[10a - 52 lines; 10b - 54 lines]
1)[line 7]בשגגת מעשהB'SHIGEGAS MA'ASEH- through an act of forgetfulness
2)[line 9]העלם דברHE'ELEM DAVAR- See Background to Horayos 2:1.
3)[line 24]פרט לקודמותPERAT L'KODMOS- to exclude [transgressions] committed previously
4)[line 39]פרט לנגעי אונסיןPERAT L'NIG'EI ONSIN- excluding afflictions due to something external (e.g., Tzara'as that results from a demon blowing at the house)
5)[line 41]זבZAV
(a)A Zav (Vayikra 15:1-15), a man who emits Zov two or three times, whether it is emitted in one day or in two or three consecutive days, is an Av ha'Tum'ah. Zov is a clear discharge with the appearance of the white of a sterile or spoiled egg, in contrast with semen, which has the consistency of fresh egg white. Zov can also be a pus-like discharge resembling the liquid from barley dough or soft barley batter. A man who emits Zov one time is Tamei like a Ba'al Keri (see Background to Nazir 47:9:b) and must immerse and wait for nightfall to become Tahor.
(b)A man who emits a discharge that may be Zov is "checked" to determine whether or not he becomes a Zav. If this discharge came about b'Ones (due to an external cause), he is Tahor. The seven ways are 1. eating too much; 2. drinking too much; 3. carrying a heavy load; 4. jumping; 5. being sick; 6. (a) seeing a frightening sight (RASHI to Nazir 65b); (b) seeing a woman, even without having unclean thoughts (ROSH to Nazir ibid.); 7. having unclean thoughts.
(c)A Zav must count seven "clean" days (Shiv'ah Nekiyim) in which he sees no Zov in order to start his purification process, as it states in Vayikra 15:13. On the seventh day or afterwards, he must immerse in a spring during the day. At nightfall he becomes Tahor, if he did not emit Zov again beforehand (ibid.).
(d)If a Zav emits Zov only two times, he does not bring a Korban. Even if the first time was b'Ones, as long as the second emission was not, he is Tamei. If he emitted Zov three times, whether it is emitted in one day or in two or three consecutive days, he has to bring a Korban after he becomes Tahor in order to enter the Beis ha'Mikdash and to eat Kodshim and Terumah. The Korban is two Torim (turtledoves) or two Bnei Yonah (common doves), one offered as an Olah and one as a Chatas.
(e)In the case of three emissions, however, he is only obligated in a Korban if the first two were not b'Ones. The third emission may come about b'Ones according to the Rabanan. According to Rebbi Eliezer, he is only obligated in a Korban if all three emissions are not b'Ones (Nazir 65b). However, if the Zav had an emission during Shiv'ah Nekiyim, even b'Ones, all agree that this emission stops his count, and he must start counting again (Zavim ibid.).
6a)[line 43]רוחותRUCHOS- spirits that have no body or form
b)[line 43]כשפיםKESHAFIM- witchcraft
7)[line 44]"וַיְנַגַּע ה' אֶת הַמֶּלֶךְ, וַיְהִי מְצוֹרָע עַד יוֹם מוֹתוֹ, וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּבֵית הַחָפְשִׁית; וְיוֹתָם בֶּן הַמֶּלֶךְ עַל הַבַּיִת, [שֹׁפֵט אֶת עַם הָאָרֶץ]""VA'YENAGA HASH-M ES HA'MELECH, VA'YEHI METZORA AD YOM MOSO, VA'YEISHEV B'VEIS HA'CHOFSHIS; V'YOSAM BEN HA'MELECH AL HA'BAYIS, SHOFET ES HA'AM" - "And HaSh-m struck the king (Uziyahu) with Tzara'as until the day of his death, and he dwelt in a house in the graveyard; and Yosam, the king's son, was appointed in charge of the palace, where he judged the people" (Melachim II 15:5) (KING UZIYAHU IS STRICKEN WITH TZARA'AS)
(a)The previous verse described how Uziyahu (known in Sefer Melachim as Azaryah) did everything that was right in HaSh-m's eyes, in accordance with what his father Amatzyahu had commanded him (except that he did not remove the Bamos, like the kings who preceded him).
