Resources for Chagigah 5

1.     The גמרא says that if someone completely regrets their sins, they are forgiven immediately. תוספות in ד"ה הא יראוני says that the פּסוק refers to עושק שכר שכיר which is a לא תעשה, and ר' חנינא’s statement that a person is forgiven מיד for לא תעשהs is against רבי ישמעאל brought in מסכת יומא who says that one cannot get a full כפּרה for a לא תעשה until יום כיפּור passes. See the טורי אבן here who asks that עושק שכר שכיר is a לאו הניתק לעשה, and the גמרא in יומא דף פּ"ה says in explaining the משנה there that in regard to תשובה a לאו הניתק לעשה is like an עשה and is forgiven immediately. The טורי אבן understands that the reason for this is because a לאו הניתק לעשה has no מלקות. Based on that he adds that עושק שכר שכיר is also a לאו שאין בו מעשה in which case there are two reasons he should be נמחל מיד. See the מנחת חינוך in מצוה שס"ד אות י"ד who disagrees and says that the משמעות of ר' ישמעאל is that when he said “לא תעשהs don’t get כפּרה immediately”, he meant even a לאו הניתק לעשה. The גמרא in יומא was just saying that the משנה there holds לאו הניתק לעשה is like an עשה, but not ר' ישמעאל.

2.     The גמרא tells a story of an אפּיקורוס who made a motion to ר' יהושע indicating that Hashem has ח"ו turned his back on us and ר' יהושע motioned back ידו נטויה עלינו. See the מהרש"א here who asks that the words ידו נטויה עלינו are from a פּסוק in ישעיה and they mean that Hashem still has his arm outstretched to punish בנ"י! If so, how was this an appropriate response to the אפּיקורוס? The מהרש"א suggests that it must be that it is meant in this instance for the good and it is saying that even though Hashem has hidden his face, he still protects us in גלות. However, see the בית הלוי in פּרשת ויצא who answers that the פּסוק does in fact mean that Hashem is still meeting out punishment. Nonetheless, it is a positive in the following sense: The טור paskens in חושן משפּט that if a person leaves their wallet in רה"ר it is considered הפקר. However, the גמרא in ב"ק דף כ"ו says that if someone throws a vase off his roof and someone else breaks it before it lands that he has to pay for it. The reason the wallet it is considered הפקר is because the person obviously doesn’t care what happens to his wallet. However, when a person is trying to break a כלי, he wants it to break and isn’t מפקר it beforehand. Similarly, the אפּיקורוס was saying that we were have become like הפקר and ר' יהושע responded that it’s like the vase where Hashem is punishing us because he cares.  

3.     The גמרא says that רבי חייא tried to stop רבי from going to see someone because of his נשיאות. Nonetheless, רבי insisted and went anyway. See the טורי אבן here who proves from this that נשיא שמחל על כבודו, כבודו מחול. See the שפת אמת here who says there is no proof from our גמרא since even if אין כבודו מחול, that just means that someone else would not be forgiven. However, here רבי himself was מזלזל בנשיאותו and that was allowed. The שפת אמת himself points out that this is only true for a נשיא and not a king. The גמרא in כתובות דף י"ז is clear there that even the king himself cannot be מזלזל in his own honor. What is unclear to me is that it seems רבי was visiting the blind תלמיד חכם because of כבוד התורה, and תוספות there in כתובות דף י"ז says that for כבוד התורה even a king can be מזלזל in himself as תורה is more חשוב than מלכות. See the עיון יעקב who learns from this story that there is no חיוב of כבוד by a blind ת"ח since he can’t see you being מכבד him anyway. Many אחרונים disagree.

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