MEGILAH - 006a – מגילה נקראת – פרק ראשון – מגילה, ו ע”א

and it was found to be as I had said.^[1]

ואישתכח כוותי גרסי': - This is the reading: “and it was found to be as I had said.”

Chammas — this is Teverya.^[2]

And why is it called Chammas?

Because of the hot springs of Teverya.^[3]

Rakkas — this is Tzippori.

And why is it called Rakkas?

Because it is raised up^[4] like the bank of a river.^[5]

רקתא דנהרא - the bank of the river is higher than the river; so too Tzippori sits on top of the mountain:

Kinneres — this is Ginosar.

And why is it called Kinneres?

Because its fruits are as sweet as the sound of the harp (kinor).^[6]

Rava said: Is there anyone who says that Rakkas is not Teverya?!

But when a person dies here,^[7]

כי שכיב איניש הכא - when a great man dies in Bavel:

there they eulogize him thus:

ספדי ליה התם - in Teverya:

“Great was he in Sheshach,

ששך - Bavel, by the at-bash exchange of letters:^[8]

and he had a name in Rakkas.”

ושם לו ברקת - he had made a name for himself in Teverya^[9]:

And when they bring a coffin up there,

וכי מסקי ארון - of a dead man, from Bavel, to bury him in Teverya^[10]:

they eulogize him thus:

אמרו הכי - the eulogizers call out in the marketplaces in these words, that people should go out to meet the dead:

“Lovers of the remnant,

אוהבי שרידים - lovers of Yisrael^[11]:

dwellers of Rakkas, go out and receive the slain of the depths.”

יושבי רקת צאו וקבלו הרוגי עמק - the dead of Bavel, which is deep:

When Rabbi Zeira died,

Rabbi Zeira went up from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael and died there, in Teverya:

a certain eulogizer opened over him: “The land of Shinar^[12] conceived and gave birth; the land of splendor raised up her delight;

[ארץ צבי - the land of] Yisrael:

גידלה שעשועיה - of Shinar:

Woe to her, said Rakkas,^[13] for she has lost her precious vessel”?

Rather, [Rava]^[14][15] said: Chammas — this is the hot springs of Gerar.

Rakkas — this is Teverya.

Kinneres — this is Ginosar.

And why is it called Rakkas?

Because even the empty ones in it^[16] are as full of mitzvos as a pomegranate.^[17]

Rabbi Yirmeyah said: Rakkas is its name.

And why is it called Teverya?

Because it sits at the navel of Eretz Yisrael.

בטיבורה - in its middle:

[Rabbah]^[18] said: Rakkas is its name.

And why is it called “Teverya”?

Because its appearance is good (tovah re’iyasah).^[19]

Ze’ira said: Katron^[20] — this is Tzippori.

And why is it called Tzippori?

Because it sits on top of the mountain like a bird (tzippor).^[21]

But is Katron Tzippori?!

But Katron was in the portion of Zevulun,^[22]

as it is written (Shoftim 1:30): Zevulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Katron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol.

לא הוריש את יושבי קטרון - which came into his portion; and he transgressed what Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, you shall let no soul live (Devarim 20:16), and let them dwell there among them and pay them tribute:

And Zevulun was complaining about his lot,

על מדותיו - about his fortune, which was measured out to him from Heaven — a measure he did not want:

as it is said (Shoftim 5:18): Zevulun is a people that risked its life to die.

What is the reason? Because Naftali is on the heights of the field.

Zevulun said before Hakadosh Baruch Hu: “Master of the world, to my brothers You gave fields and vineyards, and to me You gave mountains and hills;

to my brothers You gave lands, and to me You gave seas and rivers!”

He said to him: “They will all need you, through the chilazon.”

כולן צריכין לך - all your brothers will need you:

על ידי חלזון - the chilazon comes up from the sea to the mountains, and techeles is dyed with its blood, and it is sold at high prices:

As it is said (Devarim 33:19): [They shall call peoples to the mountain] … and treasures hidden in the sand.

עמים הר יקראו - from all the tribes they will gather to your mountain to buy: treasures hidden in the sand:

Rav Yosef taught: Sefunei (treasures) — this is the chilazon.

שפוני זה חלזון - for it is a precious thing; safun means precious in the language of the beraisa:

Temunei (hidden) — this is the tunny fish.

