Bava Batra 91a — the Talmud in English

And Rabbi permits

taking produce out from the Land of Israel to Syria

from the hyperarchia

the last region of the Land of Israel, adjacent to Syria,

to the hyperarchia

the first one in Syria, the closest to the Land of Israel, because of their proximity.

The Sages taught: One may not profit in the Land of Israel

one may not engage in commerce in order to make a profit,

with items on which the life of a person depends, such as wines, oils, and fine flour.

Rather, the owners of the wheat, or the owners of the wine and oil, themselves should sell them to the buyers, without the intermediary expenses of the shopkeeper, and this is so that these products should not become more expensive in the Land of Israel.

And the beraita continues and says:

It was said about Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya that he would profit

he would engage in commerce and make a profit,

from wine and oil.

And the Gemara explains how he did so:

With wine, he held

Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya

like Rabbi Yehuda

ben Beteira, who indeed held that it is desirable for the price of wine to be high, and that people should not purchase much of it [as stated above, at the end of the previous page], because it diminishes licentiousness; therefore Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya permitted himself to profit from the sale of wine.

With oil,

he permitted himself to profit because

in the place of Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, oil was common.

Oil was found abundantly in his place of residence, and therefore there was no concern that the oil would become more expensive.

The Sages taught: One may not profit twice on eggs.

And below the Gemara will explain the meaning of “twice.”

But once one may indeed profit, since eggs are not included among the items on which the life of a person depends, like flour, wine, and oil.

And the Gemara explains:

Rami bar Mari said: They disagree concerning it,

concerning the explanation of “twice,”

Rav and Shmuel.

One said:

The prohibition against profiting on eggs “twice” means that the seller may not profit

two for one.

He may not charge twice the price at which he purchased them.

And one said:

that the eggs may not be sold twice, meaning that two sellers may not profit from them one after the other, so that one may not sell

to a merchant by a merchant,

and thereby the eggs will become greatly more expensive.

The Sages taught: One sounds an alarm

in prayer

over merchandise

of fine garments

whose price has fallen.

And one prays concerning it that its price should rise, so that the merchants should not suffer a loss through it,

and even on Shabbat

one sounds an alarm over this loss. And there is no concern for the loss of the poor if this merchandise becomes more expensive, since it is not the way of poor people to purchase it.

Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

Over what merchandise does one sound an alarm?

For example, linen vessels in Babylonia, and wine and oil in the Land of Israel.

And he added to this and

Rav Yosef said: And this is when its price fell and ten stood at the price of six.

The price of the garments became much cheaper, until the price of ten garments fell to the price at which it had been possible to purchase six garments before the price fell, that is, almost half the price.

The Sages taught: One does not leave the Land

of

Israel for outside the Land,

even if the cost of living in the Land of Israel is greatly rising, since by leaving outside the Land a person removes himself from the fulfillment of the commandments dependent on the Land,

unless two se’a stood

of wheat

at

the price of

a sela,

which is an extremely high price, twice the ordinary price.

Rabbi Shimon said: When

is it permitted to leave outside the Land?

When one does not find

wheat in the market

to purchase. But when he finds it to purchase,

then

even if a se’a stood at a sela,

which is an even higher price than two se’a at a sela, nevertheless

he should not leave

outside the Land.

And so Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai would say: Elimelech,

Naomi’s husband, and likewise

Mahlon and Chilion,

his sons,

were the great men of the generation, and they were the providers of the generation. And for what reason were they punished,

so that they all died in the land of Moab, and Mahlon and Chilion had no children?

Because they left the Land

of

Israel for outside the Land.

And this was despite the fact that they left because of the famine.

As it is stated

in the Book of Ruth, chapter 1, in describing Naomi’s return from the field of Moab to Bethlehem:

“And the entire city was agitated concerning them, and they said: Is this Naomi!?”

And the Gemara explains:

What is the meaning of “Is this Naomi!?”

Rabbi Yitzḥak said: They said, “Have you seen Naomi, who left the Land for outside the Land—what happened to her!?”

for she has nothing in her possession.

And Rabbi Yitzḥak said: On the very day that Ruth the Moabite came to the Land of Israel, Boaz’s wife died,

and he became a widower, so that he would marry Ruth. And the verse comes to teach you that the Holy One, blessed be He, brings healing before the blow, and that a person should trust in Him, for everything that occurs, even something that appears to him to be evil, is in fact for the good.

And this is what people say: Before the dead man dies, the manager of the house stands ready.

Before the dead man departs from the world, the one appointed over his house is already standing and ready, and stands in his place. Here too, Ruth was standing ready for Boaz even before his wife died.

Rabba bar Rav Huna said that Rav said: Ibzan,

one of the judges described in the Book of Judges, who arose to judge Israel after the death of Jephthah the Gileadite, and who lived in Bethlehem,

is Boaz!

And the Gemara discusses:

What does this teach us!?

What lesson concerning a mitzva do we derive from the knowledge that Ibzan is Boaz? If there is no lesson that we derive from this, what is the benefit of saying it?

And the Gemara explains: It teaches us

as the other

matter,

that

Rabba bar

Rav Huna

said, from which one should learn proper conduct: Even if a man married a woman in his youth and has many children from her, he should marry another woman again, even in his old age [if his first wife died], lest his children from his first wife not endure.

As Rabba bar Rav Huna said that Rav said: Boaz made one hundred and twenty feasts for his sons

when he married them off.

