More Discussions for this daf
1. What are they being Mevatel 2. Becoming friendly with a gentile 3. Moreh Halachah in front of one's Rebbi
4. Siman 5. B'nei Nevi'im 6. Only A Problem of Using a Tree?
7. Contradiction in Rebbi Eliezer 8. המורה הלכה בפני רבו
DAF DISCUSSIONS - ERUVIN 63

Ben Berlin asked:

I note on page 63A that R' Eliezer says that he is not a NAvi nor the child of a NAvi.

In Pesachim it says about Benei Yisroel that if they are not Neviim, they are the children of Neviim.

How is this discrepancy reconciled?

Thank you

Ben Berlin

Director of Marketing and Operations

Archie Comics Entertainment, LLC

488 Main Avenue, Suite 300

Norwalk, CT 06851

Ben Berlin Norwalk, CT

The Kollel replies:

Why does it bother you if some people are B'nei Nevi'im, and others are not?

Nevertheless, to arrive at a deeper understanding of the two Gemaros, I think that one must take each Gemara in its context. In Eruvin, R. Eliezer countered his wife's suggestion that his prediction there appeared to stem from Nevi'us, to which he replied (correctly, as the last Nevi'im were Chagai Zecharyah and Malachi, who lived some four hundred years before his time) that he was not a Navi nor the son of a Navi.

By the same token, Hillel could not possibly have really thought that all the people were Nevi'im or even the sons of Nevi'im. In any event, does everyone who remembers a Halachah earn the title 'Navi'?

The Maharsha in fact, explains that, although it was many years since Erev Pesach had fallen on Shabbos (which explains why the Halachah had been forgotten), Hillel anticipated that there were perhaps some old men present who would remember what they had done the last time it happened, and indeed there were. So you see, that this has nothing to do with prophecy.

We therefore need to say that Hillel was merely being nice and praising Yisrael for their knowledge, in exaggerated terms.

The Tosefta however, uses the term 'Ru'ach ha'Kodesh', with regard to the people to whom Hillel was referring. In that case, what he may have meant to say was that even though Yisrael were not Nevi'im (since Nevu'ah came to an end many years earlier, as we explained), they did perhaps, possess Ru'ach ha'Kodesh, which would enable them to solve the problem.

R. Eliezer in Eruvin, for his part, was merely saying that neither was he a Navi, nor did he possess Ru'ach ha'Kodesh, but he knew from Chazal that the Talmid in question would die within the year.

Wishing you and yours a Chag Kasher ve'Samei'ach.

Eliezer Chrysler.

Sam Kosofsky comments:

Rabbotai,

Bnei Haneviim is also used as a term for a Navi in training or apprentice Navi. Is it possible that R. Eliezer was referring to himself as such i.e. not a person training to be a Navi or an aspiring Navi?

Chag Kosher V'sameyach

Sam Kosofsky