Brachos daf zayin and chet: Who Said It?

It is always interesting to focus not only on WHAT is said in the gemara but also on WHO said it.

דף  ז -  Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai said that one may instigate reshaim [להתגרות ברשעים]. In maseches shabbos this very same Rebbe Shimon spoke against the Romans and when they found out, he had to run into the famous cave. Don't be afraid of the bad guys, Rashbi teaches.

Also, later on in the masechta [נג] he said that it is better to throw yourself into a burning furnace than to embarrass a friend. So here he tells us that this doesn't apply to reshaim.

דף ז - Rebbe Shimon teaches that SERVING a Torah Scholar is greater than actually learning [גדול שמושה יותר מלימודה]. He learned this most likely from his Rebbe, Rebbe Akiva, who once took care of a mes mitzva and when he related this to R' Eliezer he was told that for each step he took it is as if he spilled innocent blood [Derech Eretz Zuta]. The Ri Mikorvil explains that the reason what he did was so serious was because he should have been serving a Torah Scholar. Rebbe Akiva conveyed this message to his student Rebbe Shimon.

The reason serving a Torah Scholar is so important is that one sees the Torah ALIVE as opposed to learning which is only textual. [See Ayn Ayah]

דף  ח - Rebbe Yochanan couldn't understand how there are old people in Babylonia because the Torah say that the bracha of long life applies דוקא in Eretz Yisrael. [The  answer is that they spend time in Batei Medrash which is "bechinas" Eretz Yisrael - See Maharsha dear, sweet chutznikim!!]

Rebbe Yochanan was NOT a fan of the Babylonians as evidenced by his comment in Medrash Shir Hashirim [פרשה י] that Hashem is not happy with the Babylonians as it says at the end of the eigth perek of Hoshea, so why should I like them?? So here, too, he gives them a "shtuch" [he ribs them].

However it's not so simple. It is quite disturbing to say that Rebbe Yochanan was a "Babylonianphobe" and didn't like them. He was a tzaddik and there is a mitzva in the Torah to love other Jews - including Babylonians. OF COURSE he loved everybody. All he did was ask a question that the long life of Chutz La-aretz Jews doesn't seem to be consistent with a pasuk in the Torah. Also, a study of Rav Yochanans other statements will show that he in fact had an affinity for numerous Babylonians. [A book came out in 1919 called ירושלים featuring an article by the famous author Alexander Ziskind Rabinowitz [who penned over 100 books] known as Azar, where he proved that Rav Yochanan had nothing against Babylonians עיי"ש].

I personally shake every time I am on the Long Island Railroad and the conductor announces that we are going to Babylon. על נהרות בבל שם ישבנו גם בכינו בזכרנו את ציון. Sorta makes a yid cry and want to go home. So I get off and switch trains at Jamaica. Sound familiar??:-)

דף ח - Rebbe Yehoshua Ben Levi told his son to be careful to honor an elder who forgot his Torah due to extenuating circumstances [אונס] because not only were the luchos in the Aron but the broken luchos were as well. So, too, an elder who forgot his learning due to אונס should be accorded his due honor.

We find elsewhere [in the medrash koheles on the pasuk in perek zayin כי העושק יהולל חכם] that Rebbe Yehoshua ben Levi himself was involved in communal work and thus forgot his learning.

The reason for this is explained by the Maharal in the 12th chapter of Nesiv HaTorah: When a person learns Torah he becomes a "cheftza" of Torah, a living Torah scroll, and even after he forgets his learning he remains holy. See also the sefer Margaliyos Hashas who quotes a beautiful explanation in the name of the heilige Imrei Emes of Gur.    

What is interesting to note is that the gemara compares a zaken who forgot his learning באונס to the broken luchos. It would seem then that the breaking of the luchos was considered אונס. THAT, is a chiddush.

[This was based partly on the sefer Birkas Aharon by Rav Aharon Levin Ztz"l Hy"d who was killed by the Nazis and whose grandson, Nat Lewin, is a very prominent lawyer in the US. For the record, it is my FAVORITE sefer on the masechta. Off the charts awesome:-)].