As it is stated

in the Book of Judges [chapter 12] concerning Ibzan, who was Boaz: “

And he had thirty sons and thirty daughters

of his own,

he sent outside

from his house, meaning that he married them to men.

And he brought thirty daughters from outside for his sons,

whom he took as wives for his sons.

And he judged Israel for seven years.”

And at each and every one

of the weddings of his thirty sons and thirty daughters,

he made two feasts.

One feast,

one,

for betrothal, he made

in the house of his father

of the groom,

and

one feast,

one,

for marriage,

in the house of his father-in-law

of the groom. And since he made two feasts at each wedding, in total, at the sixty weddings, Ibzan, who was Boaz, made one hundred and twenty feasts.

Had Rabba bar Huna not said that this Ibzan was Boaz, we would have assumed that they were two different men, and we would not have learned from here that a person should marry a woman after the death of his wife and father children with her, even if he has children from his first wife.

And at all of them,

at all one hundred and twenty feasts,

he did not invite

to them

Manoah

[before the birth of his son Samson], because

he said

concerning Manoah: Since Manoah’s wife is barren, and he has no children, he is like a

sterile mule

a female mule

that is barren,

and therefore,

with what would he repay!?

For Manoah has no children to marry off and invite me to their marriage feast, and I will not be able to repay him in kind for having come to the wedding of my son. And Rabba bar Rav Huna added and said:

And all of them,

all sixty of Boaz’s sons and daughters from his first wife,

died during his lifetime

of Boaz, after his wife died and he married Ruth.

And this is what people say: In your lifetime,

what benefit did you gain in your lifetime

by giving birth

by having given birth

to sixty, sixty,

sixty and sixty sons!? Since in the end they died,

what is it to you!?

What did you gain by giving birth to them!

Rather,

make an effort,

return and marry another woman,

and give birth to one,

and have one son from her,

for one who is from sixty is more vigorous,

who will be more successful than your sixty sons from your first wife, who died!

And this is an analogy to Boaz [Ibzan], who fathered one son, Oved, from Ruth, his second wife, while his sixty sons and daughters from his first wife died. And from Oved, the one son, Jesse emerged, and from him David, king of Israel, who was better than the sixty sons whom he had previously.

[And these are the

mnemonics

for the five statements that Rav Ḥanan bar Rava said in the name of Rav, as follows:

A. Eli

melech; B. Abraham; C. ten years; D.

who died; E. he was elevated alone]

A.

Rav Ḥanan bar Rava said that Rav said: Elimelech, and Salmon,

the father of Boaz,

and So-and-so, the Unknown

[the redeemer, Elimelech’s brother, who was closer to Elimelech than Boaz was, since Boaz was only his brother’s son, but he refused to take Ruth the Moabite as a wife and to redeem Elimelech’s inheritance ],

and Naomi’s father, all of them

were brothers,

and they were the sons of Nahshon ben Aminadav.

And the Gemara discusses:

What does this teach us!?

What mitzva-related lesson do we derive from knowing this?

It teaches us:

Even one who possesses ancestral merit,

such as the ancestral merit of Nahshon [ben Aminadav], who was a leader and a pious man,

it does not stand for him

this merit

when he leaves the Land for outside the Land.

And since the Gemara brought a statement of Rav Ḥanan bar Rava in the name of Rav, it now brings another statement of his, which explains the name of the mother of Abraham our father, since the names of only the mothers of Isaac and Jacob were explained in the Torah.

B.

And Rav Ḥanan bar Rava said that Rav said:

The name of

the mother

his mother

of Abraham

is:

Amitlai bat Karnavo.

And the name of

the mother of Haman

is

Amitlai

as well, but she was

the daughter of Orevati.

And your mnemonic is:

to distinguish between Amitlai bat Karnavo, who was Abraham’s mother, and Amitlai bat Orevati, who was Haman’s mother:

impure—

impure. Pure—

pure.

The beginning of the name “Karnavo” is “kar,” which hints to a lamb, which is a pure flock animal, and thereby hints to Amitlai bat Karnavo, Abraham’s mother, since Abraham is pure. Whereas the name “Orevati” resembles a raven, which is an impure bird, and it hints to Haman’s mother, Amitlai bat Orevati, since Haman too is impure.

The mother of David, Netzvat bat Adael,

is

her name.

The mother of Samson

was called by the name

“Tzlelponit.”

And his sister,

Samson’s sister, was called by the name

“Nishyan.”

What practical difference is there

in knowing the name of Samson’s mother?

For responding to the sectarians,

so that we can answer their questions, since we know her name from what the prophets transmitted to us orally.

C.

And

another

Rav Ḥanan bar Rava said that Rav said: For ten years Abraham our father was imprisoned

in prison.

Three

years he was imprisoned

in Kuta, and seven in Kardu,

where Nimrod or his father imprisoned him because of his struggle against idolatry.

And Rav Dimi of Nehardea taught the reverse:

Abraham was imprisoned in Kuta for seven years, and he was imprisoned in Kardu for three years.

Rav Ḥisda said:

The place called

“the small passage”

[the small crossing]

“of Kuta”—this is Ur of the Chaldeans,

where Abraham our father was cast into the fiery furnace and was saved; therefore, one who passes through this place must recite the blessing: “Blessed is He who performed miracles for our fathers in this place.”

D.

And Rav Ḥanan bar Rava said that Rav said: On the day that Abraham our father departed from the world, all the great men of the nations stood in a row and said: Woe to the world that has lost ![](pamud.bmp "

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its leader! And woe to the ship that has lost its karbanita,

the one who steers the ship.