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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON GEMARA AND RASHI

prepared by Rabbi Eliezer Chrysler
Kollel Iyun Hadaf, Jerusalem

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Megilah 5

MEGILAH 2-5 (Elul 27-Rosh Hashanah 5760) - have been dedicated by Dr. Jack and Sarah Dimenstein of Zurich Switzerland. May they be blessed with a year of health and prosperity, physical and spiritual!

1)

(a) According to Rav, when may one read the Megilah on one's own and when does one require a Minyan?

(b) What does Rav Asi say?

(c) What happened once when Rav had no Minyan on the fourteenth? In light of his opinion (quoted in a.), why did he do that?

2)
(a) Rav is quoted as saying that, when Purim falls on Shabbos, its time is on Friday.
What is surprising about this statement?

(b) How do we therefore try to amend it, but in a way that leaves us with a contradiction in Rav (who said earlier that when the Megilah is read not in its regular time, it requires a Minyan)?

(c) How do we finally explain Rav's latter statement in a way that it does not clash with the former one?

3)
(a) Why do we bring Purim forward (rather than postpone it) when it falls on Shabbos?

(b) What does Rebbi Aba Amar Shmuel (who gave the previous explanation) learn from the Pasuk in Bo "le'Chodshei ha'Shanah"?

(c) And what do the Rabbanan of Caesaria quoting Rebbi Aba learn from the Pasuk in Beha'aloscha "Ad Chodesh Yamim"?

4)
(a) When Tish'ah be'Av, Chagigah or Hakheil fall due on Shabbos, they are postponed.
Why do we postpone (rather than advance) ...
  1. ... Tish'ah be'Av?
  2. ... Chagigah and Hakheil?
(b) We learned in a Beraisa that one postpones, not only Chagigah, but also 'the time of Chagigah'. Rav Oshaya explains that this refers to the Olas Re'iyah.
What does the Tana then mean to say? Who is then the author of the Beraisa?

(c) Rava learns that the Tana is coming to restrict the time of the Chagigah; Rav Ashi, that he is coming to extend it.
What is the Tana saying according to ...

  1. ... Rava?
  2. ... Rav Ashi?
5)
(a) Beis Hillel agree with Beis Shamai that if Shavu'os falls on Shabbos, then Yom Tavo'ach takes place after Shabbos.
What is Yom Tavo'ach?

(b) In which case do Beis Hillel then *argue* with Beis Shamai? What do they say?

Answers to questions

5b---------------------------------------5b

6)

(a) Rebbi Chanina testified that Rebbi did three controversial things with which the Rabbanan disagreed: He testified that he did something on Purim, that he bathed on Shiv'ah-Asar be'Tamuz in the market-place of Tzipori at the time when the wagons drove past, and that he wanted to rescind Tish'ah be'Av. What did he do on Purim?

(b) When Rebbi Aba bar Zavda amended the third testimony, Rebbi Chanina quoted the Pasuk in Koheles "Tovim Sh'nayim min ha'Echad").
What did Rebbi want to do according to Rebbi Aba bar Zavda's amendment?

7)
(a) What does the Tana of Rav Yosef's Beraisa learn from the Pasuk in Esther ...
  1. ... "Simchah"?
  2. ... "u'Mishteh"?
  3. ... "ve'Yom-Tov"?
(b) We try to answer the Kashya that the latter Derashah presents on Rebbi (who planted a sapling on Purim), by explaining that Rebbi planted the sapling on the fifteenth, although he was really a townsman.
What is wrong with this explanation?

(c) So we switch round the facts. In fact, Rebbi's time was the fifteenth, and he planted the sapling on the fourteenth.
How do we then resolve this with Chizkiyah (who also lived in Teverya and) who had a Safek whether Teverya was a Mukaf or not?

(d) What did Chizkiyah used to do on Purim with regard to reading the Megilah?

8)
(a) How will we reconcile Rebbi with Rava's interpretation of what is written in Megilas Ta'anis (that it is forbidden to make a Hesped on both the fourteenth and the fifteenth)?

(b) Then why did Rav curse that man whom he found sowing flax-seeds on Purim?

(c) This entire Sugya to date is based on the Pasuk in Esther "Simchah u'Mishteh ve'Yom-Tov".
What is the Gemara's conclusion with regard to this Pasuk?

9)
(a) Seeing as, when all's said and done, work on Purim is not forbidden, why did Rav curse that man whom he found working on Purim?

(b) Perhaps in Teverya (Rebbi's town) there was no such custom.
How could we explain the fact that Rebbi planted saplings on Purim even if there *was*?

(c) We learn this from the Mishnah in Ta'anis, which states that if the thirteen fasts past and still no rain came, one tended to diminish among other things, a tree of Simchah and a Binyan shel Simchah.
What is a Binyan shel Simchah?

10)
(a) What did Hatzidim, Tzeir, Chamas, Rakas and Kineres have in common?

(b) What is Rakas better known as? What unusual feature does it have that caused Chizkiyah to doubt whether it falls under the category of Mukafin or not?

(c) What does the Beraisa learn from the Pasuk in Behar ...

  1. ... "Asher Lo Chomah"?
  2. ... "Saviv"?
(d) Then why does Chizkiyah even contend with the possibility that Teverya might be a Mukaf? Why might the Din of Mukaf on Purim differ from that of Batei Arei Chomah?
11)
(a) To which tribe did Hutzal belong?

(b) According to the first Lashon, Rav Asi was not sure whether Hutzal was surrounded by a wall from the time of Yehoshua bin Nun or not.
What did he hold, according to the second Lashon?

Answers to questions

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