Resources for Kesubos daf 61
1. The גמרא says that רב אשי put himself in mortal danger in order to save מר זוטרא who was in danger of dying because of the smell of the food. רב אשי was זוכה to a נס. The חכמים ask him why he put himself in that situation? ב אשי answers that he saw מר זוטרא was in mortal danger. The מהרש"א explains this גמרא by saying that the חכמים thought that רב אשי put himself in more serious danger than מר זוטרא was and therefore asked why he did that. רב אשי answered that in fact מר זוטרא was in greater danger. The חתם סופר in his חידושים learns from this that one is obligated to put himself in danger in order to save another Jew. However, he quotes the רדב"ז in חלק ג׳ סימן תרכ"ז who disagrees with this and says one does not need to put themselves in danger in order to save someone else. One of the reasons the רדב"ז mentions is that it isn’t דרכי נועם for the תורה to insist that someone put themselves in mortal danger in order to save someone else and doing so is a חסידות של שטות. Much of what the רדב"ז discusses revolves around putting a limb in danger (which was the question at hand to the רדב"ז). While the חתם סופר is unsure about the חיוב to put yourself in mortal danger, he is certain that you must be willing to possibly give up a limb (assuming your life would not be in jeopardy) and says that’s exactly what our גמרא was talking about! In other words, the danger that רבא אשי was in was that he would have had his finger cut off (presumably for sticking the kings guards finger in the food) and in that case you must be willing to possibly sacrifice a limb in order to save someone life. The סמ"ע in חו"מ סימן תכ"ו brings a ירושלמי that says that one must put their lives in ספק סכנה to save a Jew but the סמ"ע says the fact that none of the poskim brought this ירושלמי means we don’t pasken like it. Rav Moshe z”l in אגרות משה, יו"ד ב סימן קע"ד ענף ד says that one is not מחוייב to put themselves in danger to save another Jew since the reason you would need to is על תעמוד על דם רעך and one doesn’t need to give up their life for a לאו. Nonetheless, Rav Moshe says that you are allowed to put yourself in ספק סכנה if you wish but it would be אסור to willingly give up your life for someone else becasue who says his blood is redder than yours.
2. The מהרש"א on that גמרא also says that it must be that מר זוטרא just did a טעימה but did not really eat the food since if he had done so it would have been considered a תקלה since the food was not kosher and the גמרא would have needed to ask why Hashem let that happen since “אין הקב"ה מביא תקלה אפילו על במהתן של צדיקים”. Just a הערה--the מהרש"א is a חידוש for a few reasons. First, why would it be a תקלה if it was היתר גמור since it was a case of פּיקוח נפש? Second, תוספות in שבת דף י"ב ע"ב ד"ה השתא brings a מדרש that says that ר׳ זירא ate non מעושר fruit and says on this אם הראשונים כמלאכים...אנו כחמורים ולא כחמורו של פּנחס בן יאיר. So you see that the concept of Hashem not allowing צדיקים to ever eat treif no longer applies even in the time of אמוראים.
3. The משנה says that the עונה האמורה בתורה depends on a person’s occupation. The פּני יהושע (implicitly) asks the obvious: The תורה does not say that. All it says is that a person must give his wife her clothes, food, and עונה but it doesn’t give any specific guidelines, so how could the גמרא says that the עונה “mentioned in the תורה” refers to a specific livelihood? He answers that the תורה doesn’t need to say anything specific by clothes and food since it is obvious that it means “whatever she needs”. However, עונה sounds like a specific time, yet the תורה doesn’t say what that is. Therefore, it must be that that the תורה meant that it is מסור לחכמים to decide what it is, so the גמרא can rightfully say it is the עונה האמורה בתורה is what חז"ל said it was.
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