טרית - a fish called tonina:

Chol (sand) — this is white glass.

זכוכית לבנה - which comes from sand, as is said in Yetzios HaShabbos (Shabbos 15b); and the sand of Zevulun is finer than other sands and fit for white glass:

He said before Him: “Master of the world, who will inform me?”

מי מודיעני - about this, that they will pay me money:

He said to him (Devarim, there): There they shall offer offerings of righteousness.

שם יזבחו זבחי צדק - just as theft is forbidden in an olah, so they will not steal anything from you; for if one takes even a perutah’s worth without paying, the dyeing and the sand will be spoiled, and it will be of no use at all:

This will be a sign for you: “Whoever takes from you without paying will have no success at all in his business.”

Whoever finds a chilazon and takes it without paying will not succeed:

Now if you think Katron is Tzippori, why was he complaining about his lot? Tzippori is something very superior!

And if you say it does not have flowing with milk and honey?

זבת חלב ודבש - the goats eat figs and the honey drips from them, and the milk flows from the goats, and they become like a stream:

But Reish Lakish said: “I myself saw the flow of milk and honey of Tzippori, and it was sixteen mil by sixteen mil?

ששה עשר מיל - four parsaos:^[23]

And if you say his was not as large as his brothers’?

But Rabbah bar bar Chanah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: I myself saw the flow of milk and honey of all of Eretz Yisrael, and it was like from Bei Kuvei to the fort of Tulbakni,

לדידי חזי לי זבת חלב ודבש דכל ארץ ישראל - in every place where it is; and if you were to join it together it would come to: like from Bei Kuvei to the fort of Tulbakni — names of places:

אקרא - a place at a river crossing; in the vernacular, porto:

twenty-two parsaos long and six parsaos wide?^[24]

Even so, fields and vineyards were preferable to him.

עדיפי ליה - dearer to him:

It is also precise, as it is written (Shoftim 5:18): And Naftali on the heights of the field.

Learn from it.

Rabbi Abahu said: (Tzefanyah 2:4) And Ekron shall be uprooted — this is Kisri,^[25] the daughter of Edom,^[26] which^[27] sits among the sands, and which^[28] was a peg stuck into Yisrael in the days of the Greeks.

יתד תקועה - for evil:

And when the kingdom of the Chashmona’im prevailed and defeated them, they would call it: “The capture of the Tower of Shir.”

אחידת מגדל שיר - the conquest of the Tower of Shir:

Rabbi Yosi bar Chanina said: What is the meaning of what is written (Zecharyah 9:7): And I will remove his blood from his mouth,^[29] and his abominations from between his teeth,^[30] and he too shall remain for our G‑d?^[31]

והסירותי דמיו מפיו וגו' - it is written about Tzor, which is the head of Edom:

And I will remove his blood from his mouth — this is their Bei Bamya.

And his abominations from between his teeth — this is their Bei Galya.

גלייא במיא - chief houses of idolatry belonging to Edom:

And he too shall remain for our G‑d — these are the shuls and batei midrash in Edom.

(There): And he^[32] shall be like a chief in Yehudah, and Ekron like a Yevusi,^[33]

כיבוסי - that is Yerushalayim:

והיה אדום לאלופי יהודה - and Ekron will be a house of learning in Yerushalayim:

these are the theaters and circuses in Edom,^[34] in which the princes of Yehudah are destined to teach Torah in public.

Rabbi Yitzchak said: Leshem — this is Pamyas.

לשם - a city which the children of Dan conquered^[35]:

זו פמייס - from where the Yarden comes out, as the master said: the Yarden comes out of the cave of Pamyas (Bechoros 55a):

Ekron shall be uprooted (Tzefanyah 2:4) — this is Kisri, the daughter of Edom, which was a metropolis of kings.

מטרופולין - a Greek term: mother of the kingdom — metra, mother; polin, a term of rulership; as the master said: until dyopli^[36] came from the city — two officers (Taanis 18b):

Some say: that kings are raised in it.

דמרבי - that the sons of kings are brought up there:

And some say: that kings are appointed from it.

Kisri and Yerushalayim: if a person tells you both are destroyed — do not believe him.

Both are settled — do not believe him.

Kisri is destroyed and Yerushalayim is settled, Yerushalayim is destroyed and Kisri is settled — believe him.

