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Our Gemara on Amud Aleph Tell us the story of the great Sage Rav Chanina ben Dosa and his wife. Despite having the documented ability to perform outright miracles and provide sustenance for everybody else, he and his wife lived in total poverty and deprivation. In one interesting Interlude, we see his wife making a fake cooking fire on erev Shabbos to make it look like she was cooking food. The Gemara tells us that she was embarrassed to look as …
Our Gemara on Amud Aleph tells us of some unusually difficult behaviors committed by the sage, Rabbi Yosei from Yokrat.
Rav Ashi said to him: And didn’t the Master sit before and frequent the study hall of Rabbi Yosei from Yokrat? Rabbi Yosei bar Avin said to him: Yes. Rav Ashi said to him: And what is the reason that the Master left him and came here? Rabbi Yosei bar Avin said to him: He is a man who has no mercy on his own son, and no …
Our Gemara on Amud Aleph tells us the story of Choni Hameagel, who fell asleep for seventy years. We find this story with small differences in the Yerushalmi and Midrash Tehilim on Psalm 126. In those versions, it is actually the grandson of Choni. Another distinction in these other versions is that Choni (or his grandson) went into a cave, and we will note more about this later on.
The motif of a person falling asleep for numerous years is …
Our Gemara on Amud Beis discusses the importance of not inflicting excessive fasting and suffering, despite the importance of repentance and abstention when circumstances call for it:
Rabbi Yosei says: An individual is not permitted to afflict himself by fasting, lest he become too weak to work and be beholden to other people, and those people may not have mercy on him. Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: What is the reason of Rabbi Yosei? It is as …
Our Gemara on this daf relates two incidents about people who work for a living, which actually represent contradictory ideas.
On Amud Aleph we learned of two sages, Rabbi Yochanan and Ilfa. They both were in extreme poverty, and at a crisis point, pondered leaving torah study in order to engage in business. Ilfa decides to leave, while Rabbi Yochanan continues to engage in Torah study, obviously with great sacrifice. Years later, we find o …
Our Gemara in Amud Aleph extols the virtue of flexibility:
A person should always be soft like a reed, and he should not be stiff like a cedar.
What does psychology have to say about this important quality? According to researcher Todd Kashdan:
“Psychological flexibility spans a wide range of human abilities to: recognize and adapt to various situational demands; shift mindsets or behavioral repertoires when these strategies compromise pers …
