The gemara starts on daf beis asking questions related to whether or not the word "or" can mean day or night. The gemara asks seven questions based on psukim all suggesting the word "or" means day, except for the middle "meisvey" which suggests it means night. Then the gemara brings seven tannaitic statements suggesting "or" means night except for the middle proof again that switches to suggest it means day. (Then one final proof which is an obvious proof so it can be looked at separately.) But why the pattern of seven proofs from torah she bichsav and seven from torah shebaal peh where the middle proof switches? There seems to be something the gemara is hinting at...
Menachem Weiman, St. Louis, United
Menachem, it is great to have you with us for Maseches Pesachim!
Here is an idea that I got partially from the Chidushei Gur Aryeh by the Maharal of Prague, here on Maseches Pesachim.
1) The Gemara starts by bringing verses from the Chumash. These verses have the greatest light, since we received the Chumash directly from Hash-m. This is why the Gemara at the beginning always wants to say that Or is day. [Even though the Gemara cites the verse u'k'Or Boker from the book of Shmuel; which is Nevi'im; still the Gemara puts this together with the verses from the Chumash, because it is so similar to the first verse in the sugya ha'Boker Or which contains both Or and Boker.]
2) After the Gemara finishes citing the verses from Chumash it starts citing the verses from Kesuvim. This starts with the verse from Tehilim about the stars of light. When we start bringing verses from Kesuvim, we understand that the light of the Kesuvim is not as great as the light of the Chumash, so we say that Or means night. However the Gemara then deflects this because it may be that Tehilim is on the same level as Torah. This is explained by the Nefesh HaChaim; by Rav Chaim of Volozhin; Gate 4 chapter 2, that the Midrash tells us that Dovid Hamelech requested from Hash-m that learning Tehilim should be considered just as important as learning Torah. Nefesh HaChaim writes that it is possible that Hash-m granted this request to Dovid.
3) After the Gemara finishes citing proofs from verses, it now starts with the proofs from the Mishnah. The Mishnah was written by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, when we were aready in golus, since the Beis Hamikdash had been destroyed. So the Gemara's initial thought was that Or must mean the night of exile. However we think again, because we begin to understand that it is precisely the exile that gives us light. This we learn also from the verse that the Gemara cites here v'Layla Or b'Adani. The very fact that Hash-m helps us throughout all the trials of this difficult exile, shows us that the light at the end of the tunnel will be very great!
Behatzlachah Rabah
Dovid Bloom
עדיין צ״ע מדוע מתחילה הביא ראיות לחד מאן דאמר ובאמצע למאן דאמר האחר ושוב חוזר להביא ראיות למאן דאמר הראשון
עי' חידושי גור אריה למהר"ל מפראג כאן ב: ד"ה מתיבי, וז"ל, ומחליף הקושיא ומתחיל להקשות ממשניות מסדר זאת וגו', עיי"ש. ומשמע לכאו' מדברי מהר"ל מפראג שיש ענין לפעמים להחליף הקושיא ולא תמיד לישא וליתן באותו סדר, וצ"ע.
כל טוב
דוד בלום