As it is said (Yechezkel 26:2): I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste.

אמלאה החרבה - the beginning of the pasuk: Because Tzor^[37] has said against Yerushalayim … I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste^[38] — now I will be filled from her ruin:

If this one is full, that one is desolate; if that one is full, this one is desolate.

Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak said: From here (Bereishis 25:23): And one people shall be stronger than the other people.^[39]

And Rabbi Yitzchak said: What is the meaning of what is written (Yeshayahu 26:10): Let the wicked one be shown favor, he will not learn righteousness?^[40]

רשע - this is Esav:

Yitzchak said before Hakadosh Baruch Hu: “Master of the world, let Esav be shown favor.”

Yitzchak said to Hakadosh Baruch Hu: Let the wicked one be shown favor — this is Esav.

He said to him: “He is wicked.”

Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to him: He is wicked:

He said to Him:^[41] “He will not learn righteousness?!”^[42]

אמר - Yitzchak: he will not learn righteousness — that is, no one can plead merit on his behalf:

He said to him:^[43] (Yeshayahu 26:10) In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully.^[44]

אמר לו - Hakadosh Baruch Hu:

בארץ נכוחות יעול - he will destroy Yerushalayim:

בארץ נכוחות יעול - that is, he is destined to destroy Eretz Yisrael:

He said to Him: “If so, let him not behold the majesty of Hashem” (Yeshayahu 26:10).

אמר יצחק - If so, let him not behold the majesty of Hashem:

And Rabbi Yitzchak said: What is the meaning of what is written (Tehillim 140:9): Grant not, Hashem, the desires of the wicked; do not further his scheme, lest they exalt themselves, selah?

Yaakov said before Hakadosh Baruch Hu: “Master of the world, grant not to Esav the wicked the desire of his heart;

do not further his scheme” —

זממו אל תפק - do not let it out of his nostrils. A zamam is a kind of iron ring that is put in the nose of an anakah,^[45] which is pulled by it; and because of its strength it can be held only by it:

this is

Tosfos

שטובה ראייתה - for there were gardens and orchards there:

דכל הנוטל (פרוטה) ממך בלא דמים אין מועיל - as it is written, there they shall offer offerings of righteousness, and theft is of no avail in an offering:

טראטריות וקרקסיאות - Some explain: houses of idolatry, and he calls them by a term of disgrace; and karkasios means a privy, in Arabic. But it is difficult to say that one could learn Torah in such filthy places. Rather, certainly — may it become a desolation, speedily in our days — it means the buildings where the idolaters gather for their assemblies:

