More Discussions for this daf
1. Three things that a woman is taken to task for; the Arba Amos Shel Halachah and Yir'as Shamayim 2. Pilpalta Bechochma? 3. Death at Childbirth
4. The Ya'avetz 5. [SIX] QUESTIONS YOU ARE ASKED WHEN YOU COME TO SHAMAYIM 6. The three Nochriim
7. HaZor Hakorev Yuma 8. perplexities 9. Divrei HaYamin 1: 4:42
10. More perplexities about Hillel 11. Seder Mishnayos 12. קדשים וטהרות
DAF DISCUSSIONS - SHABBOS 31

DALE GARDENSWARTZ asked:

(a) WHY ONLY THESE QUESTIONS? THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ORDER?

(b) A QUESTION IMPLIES YOU HAVE TO REPLY - DOESN"T HASH-M KNOW THE ANSWERS - CAN WE "FIB' ABOUT WHAT WE FEEL WE DID?

(c) ARE THERE OTHER GEMORAHS THAT DISCUSS THIS ISSUE?

DALE GARDENSWARTZ, BRONX, NY

The Kollel replies:

(a) The Chachamim learned that these are the six questions that will be asked from the verse cited in the Gemara prior to this statement.The questions are in the order of the phrases in the verse (see our Insights there, where we gave an explanation how these six questions correspond to the other statement of the Gemara there that the six phrases in the verse refer to the six orders of the Mishnah, and these six questions represent those Sedarim of the Mishnah, such that a person will be taken to task and asked if he worked on each of the six orders of the Mishnah as we was supposed to).

(b) When faced with the final day judgment, each person will be held accountable for what he accomplished or failed to accomplish in this world. A person's final judgment will be "signed" and certified by the person himself, as we find expressed in the Piyutim on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipur, "Yad Kol Adam Yachtom Bo," and as the Gemara says in Bava Basra 74a and in Eruvin 19a, that each and every person will give his full agreement to the judgment passed about him and will consent that the judgment is Emes (obviously, in the Olam ha'Emes, there can exist no lies, and thus on the final day of judgment it is not possible for a person to "fib"). That Hash-m knows the answers and knows what the person did or did not do is not the point of the final judgment; the point is to make the person aware, and that is done by bringing forth his own admission to his life's actions.

(c) See also Sanhedrin 7a, and Tosfos there, DH Ela. Also, a number of Sifrei Musar discuss these topics.