Shabbos 59a
A Dream of the Baal Shem Tov and the Arizal
Part of Ein Yaakov · 7:26
A short, lighter piece recounting a dream vision of the Baal Shem Tov and the Arizal, and a question about wearing a crown (keilila).
Audio Transcript
hears the Baal Shem Tov get up, and Baal Shem Tov is saying the kavanah of the tefillah that he just heard down here. And the Arizal gets up and says, \"You're wrong,\" and he started arguing. And they argued and argued until finally the Arizal admitted to the Baal Shem Tov. And after this he woke up. When he woke up, Baal Shem Tov says to him, \"I took you as a witness to show that the Arizal agreed to me.\" So sometimes, you know, you fall asleep, I mean. So the בעל שמועה doesn't know he did teshuvah because it's in his heart, but surely he had to have a dream to know that he really did teshuvah? בעל שמועה? וואס איז דאס נוגע צו בעל שמועה? No, I'm just saying how does he know he did teshuvah? He had to have a dream, so he's relying on the dream to know. Otherwise the chachamim felt probably, or they But I think you could see otherwise. He knew the story. Or you can tell on the face. Tzadikim could tell on the face. Like the maaseh with this lady, there was a lady that they had a whole sheilah about her. She was a אשת איש and she went with another man, and they went to to rabbanim, they asked they asked her to to to marry to go back to her husband, because על פי הלכה it came out that she's guilty. The Tzemach Tzedek also signed off on that psak. She came to the Rozhiner, I think. The Rozhiner wrote to the Tzemach Tzedek, \"I looked at her face, I don't see it. I don't see on her face that she did this aveirah.\" So Tzemach Tzedek answers, \"She probably washed her face with tears,\" which means she did teshuvah. So לגבי הלכה, she could do teshuvah 100 times, but היא אסורה היא אסורה. But לגבי being the on the face, she did teshuvah and you can tell. So the tzadik thought that she probably washed her face with tears. The לשון was like, \"I didn't see this dirt on her face.\" But she washed her face. The
other story tells that sometimes the head of the shiur puts the students to sleep. That's also true. They used to say that I mean they say a maamar that's what makes people fall asleep. The the Hillel says that when he says a maamar, not only the people sitting there, three blocks around is asleep. Fell fast asleep. לוי בעיר של זהב, goes back to a new Mishnah, another in different sugya. Speaks here, it's referring to במה אשה, which means with what is a woman allowed to walk out on Shabbos, carrying. Certain jewelry, what's called carrying, because the rule is, if it's like משא, if it's something it's a load, you can't carry a load. If it's a תכשיט, if it's a jewelry, something then for you then it's an ornament, it's part of it, whatever, it goes with it. So they're saying you're not allowed to walk out with the עיר של זהב, a city of gold. מאי עיר של זהב? What does עיר של זהב mean? Gemara says, רבה בר בר חנה אמר רבי יוחנן, and he said, ירושלים דדהבא, a Yerushalayim made of gold, כדעבד ליה רבי עקיבא לדביתיה, like Rabbi Akiva made to his wife. Sometimes the kallah used to wear this, called a כלילא. They used to make a headpiece, and the headpiece was the shape of a city, the shape of Yerushalayim, I guess, they even call it Yerushalayim. And some of them used to have of gold. Rich people used to make it of gold. So that, they say you're not allowed to walk out with it. That's that's called that's called a משא. That's not something that people normally wear as a levush, huh? Why would they wear that? Why would they? As a design, as a But since it's probably not everyone wore it, only rich people wore it, so it's called not called a levush, it's called a משא, and a משא is You mean you mean you mean it has to be דבר השוה לכל נפש? No, but even for this person, even for these people, it's not always they wore it. It's not like a regular levush. Right, like a special occasion. Occasion, so I guess it's not it's it's so different than a regular levush, so out of the ordinary that it's not called a levush. For that occasion, it's what it's probably dress outfit, I mean could be. I guess not. I guess I guess even I guess I guess I guess even if not.
