When Rav Preida's students asked him how he merited longevity, why didn't he mention that it was because of the story in Eruvin 54b, where he showed such patience with his slow student? Doesn't the Gemara say that it was because of his patience that he merited longevity?
T. Marcus
Tuvya Marcus, Jerusalem, Israel
Tosfos asks this question in Eruvin. He gives the following two answers:
1. Both reasons caused R. P'reida's longevity, and the Gemara brings one reason in Eruvin, and the other, in Megilah.
2. When, in Megilah, they asked him for the reason, he did not yet know that Hash-m had declared that he was to receive both rewards. That he only discovered once he reached the age of four hundred (though he must have suspected it by the time he reached three hundred and fifty).
Be'Virchas Kol Tuv
Eliezer Chrysler.