(b)It comes, therefore, as a surprise when the verse now informs us that he was stricken with Tzara'as. The verses in Divrei ha'Yamim II (26:16-21), however, describe how he became conceited and decided to enter the Heichal to offer Ketores, even though he was not a Kohen. When warned by the Kohanim to refrain, he became furious, and was immediately stricken with Tzara'as.
(c)Because a Metzora is forbidden to enter any walled city in Eretz Yisrael, Uziyahu took up residence in "the Beis ha'Chofshis," in a cemetery outside of Yerushalayim. Uziyahu's king's son Yosam took over his father's responsibilities towards the people. Officially, however, he took over the reins of kingship only after his father's death some twenty-six years later. Yosam would turn out to be one of the most righteous kings of Yehudah.
8)[line 46]בספינתאB'SEFINASA- on a ship
9)[line 47]פיתאPITA- bread
10)[line 47]וסולתאSULTA- flour
11)[line 48]עכובאIKUVA- delay
12)[line 49]הספניםHA'SAPANIM- the sailors
13)[line 49]ויתעהV'YAT'EH- and mislead us. Rebbi Yehoshua was not sure which month or which day this particular star would appear in the sky. (See Ben Yehoyada.)
14a)[last line]כמדומין אתםK'MEDUMIN ATEM- it seems to you
b)[last line]שֶׁשְּׂרָרָהSHE'SERARAH- that [I would give you] a position of authority
10b----------------------------------------10b
15)[line 1]"וַיְדַבְּרוּ אֵלָיו לֵאמֹר, 'אִם הַיּוֹם תִּהְיֶה עֶבֶד לָעָם הַזֶּה [וַעֲבַדְתָּם, וַעֲנִיתָם וְדִבַּרְתָּ אֲלֵיהֶם דְּבָרִים טוֹֹבִים; וְהָיוּ לְךָ עֲבָדִים כָּל הַיָּמִים]'""VA'YEDABRU EILAV LEIMOR, 'IM HA'YOM TIHEYEH EVED LA'AM HA'ZEH [VA'AVADTAM, VA'ANISAM V'DIBARTA ALEIHEM DEVARIM TOVIM, V'HAYU LECHA AVADIM KOL HA'YAMIM]" - "And they (the delegation) spoke to him (Rechav'am), saying, 'If today you will be a servant to this people [and you will serve them, and respond favorably to them and speak kind words to them, then they will be your servants all the days]" (Melachim I 12:7) (THE ELDERS' SOUND ADVICE TO RECHAV'AM)
(a)Upon the death of Shlomo and the ascension to the throne of his son Rechav'am, the people recalled Shlomo's adversary Yerav'am from Egypt, to where he had fled. They asked him to lead a delegation to Rechav'am with a request to lower the heavy taxes imposed upon them by his father, Shlomo. Rechav'am bade the people return in three days, when he would give them an answer.
(b)Rechav'am first consulted the elders who had served Shlomo during his reign. They advised him that if he would go easy on the people, then the people would remain loyal to him as long as he lived. Not satisfied with their reply, however, the king turned to the young friends with whom he had grown up and asked their advice. They advised him to tell the people that "his thumb was fatter than his father's loins," and that he would tax them more heavily than his father had. "My father," they told him to say, "chastised you with sticks, I will chastise you with scorpions!"
(c)That is precisely what he told the delegation led by Yerav'am when they returned on the third day. Rechav'am ignored the sound advice of the elders and accepted that of the youngsters. This actually was a Divine strategy to bring about the splitting of the Kingdom of Yisrael, as the prophet Achiyah ha'Shiloni had told Yerav'am.
(e)Sure enough, ten tribes broke away from Rechav'am and appointed Yerav'am as their king, leaving Rechav'am with Yehudah and Binyamin.
16)[line 9]"[וְיִתֵּן אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל, בִּגְלַל חַטֹּאות יָרָבְעָם] אֲשֶׁר חָטָא, וַאֲשֶׁר הֶחֱטִיא [אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל]""[V'YITEN ES YISRAEL, BI'GELAL CHATOS YARAV'AM] ASHER CHATA, VA'ASHER HECHETI [ES YISRAEL]" - "[And He will give Yisrael over (to this curse), on account of the sins of Yerav'am] who sinned, and who caused [Yisrael] to sin" (Melachim I 14:16) (THE DEATH OF YERAV'AM'S SON, AVIYAH)
(a)Aviyah, Yerav'am's son, had fallen ill, and Yerav'am sent his wife to Shiloh to consult Achiyah ha'Shiloni (the Navi who had anointed him king over the ten tribes). He asked of her to disguise herself so that the people would not know who she was, and to inquire of the Navi what would happen to their son.