אמרו ליה לרב, they said to רב like this: אתא גברא רבא אריכא לנהרדעא, it's a great person, tall guy, came to נהרדעא, ומטלע, a guy who limps, ודרש and this is what he דרש: כלילא שרי, you are are allowed to wear this כלילא. כלילא is this crown. It usually means a crown, but it really means this headpiece. אמר, so Rav said, מאן גברא רבא אריכא דמיטלע? Who is this tall guy, limping tall guy that you're talking about? They said to him, לוי. לוי. \"Oh,\" he said, \"well, that's Levi who came. שמע מינה shows that נח נפשיה דרבי אפס, that Rabbi Afes must have passed away.\" Who? That Rabbi Afes must have passed away. For the case was like this: Rebbe before he passed away, he said that let let Levi take over, to be the rosh yeshivah. Levi didn't want to do it. So, he didn't want No, no, he said Rabbi Chanina, sorry. He said Rabbi Chanina should be rosh yeshivah. He didn't want. He want he was he was a anav, so he said let Rabbi Efes be. So Rabbi Efes took over. But since Rabbi Chanina was בעצם as great as or even greater, he wouldn't go into the shiur. Levi wouldn't go there? Levi wouldn't go in? No, Rav Chanina wouldn't go in, because Rav Chanina was Why did he say he should be the, because he was like the greatest, but he didn't want to, so Rav Efes took over, but he didn't go into the shiur. So, he sat outside. Levi had rachmanut on him, didn't want him to sit all alone, so Levi went out, too. So, Levi sat outside. So, he kept him company. So, he kept him company. So, now he said that Levi came. Now, how did Levi, he had chavruta outside. Now that Levi came, so why did Levi come? Probably what happened is like this: probably Rav Efes came, died. So, now if Rav Efes died, now Rav Chanina became Rosh Yeshiva. So, now Levi has no reason to be there, so Levi came here, that's probably So, he says, probably he died, ויתיב רב חנינא ברישא, so Rav Chanina became the head, ולא הוה ליה איניש ללוי למיתב גביה, so now Levi has nobody to sit with. Why can't he sit in the shiur with everybody else? Because that he was also greater, because Levi was also greater, he was to be batel to Rav Chanina, he didn't want. So, we assume he didn't go into the shiur, so he has nothing to do, there's no chavruta, that's why also Levi came here. פרעגט די Gemara, how did you know that? There's
another possibility: ודילמא נח נפשיה דרב חנינא, maybe Rav Chanina died, ורב אפס כדקאי קאי, רב אפס lived, continued being Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Chanina died, and that's why Levi came here. ולא הוה ליה איניש ללוי למיתב גביה, לוי had no chavruta, no one to sit with, וקאתי לכאן. How do you know that? Yeah, good kashya. So, he answered, if he said that רב חנינא שכיב, if Rav Chanina would have died, לוי לרב אפס מיכף הוה כאיף ליה. Levi would have gone in. If Rav Chanina would have died, Levi to Rav Afes would have gone in. The whole reason Levi didn't go in to Rav Afes the whole time is for the כבוד of Rav Chanina, because Rav Chanina didn't go in, so he wanted to to keep him company. But had Rav Chanina died, Levi would have gone to Rav Afes. Ve'od, another thing, דרב חנינא לא סגיא דלא מליך. It's not possible that that Rav Chanina died while Rav Afes was alive, that means that Rav Chanina never became ראש ישיבה, that can't be. Because כי הא דנח נפשיה דרבי, when Rabbi died, אמר, he said: חנינא בר חמא יתיב ברישא. He said Rav Chanina should be ראש ישיבה. And that has to happen. If he said it, כתיב by Tzadikim it says: ותגזר אומר ויקם לך. If you say, it happens. So, it can't be that Rav Chanina died, so it must be Rav Afes. Huh? He wasn't there yet. He wasn't there yet, no.