Resources for Rosh Hashana daf 11

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. There is a very fundamental ר"ן here that is relevant to our גמרא. See the ר"ן on דף ג' בדפּי הרי"פ (going on a later גמרא) who asks why ראש השנה is the יום הדין for mankind? If you hold like רבי יהושע who says the world was created in ניסן, then it is certainly a strong question; but even according to ר"א who holds the world was created in תשרי, it still does not explain why the day man was created needs to be a יום הדין. The ר"ן brings a פּסיקתא in the name of רבי אליעזר that states, אדם הראשון was born, sinned, judged, and pardoned on the first day he was created. Hashem said to אדם, “just as you were pardoned on your judgment today, so too will it be a סימן for your children that they will be judged and pardoned on this day as well”. The ר"ן then explains according to רבי יהושע who says that man was created in ניסן, we are judged in תשרי since יוה"כ (which is a day of forgiveness) is in תשרי and Hashem wants our דין to work within a system of being judged on ראש השנה and having ten days to repent before יוה"כ when the גזר דין is finalized. The ר"ן even suggests that Hashem had begun to forgive the Jewish people in the desert starting from ראש השנה and that their forgiveness was completed on יום כיפּור which would be another reason why Hashem wanted the יום הדין to be at this time of סליחה וכפּרה.
  2. The גמרא says that שרה was נפקדה on ראש השנה. See the עטרת זקנים in,שולחן ערוך או"ח סימן תקפּ"ב who asks the following interesting question: We know that the אבות kept the whole Torah even before it was given. The מגן אברהם סימן תקפּ"א ס"ק ט"ו says that a person cannot be משמש מטתו on ראש השנה unless it is a ליל טבילה, so how could we suggest that שרה was נתעברה on ראש השנה? See the אליה רבה there who gives two answers: 1) it must have been ליל טבילה, and 2) the גמרא only meant that the גזר דין that she would become pregnant was on ר"ה, but that the actual הריון was later. See the יד אפרים in או"ח סימן תקפּ"ב who asks from our גמרא that it’s obvious that we don’t mean that she was נתעברה on ר"ה since our גמרא clearly says that she got pregnant on סוכות. See the יעב"ץ הגהות who explains that שרה became able to have children on ר"ה, and was נתעברה on סוכות.
  3. The גמרא says that the גאולה העתידה will come in either תשרי or ניסן, depending on when you hold the world was created. See the טורי אבן here who asks from the גמרא in עירובין that says if one makes a נדר that they won’t eat on the day משיח comes, they can never eat during the week since משיח can come any day except Shabbos. If that is true, how do we understand our גמרא that says that the גאולה can only happen in תשרי or ניסן? He answers that משיח can come on one of two days: either בעיתה (at the designated time) or באחישנה (in a quicker time). If משיח comes בעיתה then it will only happen during תשרי or ניסן as that is the designated time. If it comes באחישנה (where משיח arrives early because the Jews do תשובה), then it can happen at any time.
  4. The גמרא says that the night of the סדר is ליל המשומר מן המזיקין. See the שו"ת פּסקי אליהו ח"א סימן ט who says that if someone peeled an egg for the סדר and left it overnight, he could still use it at the second סדר. Even though a ביצה קלופה is normally considered a סכנה, since the night of the סדר is משומר מן המזיקין, there was no רוח רעה that could have been שורה.

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Click here to download daf summary by Rabbi Chaim Smulowitz (in PDF)

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