opinion. It is only a different tradition of what the person actually said. Indeed, in this case Rashi seems to have understood both answers to mean the same thing.
The GEVURAS ARI explains Rav Elazar's intent in the first version, "Look at the Birah," to coincide with Rashi's explanation. The earlier generations must have been greater then the later ones, because their Beis ha'Mikdash was rebuilt while ours was not. However, he provides an alternative explanation for the second version of Rav Elazar's answer, "The Birah is your witness." He explains that the earlier generations must have been greater than the later ones because the destruction of their Beis ha'Mikdash was only a partial destruction. Only the mortar was removed from between the stones. In contrast, the destruction of the second Beis ha'Mikdash was a total destruction -- the very walls were torn down.
(b) Your second question, that it seems that Rav Yochanan here contradicts his opinion of the meaning of "Birah" on 2a, is also addressed by the Gevuras Ari. He says that Rav Yochanan also agrees that "Birah" refers to the Beis ha'Mikdash. The Pasuk in Divrei ha'Yamim (cited on 2a) explicitly refers to the Beis ha'Mikdash as "Birah." However, he holds that the Kohen who burns the Parah Adumah did not have to be secluded in the Beis ha'Mikdash proper, but he could have been placed anywhere on Har ha'Bayis. Therefore, the word "Birah" in the Mishnah in Parah cited earlier (2a) must mean something else!
D. Schloss