Question (Yehudah, son of R. Shimon ben Pazi): Can you say that Beis She'an is not part of Eretz Yisrael?!

"Menasheh did not dispossess (the Kena'anim living in) Beis She'an"!

Answer: R. Shimon ben Elyakim taught that Olei (the exiles who returned to Eretz Yisrael from) Bavel (in the days of Ezra) refrained from being Mekadesh (giving Kedushas Eretz Yisrael to) many cities that were conquered by Olei Mitzrayim (those who entered with Yehoshua);

The first Kidush was temporary. (It ended with the first Churban.)

They left many cities without Kedushah, to help support the poor in Shemitah. (Since they did not get Kedushah, one may work the land in Shemitah.)

Question (R. Yirmeyah): R. Meir only ate a leaf. Even if Beis She'an was part of Eretz Yisrael, one need not tithe before a casual eating!

Answer (R. Zeira): He ate from a bundle of vegetables;

(Mishnah): Vegetables that are normally bundled, once they are bundled one cannot eat them before taking Ma'aseros.

Question (R. Yirmeyah): Perhaps R. Meir forgot to tithe it!

Rejection (R. Zeira): Hash-m does not allow a pitfall to come even through animals of Tzadikim, and all the more so through Tzadikim themselves!

Question (R. Yirmeyah): Perhaps he designated that the tithes take effect on produce he had elsewhere!

Answer (R. Zeira): A Chaver is not suspected of that. He always separates the tithes near the food being tithed.

Question (R. Yirmeyah): Perhaps he mentally declared the tithes to take effect on part of the vegetable, and ate the other part!

Answer (R. Zeira): A great man testified about this. Surely he gave all the pertinent details, lest we learn the wrong law from it! (It seems that this is a second answer to all of R. Yirmeyah's questions.)

Where do we see that Hash-m does not allow a pitfall to come even through animals of Tzadikim?

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir was going to redeem captives. He came upon a river and asked it to split.

The river: We both go (or flow) to do the will of our Maker. It is doubtful if you will succeed. I will certainly succeed!

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: If you do not split, I will decree that water will never flow in you!

The river split for him.

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: There is a man with me carrying wheat for Matzos. Also this is a Mitzvah. Split also for him!

The river split also for the man.

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: There is a man who was travelling with us. It is improper that we should abandon him!

The river split also for the man accompanying them.

(Rav Yosef): R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir is greater than Moshe and Yisrael (when they left Mitzrayim). The water split only once for them, but it split three times for R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir!

Objection: Perhaps here also, it split only once! (He merely requested that they should also be able to pass through safely.)

Correction: Rather, R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir is as great as Moshe and Yisrael.

They arrived at an inn. The innkeeper put barley before R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir's donkey. It would not eat.

He sifted the barley, but still it would not eat. He picked out stray matter mixed in. It did not eat.

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: Perhaps you didn't tithe it!

They tithed it, and the donkey ate.

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: This poor animal goes to do the will of Hash-m, and you give to it Tevel?!

Question: Is it really obligatory to tithe food for animals?!

(Mishnah): If one buys Demai for planting, for animals, flour for tanning, oil for lighting or anointing Kelim, there is no need to tithe it.

Answer: R. Yochanan taught that this applies only if it was initially bought for these purposes, but if it was initially bought for human consumption, and later he reconsidered, they must be tithed.

Support (Beraisa): If one buys food to eat, and later decides to feed it to an animal, he must tithe it.

Rebbi heard that R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir was coming. He went out to greet him, and offered to give him to eat.

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: I consent!

Rebbi was very pleased.

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: Don't think that I vowed not to eat from Yisrael. Yisrael are Kedoshim!

I usually do not eat from others, for some who offer want to give, but do not have the means;

Others have the means, but do not really want to give - "do not eat from a stingy person... he tells you to eat, but he is insincere."

You, Rebbi, are sincere, and have the means! I am rushed now, but I will eat with you on my way back.

When he returned, he entered Rebbi's premises and saw white mules.

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: I cannot eat with one who keeps the angel of death (damagers) in his home!

Rebbi heard this. He rushed to apologize - 'I will sell them!'

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: "Do not put a stumbling block before the blind"! (Whoever buys from you will transgress.)

Rebbi: I will declare them ownerless!

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: You may not, for then they will damage even more!

Rebbi: I will cut off their hooves, so they cannot damage.

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: You may not cause pain to animals!

Rebbi: I will kill them!

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir: You may not, due to 'Bal Tashchis' (wasting money)!

Rebbi kept trying to get him to agree to eat. A mountain grew between them.

Rebbi: If Hash-m does this Tzadik's will (not to eat from others) like this in his lifetime, how much the more so, after his death!

(R. Chama bar Chanina): Hash-m does the will of Tzadikim after their death more than in their lifetime.

"They were burying a man... they cast him into Elisha's grave. The man revived and got up in his feet."

Question (Rav Papa): Perhaps he did not revive in Elisha's merit, but rather to fulfill the Berachah (that he requested) of Eliyahu - "twice the spirit of Hash-m that was on you, should be on me."

Answer (Abaye): If so, the man would have lived longer. A Beraisa teaches that he did not even reach his house.

Question: If so, when did Elisha revive another person, to fulfill the Berachah?

Answer (R. Yochanan): He cured Na'aman's Tzara'as. A Metzora is considered like dead - "do not let our sister be like a Mes."

(R. Yehoshua ben Levi): White mules are called Yemim, because fear of them (Eimasam) is on people.

R. Chanina: No one ever asked me about a wound from a white mule, and Chai (he survived).

Objection: We see that people survive such wounds!

Correction (R. Chanina): No one ever asked me about a wound from a white mule, and Chaysah (the wound healed).

Objection: We see that such wounds heal!

Answer: They do not heal when the end of the mule's feet are white. R. Chanina discusses such mules.

(R. Chanina): "There is nothing other than Hash-m", even witchcraft.

A woman was trying to weigh the earth under R. Chanina's feet (in order to harm him through witchcraft). He let her, because the verse says that witchcraft will not work.

Question: R. Yochanan taught, witchcraft is called Keshafim, for it weakens the Heavenly assembly (MaCHchiSHim FaMalya)!

Answer: R. Chanina is different. Because his merit is so great, witchcraft cannot affect him.

(R. Chanina): One does not stub his finger, unless this was decreed above - "the steps of man are prepared by Hash-m"; "a man does not understand his way".

(R. Elazar): The blood that comes from a man stubbing his finger atones like the blood of a burnt-offering.

(Rava): This is when he stubs his right thumb, before it healed from the last time he stubbed it, when he was on his way to do a Mitzvah.

R. Pinchas ben Ya'ir never blessed on bread that was not his. From the day he matured, he never benefited from a meal from his father.