Bava Basra - Daf 14

• Audio Timestamps

0:00 - The 3 Sugyos

2:43 - Review of 3 Sugyos

5:12- Siman

8:03 - 4 Blatt Back Chazarah

15:06 - Pop Quiz (Last 7 blatt)

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• Rebbe Meir: The ארון’s dimensions were fifteen by nine tefachim, and the Torah was stored inside

Rebbe Meir taught in a Baraisa that the Aron’s measurements were given in amos of six tefachim each. Thus, the Aron was fifteen tefachim long and nine tefachim wide. The לוחות, each of which was six by six tefachim, took up twelve tefachim of length, and an additional tefach was taken by the walls of the Aron. The remaining two tefachim contained the sefer Torah written by Moshe. For the width, six tefachim were used by the לוחות, one by the walls, and the last two were to ease the removal and insertion of the sefer Torah. The Gemara will explain that the sefer Torah was rolled on one pole to its beginning (unlike an ordinary sefer Torah, which is wound around two poles to the center), so it only is two tefachim wide. Still, since something two tefachim wide cannot fit in a space exactly two tefachim wide, Rav Ashi explains: דכריך ביה פורתא וכרכיה לעיל – a small amount was rolled away from the scroll, and rolled above the sefer.

• Rebbe Yehudah: The ארון’s dimensions were 12 ½ by 7 ½ tefachim, and the Torah was stored outside Rebbe Yehudah holds the Aron’s amos were of five tefachim each, so it was 12 ½ long by 7 ½ tefachim wide. Twelve tefachim of length housed the לוחות, and the remaining half-tefach consisted of the two walls. Six tefachim of width were used by the לוחות, and a half-tefach for the walls. The remaining tefach was used to store the two silver עמודים – rods (Rebbe Meir holds they rested at the Aron’s side). Rebbe Yehudah says the sefer Torah was stored on top of the chest sent by the פלשתים, which was kept next to the Aron. Before the פלשתים sent the tribute, the sefer Torah rested on a shelf.

Rebbe Meir’s source that the sefer Torah was contained in the Aron was from a double exclusion, and the Gemara explains that Rebbe Yehudah derives from this that the שברי לוחות – broken first Tablets were kept in the Aron. After adding that Hashem’s Name, and all His subordinate Names, were kept in the Aron, the Gemara provides Rebbe Meir’s source that the שברי לוחות were in the Aron: אשר שברת ושמתם – which you broke, and you should put them, the extra phrase teaching that the broken לוחות were stored in the Aron.

• Order of Neviim and Kesuvim

A Baraisa teaches the order of Neviim: יהושע, שופטים, שמואל, מלכים, ירמיה, יחזקאל, ישעיה, and תרי עשר. Although הושע received נבואה before the others of that time, since his נבואה was recorded together with that of חגי, זכריה, and מלאכי, his נבואה is included with theirs in תרי עשר. It was not written as a separate sefer, and first, because איידי דזוטר מירכס – since it is short, it would be lost. The Gemara asks that ישעיה should precede ירמיה and יחזקאל, since he lived before them. It answers that since the conclusion of מלכים is about destruction, ירמיה is entirely about destruction, יחזקאל begins with destruction and ends with consolation, וישעיה כוליה נחמתא – and ישעיה is entirely about consolation, the Neviim are ordered in a way that flows from destruction to consolation.

The Baraisa then gives the order of Kesuvim: רות, תהלים, איוב, משלי, קהלת, שיר השירים, איכה, דניאל, מגילת אסתר, עזרא, and דברי הימים. Even according to the opinion that איוב was in Moshe’s time (and earliest), אתחולי בפורענותא לא מתחלינן – we do not begin with punishment. Although רות begins with punishment, it is a פורענות דאית ליה אחרית – punishment which has a positive future, because Dovid descended from her. She was called רות, because Dovid descended from her, שריוהו להקב"ה בשירות ותושבחות – who sated Hashem with songs and praises.

Siman – Hand (Juggler)

The workers constructing a golden ארון were distracted by a juggler and instead of making it 15 x 9 tefachim and storing the sefer Torah inside, they made it 12 ½ by 9 ½ tefachim and had to store the sefer Torah outside and were shocked when the juggler named each one of his juggling balls after one of the Neviim and recited them in order.