003b – מאימתי – פרק ראשון – ברכות, ג ע”ב

In a new ruin.^[1]

בחדתי - that has newly fallen: its wall has fallen, but it is still in its sound state:

But derive it from the mazikin!

Where there are two.

If there are two, there is no suspicion either!

חשד נמי ליכא - as we learned (in maseches Kiddushin 80b): “but a woman may be secluded with two men”:

Where there are two, and they are pritzim.^[2]

בתרי ופריצי - for we say there: “they taught this only of upright men”:

“Because of collapse.”

But derive it from suspicion and from the mazikin!

Where there are two, and they are upright.

“Because of the mazikin.”

But derive it from suspicion and from collapse!

In a new ruin, and where there are two, and they are upright.

If there are two, there are no mazikin either!

In their own place, we are concerned.

במקומן חיישינן - in a place where they are constantly found, we are concerned even with two:

And if you wish, say:

in fact it speaks of one person, and of a new ruin that stands in the open field.

בדברא - in the field:

For there, there is no concern of suspicion, since a woman is not commonly found in the field; but there is concern of the mazikin.

Our Rabbis taught: The night has four watches.

These are the words of Rebbi.^[3]

Rabbi Nasan says: Three.

What is the reason of Rabbi Nasan?

As it is written (Shoftim 7:19): And Gidon^[4] came, and the hundred men who were with him, to the edge of the camp, at the beginning of the middle watch.

It was taught: “Middle” is said only of one that has one before it and one after it.

And Rebbi?

What is “the middle”? One of the middle ones among the middle ones.

And Rabbi Nasan?

Is it written “the middle one among the middle ones”?! “The middle” is written!

What is the reason of Rebbi?

Rabbi Zerika said in the name of Rabbi Ami in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: One verse says (Tehillim 119:62): At midnight I rise to give thanks to You for Your righteous judgments.

And another verse says (Tehillim 119:148): My eyes preceded the watches.

קדמו עיני אשמורות - it follows that midnight, when David would rise, contains two watches:

How is this so?

The night has four watches.

And Rabbi Nasan?

ורבי נתן - he will tell you: this “my eyes preceded the watches” that David said means he preceded other kings, whose way is to rise at three hours of the day, at the beginning of the third hour:

He holds like Rabbi Yehoshua.

As we learned in the Mishnah: Rabbi Yehoshua says: until three hours,^[5]

for such is the way of kings, to rise at three hours.

Six of the night

שית דליליא - and midnight is six hours:

and two of the day make two watches.

ותרתי דיממא - for other kings are asleep; so they make two watches of eight hours:

Rav Ashi said: A watch and a half are also called “watches”.

And Rabbi Zerika said in the name of Rabbi Ami in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: One may not speak in the presence of the dead except words about the dead.

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: We said this only of words of Torah,

אלא לדבר הלכה - it is forbidden to speak of them before him, for everyone is obligated to speak of them and the dead man is silent, and it becomes one who mocks the poor blasphemes his Maker (Mishlei 17:5):

but ordinary matters — we have no objection.

אבל מילי דעלמא - for there is no disgrace to one who is silent in them; we have no objection:

And some say: Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: We said this even of words of Torah, and all the more so of ordinary matters.

But did David rise at midnight?!

He rose from the evening!

מאורתא - from the beginning of the night:

As it is written (Tehillim 119:147): I rose early in the neshef and cried out.

And from where do we know that this neshef is the evening?

As it is written (Mishlei 7:9): in the neshef, in the evening of the day, in the blackness of night and darkness.

בנשף בערב יום - when the day turns to evening, it is called neshef:

Rav Oshaya said in the name of Rabbi Acha: This is what he said:

הכי קאמר - the verse of “at midnight”:

Midnight never passed me by in sleep.

מעולם לא עבר עלי חצות לילה בשינה - for before then I would already be up:

Rabbi Zeira said: Until midnight he would doze like a horse;

מתנמנם כסוס - he would occupy himself with Torah while dozing, like a horse, which never falls fast asleep but dozes and wakes continually:

from then on he would strengthen himself like a lion.

Rav Ashi said: Until midnight he would occupy himself with words of Torah; from then on, with songs and praises.

בשירות ותשבחות - and so it is explained in that verse, to give thanks to You, and so on:

But is neshef the evening?! Neshef is the morning!

As it is written (Shmuel I 30:17): And David struck them from the neshef until the evening of their morrow.

למחרתם - on the day after their encampment there:

Does it not mean from morning until night?

No.

From evening until evening.

If so, let it write “from the neshef until the neshef”, or “from the evening until the evening”!

Rather, Rava said: There are two neshafim.

הכי גרסינן - If so, let it write “from the neshef until the neshef” or “from the evening until the evening”; rather, Rav Ashi said:^[6] there are two neshafim:

The night passes, and the day comes;

the day passes, and the night comes.

נשף יממא - it leaps and goes up; as in “to leap from its place” (Megillah 3a); as in “the hip-joint socket^[7] that has slipped from its place is treifah” (Chulin 42b):

And did David know when midnight was?

Even Moshe Rabbeinu did not know, as it is written (Shemos 11:4): About midnight I will go out into the midst of Mitzrayim.^[8]

What is “about midnight”?

If you say that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him “about midnight” —

is there any doubt before Heaven?!

Rather, He said to him: At midnight; and he came and said: About midnight.

ואתא איהו ואמר כחצות - because he did not know how to pinpoint the hour and set his words at the moment of the event:

So it was in doubt for him, and David knew?!

