(Permission is granted to print and redistribute this material
as long as this header and the footer at the end are included.)


REVIEW QUESTIONS ON GEMARA AND RASHI

prepared by Rabbi Eliezer Chrysler
Kollel Iyun Hadaf, Jerusalem

Previous daf

Ta'anis 21

TA'ANIS 21, 22 - Ari Kornfeld has generously sponsored the Dafyomi publications for these Dafim for the benefit of Klal Yisrael

1)

(a) What made Ilfa and Rebbi Yochanan both decide to leave the Yeshivah to do business?

(b) And what made Rebbi Yochanan decide to rescind his decision? What did he then do with the Pasuk in Re'ei?

(c) How did the destitute Rebbi Yochanan manage to survive as Rosh Yeshivah?

(d) What did Ilfa say when he returned to find Rebbi Yochanan Rosh Yeshivah?

2)
(a) Why did Ilfa refer to the Beraisos of Rebbi Chiya and Rebbi Oshaya, and not of any other Amora'im?

(b) What is the Halachah if a father leaves in his will ...

  1. ... that his sons (between them) are to receive one Shekel per month, should they actually need double (a Sela)?
  2. ... that they are to receive *only* a Shekel?
  3. ... that his sons are to receive one Shekel per month, but he added that, should they die, then so-and-so is to receive whatever remains?
(c) What is the underlying principle of this Beraisa? Who is the author?

(d) What will the Chachamim hold?

3)
(a) Why were the legs of Nachum Ish Gamzu's bed placed in bowls of water?

(b) With which other three ailments was he stricken?

(c) Why did that happen to him?

(d) What did Nachum Ish Gamzu reply when his disciples said in anguish 'Woe to us that we see you in this state!'?

4)
(a) What did he instruct his disciples when they planned to take his bed out of the rickety apartment first and the vessels afterwards?

(b) Why was he called by the title 'Ish Gamzu'?

(c) Why did the Chachamim decide to send specifically Nachum Ish Gamzu to present the Emperor with a gift?

(d) How come that he arrived at the Emperor's palace with a box of earth, and not with the jewels and precious stones with which he had set out?

5)
(a) When the Emperor found the box to contain nothing but earth, he had Nachum Ish Gamzu imprisoned.
What happened next? How come that he was not put to death?

(b) What happened to the owners of the inn, the ones who had stolen the contents of the box and replaced them with earth?

6)
(a) We learned in our Mishnah that, if three people died on three consecutive days in a town of five hundred inhabitants, that constitutes pestilence, and one fasts and blows the Shofar immediately.
What constitutes pestilence in a town of fifteen hundred?

(b) Is it still considered pestilence if the same number of people died ...

  1. ... in four days?
  2. ... in one day (according to the Tana of our Mishnah)?
(c) Then why did Rav Nachman bar Rav Chisda decree a fast in a town of five hundred residents when three people died in *one* day?
Answers to questions

21b---------------------------------------21b

7)

(a) Why did Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak initially decline, when Rav Nachman bar Rav Ya'akov's invited him to come and live in his town?

(b) Why did he finally prefer to go and live in *Rav Nachman bar Ya'akov's* town rather than Rav Nachman bar Ya'akov come and live in *his*?

(c) How do we prove that it is not the place that honors the 'person', but the 'person' that honors the place from ...

  1. ... Har Sinai?
  2. ... the Ohel Mo'ed?
(d) When did the Shechinah finally leave Har Sinai? Where did it go from there?
8)
(a) The plague of pestilence that struck Sura did not affect the vicinity in which Rav resided.
On whose merit was that?

(b) Why could it not have been on the merits of Rav himself (as everyone initially thought)?

(c) And it is for the same reason that the fire that raged in D'rukras, and which did not affect the vicinity in which Rav Huna resided, could not have been on account of the merits of Rav Huna. In fact, it was on the merits of a woman.
What did the woman used to do to have such merits?

9)
(a) Why did Rav Yehudah decree a fast when ...
  1. ... a plague of locusts arrived in the area, even before they had done any harm?
  2. ... a plague of pestilence began killing off the pigs? Was it because he maintained that one decreed one species on account of another?
(b) And why did Shmuel decree a fast in Neherda'a because of a plague of pestilence in Bei Chuza'a, even though the two were nowhere near each other?

(c) Why did Rav Nachman decree a fast in Bavel when a plague of pestilence struck in Eretz Yisrael?

(d) Evidently, if not for that reason, he would not have done so.
How do we reconcile this with Shmuel, who (we just learned) decreed a fast in Neherda'a because of a plague in Bei Chuza'a?

10)
(a) Aba Umna (the blood-letter) merited a daily Divine greeting.
How often did this happen to ...
  1. ... Abaye?
  2. ... Rava?
(b) What special treatment did Aba Umna give ...
  1. ... women?
  2. ... poor people?
  3. ... Torah-scholars?
(c) He treated the two Talmidei-Chachamim whom Abaye sent to him to test him, royally.
How did they subsequently put him to the test? In which two points did they test him?
11)
(a) What did Aba Umna actually think when the two Talmidei-Chamamim asked his to assess the value of his own carpet?

(b) What did he reply when they told him that it was only a test, and that he could take his carpet back?

Answers to questions

Next daf

Index


For further information on
subscriptions, archives and sponsorships,
contact Kollel Iyun Hadaf,
daf@shemayisrael.co.il