(b)HaSh-m had forewarned the Navi Achiyah that the queen was on her way. Thus, although he had become blind in old age, he had merely to hear her footsteps and he greeted her with the words, "Enter, wife of Yerav'am! Why do you come in disguise, and I am sent by HaSh-m to give you bad news!" He told her to remind her husband of all the evil that he had perpetrated. HaSh-m had elevated him to the status of king of the ten tribes, tearing away the kingdom from the house of David and giving it to him. Yet he had not followed along the path of Torah and Mitzvos that David had trodden. On the contrary, he had made himself other gods and images to anger HaSh-m, "casting HaSh-m after his own body."
(c)Consequently, Achiyah continued, HaSh-m would destroy every member of Yerav'am's family, to the point that "those that would die in the city would be eaten by the dogs, and those who died in the fields, by vultures." Only the ill Aviyah would merit burial, for of Yerav'am's entire family, he was only one to have performed a single Mitzvah!
(d)Finally, the Navi informed the wife of Yerav'am that HaSh-m would appoint a faithful king over Yisrael who would utterly destroy the house of Yerav'am, and that due to the sins of her husband who sinned and caused the whole of Yisrael (the ten tribes) to sin, He would send them into exile.
17)[line 11]דשני קרא בדבוריהD'SHANI KERA B'DIBUREI- [the law with regard to the ruler who transgresses is different] because the verse changed its form of expression
18)[line 17]אי אכלי תרי עלמי, מי סני להו?IY ACHLEI TREI ALMEI, MI SENI LEHU?- if they (the righteous) enjoy two worlds (this world and the next), is it despicable to them?
19)[line 24]אוקימתון מסכתא פלןOKIMTUN MASECHTA PELAN- did you master tractate so-and-so?
20)[line 25]איעתריתו פורתאI'ATRISU PURTA- have you become a little wealthy?
21)[line 25]דזבנן קטינא דארעאD'ZAVNAN KETINA D'AR'A- we have [each] bought a small plot of land
22)[line 29]אכילה גסהACHILAH GASAH- a forced, gluttonous form of eating
23)[line 36]"[וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ אָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ, 'הַאֵין בִּבְנוֹת אַחֶיךָ וּבְכָל עַמִּי אִשָּׁה, כִּי אַתָּה הוֹלֵךְ לָקַחַת אִשָּׁה מִפְּלִשְׁתִּים הָעֲרֵלִים';] וַיֹּאמֶר שִׁמְשׁוֹן [אֶל אָבִיו] 'אוֹתָהּ קַח לִי, כִּי הִיא יָשְׁרָה בְעֵינָי'""[VA'YOMER LO AVIV V'IMO, 'HA'EIN BI'VENOS ACHECHA UV'CHOL AMI ISHAH, KI ATAH HOLECH LAKACHAS ISHAH MI'PELISHTIM HA'AREILIM?'] VA'YOMER SHIMSHON EL AVIV, 'OSAH KACH LI, KI HI YASHRAH B'EINAI'" - "[And his father and mother said to him, 'Are there not amongst our own people any women, that you go to take a woman from the uncircumcised Pelishtim?'] But Shimshon said to his father, 'Take her for me, because she is fitting in my eyes'" (Shoftim 14:3) (SHIMSHON AND THE PELISHTI WOMAN)
(a)Shimshon, as yet unknown, had met a Philistine (Pelishti) woman in Timnas, whom he fancied. So he asked his parents (Mano'ach and his wife) to "arrange a Shidduch" on his behalf. They, for their part, tried to dissuade him from marrying a gentile woman, but to no avail. He insisted that he wanted her. As the verse points out, Shimshon's parents did not realize that it was from HaSh-m; he was seeking a pretext to break the hold that the Pelishtim had over Yisrael.
(b)Later, Shimshon's Philistine wives would be the instruments through which he would avenge himself from the Pelishtim, on no less than four separate occasions.