Notes

1. 1. It turned out that Rabbi Yochanan was right in what he said.
2. 2. Earlier, on amud a of daf 5, the Gemara brought the pasuk (Yehoshua 19:35): “And the fortified cities: Tziddim, Tzer and Chammas, Rakkas and Kinneres.” Rashi explained: “And the fortified cities, Tziddim etc. — in the portion of Naftali.” And the Gemara there said: “and we hold below that Rakkas is Teverya.” Following on from this, the Gemara now brings the words of Rabbi Yochanan, and the sugya here brings other opinions and the other places mentioned in that pasuk.
3. 3. Chammas, from the word cham, hot.
4. 4. That it is high.
5. 5. Like the bank of a river.
6. 6. Like the sound of the harp.
7. 7. Rava lived in Bavel. He says that when a person dies in Bavel and is also buried in Bavel, this is how they eulogize him in Rakkas, that is, Teverya.
8. 8. At-bash is a letter exchange in which the first letter of the alef-beis is swapped for the last, the second for the second-to-last, and so on (alef with tav, beis with shin). By it Sheshach becomes Bavel, so the eulogy speaks of the man’s greatness in Babylon.
9. 9. For Rabbi Yochanan, Reish Lakish and their students lived in Teverya; and Rabbi Zeira too, who is mentioned further on, settled in Teverya when he went up from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael, and learned from Rabbi Yochanan, Reish Lakish and their students. If so, Rakkas is Teverya.
10. 10. Above it speaks of a man buried in Bavel; here it speaks of bringing him to Teverya for burial.
11. 11. The Jewish people are called sridim (survivors), from the language of the pasuk in Yirmiyahu (Yirmiyahu 31:2): “a people of survivors of the sword.”
12. 12. Shinar = Bavel.
13. 13. = Teverya, where Rabbi Zeira lived.
14. 14. In the Gemara the reading is Rabbah, and the Mesores HaShas emends it to Rava.
15. 15. He disagrees with Rabbi Yochanan, who said that Rakkas is Tzippori; rather, Rakkas is Teverya.
16. 16. That is, empty people.
17. 17. If Rakkas came from the word rak (empty), there would be no hint in it of being full of mitzvos. So it must come from the word rakasech, “your temple,” in the pasuk (Shir HaShirim 6:7) “Like a split pomegranate is your temple”; and from it the Gemara in Sanhedrin 37a learns that even the empty ones among you are as full of mitzvos as a pomegranate.
18. 18. In the Gemara the reading is Rava, and the Mesores HaShas emends it to Rabbah.
19. 19. Teverya looks good, because it had beautiful gardens and orchards; according to the Maharsha it refers to the Torah scholars, since the Sanhedrin was there, etc.
20. 20. Katron is mentioned in Shoftim 1:30: “Zevulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Katron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol,” as below.
21. 21. Above, too, he said of Tzippori that it is raised up.
22. 22. The Gemara’s question: if Katron is Tzippori, then Tzippori is in the portion of Zevulun. If so, why does Zevulun complain about his portion? Tzippori was full of every good thing.
23. 23. By the reckoning of Rabbi Chaim Na’eh: a mil = 960 meters; a parsah = 3.84 km.
24. 24. If so, the five parsaos by four parsaos that the tribe of Zevulun had is a larger share than if one divides the 22 parsaos into 12 portions, in which case each portion comes to [less than] two parsaos, while he received four parsaos.
25. 25. Its name is Kisri, and in Scripture it is called Ekron because it will be uprooted (te’aker). Kisri has the same numerical value as akar, uprooted (370). Maharsha.
26. 26. “Daughter of Edom” = one of the cities of Edom; so it was in the time of the Gemara. That is, first the Greeks were there, then the Chashmona’im prevailed, and afterwards Edom — the Romans — came there. (At first the Pelishtim were there, but Bnei Yisrael conquered it, since it is part of Eretz Yisrael; and after the Greeks were there, the Chashmona’im conquered it. So it appears from the words of the Maharsha.)
27. 27. Kisri.
28. 28. Kisri.
29. 29. The blood of the offerings poured out on their altar, that is, their “mouth.”
30. 30. That is, the offerings they bring at Bei Bamya and Bei Galya, which are the abominations between the teeth of the idolatry.
31. 31. The end of the pasuk there, “and he shall be like a chief in Yehudah, and Ekron like a Yevusi,” is expounded by the Gemara after this; it continues “Ekron shall be uprooted,” expounded from the pasuk above.
32. 32. Ekron.
33. 33. The city of Ekron — the Kisri mentioned above — will be like a Yevusi (Yerushalayim): like a house of learning in Yerushalayim.
34. 34. Theaters and circuses were the Romans’ public halls for shows and games, places of levity where idolaters gathered. The Gemara foresees that these very places in Edom will become halls where Torah is taught in public.
35. 35. Yehoshua 19:47 — “And the border of the children of Dan went out from them; and the children of Dan went up and fought against Leshem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt in it, and called Leshem Dan, after the name of Dan their father.” Apparently the connection is only that these are among the cities that Rabbi Yitzchak expounded.
36. 36. Dyo = two; pili = officers.
37. 37. In Rashi above: “which is the head of Edom.”
38. 38. “Son of man, because Tzor has said against Yerushalayim: Aha, she is broken, the gates of the peoples; she has turned to me; I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste.”
39. 39. [Rashi, Bereishis 25:23]
40. 40. “Let the wicked one be shown favor, he will not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of Hashem.”
41. 41. Yitzchak to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
42. 42. Has he not the merit of even one righteous deed?
43. 43. Hakadosh Baruch Hu to Yitzchak.
44. 44. Eretz Yisrael is called “the land of uprightness”; ye’aval = he will go up and destroy Yerushalayim.
45. 45. I do not know what an anakah is, for in the Chumash the anakah is mentioned among the creeping creatures, but Rashi says that because of its strength it can be held only by it.