Answers to this Weeks Riddles

1) The Darkei Teshuvah (13, s.k. 5) cites the Maharashdam, who learns that if fish are gathered from the water once they are dead, they are forbidden to be eaten. The Gemara says, that the reason fish don’t require shechitah [slaughtering] is because: מן המים זוהי שחיטתן אסיפתן - their gathering from the water is their slaughtering. Therefore, if they are already dead, the Maharashdam learns that gathering them from the water doesn’t help, as one can’t fulfil the mitzvah of shechitah on a dead animal (see Kesef Mishnah, Hilchos Shechitah 1:3).

Bnei Yisrael were careful to only eat kosher in Mitzrayim as is clear from the Mavor Yabok (Derush to Parshas Shemos). Therefore, if dead fish are forbidden to eat, then presumably Bnei Yisrael were careful not to eat them. This leads to the following question, how did the Yidden have gefilte fish on Shabbos?

Perhaps this is the mekor for eating tinned gefilta fish on Shabbos, as perhaps this is what Bnei Yisrael brought with them when going down to Mitzrayim, and they ate tinned gefilta fish, as they couldn’t eat fresh fish from the rivers, as the fish died in the river and never had shechita!!!

On a more serious note, however, we can answer that the makkos only effected the water belonging to the Egyptians, however, the Yidden’s water remained water, and the fish in it never died, so Bnei Yisrael were able to eat fish from their own water supply. However, if they would want to take fish from the Nile, or from any other Egyptian water supply, then in fact they wouldn’t be able to eat the fish.

2) i) They were both from water, ii) They were both performed by Aharon, iii) They both caused a bad smell (וב אש היאר ותבאש הארץ), iv) The magicians were able to replicate both these makkos. (They were also both brought about with a stick, however, most makkos had this similarity.)

3) ובמשארותיך

4) In this week’s parsha we learn how Moshe Rabbeinu tells Pharaoh:כצאתי את העיר אפרוש כפי – “When I leave the city, I will raise my hands in prayer to bring the plague to an end” (9:29). Rashi explains:אבל בתוך העיר לא התפלל ,לפי שהיתה מלאה גלולים – “He didn’t want to daven whilst in the city, as it was full of avodah zorah.”

What is the problem with davening next to avodah zorah? Presumably this is the same concept that we find that one isn’t allowed to daven in a place which is dirty with tzo’ah [excrement] or mei raglayim [urine]. The same halachah applies to learning Torah, and one isn’t allowed to learn Torah in a place which is dirty.

The Gemara in Shabbos (30b) recounts how Dovid HaMelech was informed that he was going to die on Shabbos, and once he heard this, he made sure to spend the entire Shabbos learning Torah, so that the malach hamoves wouldn’t be able to get him, as Torah learning protects.

The question is, surely at some point he would need the beis hakisay, and it is forbidden to learn and even think Torah there, so why didn’t the malach hamoves simply wait for him to go to the beis hakisay and kill him there?

i)

Since he was in a situation of pikuach nefesh, as he knew that the malach hamoves was waiting to get him, and it was the Torah learning that was protecting him, he had a heter to learn in the beis hakisay, as pikuach nefesh overrides the prohibition to learn Torah in dirty places.

ii)

The Gemara in Zevochim (102b) relates a teaching that Rava heard from Reb Eliezer B’Rebbi Shimon in the beis hakisay. The Gemara asks what the heter was to learn in the beis hakisay and the Gemara answers: אנסו שאני – for someone who can’t control himself it is different. Rashi explains this to mean:שהיתה שמועתו שגורה בפיו ומהרהר בה על כרחו – “his learning was so recurrent in his mouth, that he thought about it against his will.” Dovid HaMelech learnt Torah the entire day, therefore, presumably when he went to the beis hakisay he would also continue to learn Torah against his will, therefore, the malach hamoves couldn’t get him.

iii)

The Gemara in Mo’ed Kotan (28a) relates that Rav Sheshes once met the malach hamoves in the middle of the marketplace, and he said to the malach hamoves: “Are you going to kill me in the marketplace like an animal? Take me inside and kill me inside.” Based on this we can answer that Dovid HaMelech wasn’t worried that he would be killed in the beis hakisay, as it’s not kavod for the malach hamoves and Dovid HaMelech to meet in such a place.

iv)

The Yerushalmi (Shabbos 3:3) teaches that one may ask about halachos related to a bathhouse in a bathhouse and halachos related to a beis hakisay in a beis hakisay. According to this, Dovid HaMelech was able to continue learning in the beis hakisay, and he would simply learn the halachos related to the beis hakisay.

However, the Ramban (Shabbos 40, cited in Beis Yosef, Orach Chaim 85) writes that the Bavli argues on the Yerushalmi and holds that doing so is not forbidden, and one is only allowed to stop someone from doing an issur in the beis hakisay, however, one isn’t allowed to positively sit down and learn the related halachos.

Halachah lema’aseh the Rema (Orach Chaim 85, s.k. 2) rules that it is forbidden to learn the halachos related to a bathhouse in a bathhouse and the halachos related to the beis hakisay in a beis hakisay.

v)

The Shu”t Salmas Chaim (siman 238) writes very simply that since Dovid HaMelech needed to learn the entire Shabbos to stay alive, he held himself back from going to the beis hakisay the entire Shabbos.

[This answer is slightly difficult as if one needs to go to the beis hakisay it is forbidden to learn. Unless we say, since Dovid HaMelech knew that his life was at stake, he somehow managed to make himself not even need to be excused.] (The above five answers I saw brought down in Madanay Asher)

vi)

Since it’s not possible to learn without going to the beis hakisay, the going to the beis hakisay is itself like learning Torah, as anything that one does to help him learn Torah is considered like learning Torah.

Dovid HaMelech himself teaches us this when he says:אחת שאלתי ... שבתי בבית ה' כל ימי חיי – “One thing I ask ... to sit in the house of Hashem all the days of my life.” How is it possible to sit in the beis hamedrash the entire time, surely Dovid would need to be excused, eat, take care of various needs etc.? The answer is, if it is all being done to help learn Torah, then the acts themselves that are being done to help with the Torah is considered like one is sitting in the house of Hashem.