(c)When, by the seventh day of the marriage festivities, his thirty Pelishti friends were unable to solve the riddle he posed to them (for which they would have had to pay him thirty sheets and thirty new suits), they talked his wife into wheedling the riddle out of him. It took her seven days, but she succeeded, and promptly passed on the information to them. So it was that on the seventh day, just before sunset the men of the city said to him, "What is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion." Shimshon understood what had happened. He went to Ashkelon and killed thirty Philistines, whose suits he took and sent them to his former friends, to pay off his debt. See also Nazir 4b, "Shimshon's Revenge," and Sanhedrin 21a, "Shimshon's Riddle."
(d)In an angry frame of mind, he went to pay his wife a visit, only to discover that, on the assumption that Shimshon had forsaken her, her parents had taken her away and given her to somebody else. Although they offered him her younger sister "who was better than she," Shimshon was not appeased. He promptly caught 300 foxes and tied them tail to tail with a fire-brand in the middle, before setting them loose among the Philistines' wheat-fields (during the wheat-harvest season), causing immense damage.
(e)When the Pelishtim found out who had caused the damage and why, they went to visit Shimshon's wife and burned her together with her father. Avenging the murder of his wife and father-in-law, Shimshon attacked them. He defeated them, killing many in the process.
(f)The Pelishtim, who at that time ruled Yisrael with an iron fist, sent a contingent of men to capture Shimshon. The men of Yehudah, who were totally subdued, sent a delegation of 3,000 men to capture Shimshon and to deliver him to the Pelishtim. After they had promised him that they would not kill him, he allowed then to tie his arms with two thick new ropes and to take him to the vicinity of the Pelishtim. No sooner did the Pelishtim move towards him to capture him, however, than the spirit of HaSh-m enveloped him and he burst the ropes as if they were made of scorched flax. Then he found a fresh donkey bone with which he attacked the enemy, killing a thousand men (see Nazir 4b, "Shimshon & the Jaw-bone of a Donkey").
24)[line 38]מינס אניסMEINAS ANIS- he (Lot) was forced; it was beyond his control (because he was drunk)
25)[line 38]למה נקוד על וי"ו שב"קומה" של בכירהLAMAH NAKUD AL VAV SHEB'"KUMAH" SHEL BECHIRAH- why is there a dot above the letter Vav of the word "uv'Kumah" [in the verse] of the older daughter?
26)[line 41]דלפניאDEL'FANYA- that toward the evening
27)[line 45]רבבותREVAVOS- myriads (tens of thousands)
28)[line 49]מיתהניאMIS'HANYA- she derived pleasure (and why, then, is her act termed "li'Shmah"?)
29)[line 50]"בֵּין רַגְלֶיהָ כָּרַע נָפַל שָׁכָב; [בֵּין רַגְלֶיהָ כָּרַע נָפָל, בַּאֲשֶׁר כָּרַע שָׁם נָפַל שָׁדוּד]""BEIN RAGLEHAH KARA NAFAL SHACHAV; BEIN RAGLEHAH KARA NAFAL, BA'ASHER KARA SHAM NAFAL SHADUD" - "Between her legs he knelt, he fell, he lay; between her legs he bent, he fell, there where he knelt, there he fell, vanquished" (Shoftim 5:27) (YA'EL & SISERA)
(a)Under the leadership of Devorah and Barak (her husband), the general of the army, Yisrael had miraculously totally defeated the army of Sisera, the general of the army of Cana'an, in spite of their 900 iron chariots. Sisera, fleeing on foot, arrived at the tent of Chever ha'Keini (a descendent of Yisro), who was neutral in this battle. There he was greeted by Chever's righteous wife Ya'el, who invited him into the tent. (b) To distract him and to drain his strength, she allowed him to be intimate with her seven times. Following that, she served him milk, which made him drowsy. Then, when he fell asleep, she took one of the tent-pegs and hammered it into his brain, killing him instantly.
(c)The commentaries explain that she used a tent-peg rather than Sisera's sword because of the prohibition against a woman wearing men's clothes or using their weapons. When, a short while later, Barak came looking for Sisera, Ya'el was able to show him the general, dead.
30)[line 53]מקפחMEKAPE'ACH- withhold