David had a sign.

For Rav Acha bar Bizna said in the name of Rabbi Shimon Chasida: A harp hung above David's bed, and when midnight came a north wind would come and blow on it, and it would play by itself.

כנור היה תלוי למעלה ממטתו - and its openings faced north; when midnight came, the north wind would blow on it. For the master said (Bava Basra 25a): “Four winds blow every day: in the first six hours of the day the east wind blows, with the course of the sun; in the last six, the south wind; at the beginning of the night, the west wind; and at midnight, the north wind”:

At once he would get up and occupy himself with Torah until the dawn rose.

Once the dawn rose, the Sages of Yisrael came in to him and said to him: Our master the king! Your people Yisrael need a livelihood!

He said to them: Go and make a living from one another.

They said to him: A handful does not satisfy a lion, and a pit is not filled from its own clods.

אין הבור מתמלא מחוליתו - one who digs a clod from a dug pit and throws it back into it does not fill it this way. So too here: if you do not provide for our poor from elsewhere, we cannot support them from our own:

He said to them: Go and stretch out your hands with a troop.^[9]

At once they would take counsel with Achisofel,^[10]

יועצים באחיתופל - which way to go, how to set up the posts and the raiding party, and the tactics of an ambush in war:

and consult the Sanhedrin,^[11]

ונמלכין בסנהדרין - they would take permission from them, so that they would pray for them:

and ask of the Urim Vetumim.^[12]

ושואלין באורים ותומים - whether they would succeed:

Rav Yosef said: What is the verse?^[13]

(Divrei Hayamim I 27:34) And after Achisofel, Benayahu ben Yehoyada and Evyasar; and the general of the king's army was Yoav.

הכי גרסינן - What is the verse? “And after Achisofel, Benayahu ben Yehoyada and Evyasar, and the general of the king's army was Yoav; Achisofel — this is the counselor”:

Achisofel — this is the counselor.

And so it says (Shmuel II 16:23): And the counsel of Achisofel, which he counseled in those days, was as when one inquires of the word of God.

Tosafos

במקומן חיישינן - that is, where it is known that the mazikin frequent it. And that case above, where with two pritzim there is no concern of mazikin, speaks of an ordinary place where they do not frequent:

אין אומרין בפני המת אלא דבריו של מת - and Rav Alfas^[14] ruled in the name of Rav Hai that this is specifically words of Torah, but ordinary matters — we have no objection; and specifically within his four amos:

[שם מעולם לא עבר עליי חצות לילה בשינה - it seems that he means: it never happened that I was asleep at midnight, and sometimes I would rise even earlier, at the neshef]

ואתא איהו ואמר כחצות - and if you ask: in any case, let him say “at midnight”, as they told him from Heaven, for they told him the truth! One can say that he did not want to tell them something he could not demonstrate and prove if they asked him:

רוח צפונית מנשבת - that is, alone; for we say in perek Lo Yachpor (Bava Basra 25a) that it blows together with each and every one:

ואין הבור מתמלא מחוליתו - Rashi explained: if he digs and puts its earth back into it, it will not be full. But it is difficult, for the case is not like the parable: he was telling them only to take from the rich and give to the poor; had he commanded them to take from the poor and give back to them, then it would be like the parable. And Rabbeinu Tam explains “mechulyaso” as from its spring, that is, a pit is not filled from the water that wells up in it; and in the Tosefta there is: a pit is not filled from its own spring unless water is drawn into it from elsewhere. And the Ri explained: if you dig from this side and leave it on the other side, it will not be full, for what is put here is missing there; so too, what is taken from the rich will be missing from the rich:

Notes

1. 1. The Gemara is answering the question at the foot of 3a: why give suspicion as a reason when the danger of collapse would be enough? It sets the case in a new ruin, whose walls are still sound.
2. 2. Pritzim are men of loose conduct. With them, even the presence of two does not remove the concern of yichud.
3. 3. Rebbi is Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi, who compiled the Mishnah. Rabbi Nasan, who disputes him, is Rabbi Nasan Habavli, a Tanna of the same generation.
4. 4. Gidon, one of the Shoftim, attacked the camp of Midian at night with three hundred men. The Gemara learns from the verse that the night has a “middle” watch.
5. 5. This is the Mishnah on 9b about the morning Shema, where Rabbi Yehoshua allows it until three hours into the day.
6. 6. Rashi's text of the Gemara reads “Rav Ashi” where ours reads “Rava”.
7. 7. The hip-joint socket is where the thigh bone meets the body. If it is dislocated, the animal is treifah.
8. 8. Moshe said this to Pharaoh, warning him of the plague of the firstborn.
9. 9. That is: go out in war against your enemies and live from the spoil.
10. 10. Achisofel was David's counselor, whose advice was taken like the word of God. He later joined Avshalom's revolt.
11. 11. The Sanhedrin is the great court of seventy-one; a discretionary war is not undertaken without its consent.
12. 12. The Urim Vetumim was the Divine Name placed in the Kohen Gadol's breastplate. Questions were put to it, and the answer appeared in the letters of the breastplate.
13. 13. The heart of this seems to be stated already in the Torah (Bamidbar 27:21): Yehoshua is to stand before Elazar the Kohen, who will ask for him by the judgment of the Urim, and Rashi there explains “all the congregation” as the Sanhedrin. Only the counsel of Achisofel is not found there.
14. 14. Rav Alfas is the Rif, Rabbi Yitzchak Alfasi. Rav Hai is Rav Hai Gaon, the last of the Geonim of Pumbedisa.