Kesubos 111b
Giant Grapes and Wheat Growing on Mountains: A Taste of the Future
Part of Ein Yaakov · 20:20
Fantastic aggada describing the agricultural abundance of the Messianic era -- wheat on mountaintops, enormous vegetables, and a single grape yielding thirty barrels of wine.
Audio Transcript
דאמר רב חייא בר יוסף, רב חייא בר יוסף said, עתידה ארץ ישראל שתוציא גלוסקאות וכלי מילת. In the future Eretz Yisrael is going to give out finished product, bread, challah, and silk garments. שנאמר, it says, יהי פסת בר בארץ. Now, פסת בר, the way he daytsh in the Gemara here, Rashi explains, פסת means a hand. It's called פס יד. Now, what does בר means? Food, bread. How in the world can you have a piece of bread, how could you have things that grow, bread that grows the size of a hand? So it must be a complete bread, because if you grow, it grows wheat. You make bread out of wheat, out of grain, so they're little kernels. So from there we learn out that it means it'll be full gluskes, that's one thing. And then also how do we know that it'll be silk clothes? Because פסת is from the same expression as כתנת פסים. פס. That means it was a silk garment. See, people are used to דייטשינג כתנת פסים a striped shirt. Rashi says not like that. Rashi says it means a silk shirt. Here we're saying it's bread, because the Gemara דרש'ת since it says it's going to give out food the size of a hand, so it can't be wheat, it can't be a grain. So it must be a complete product, a finished product. There is a pshat like that. Because פסים, פסים means stripes. But Rashi doesn't say that. Rashi says it means silk. It says כרפס. But Rashi doesn't say it. Rashi דייטשט the word פסים means silk, means silk. תנו רבנן, here also the Gemara דייטשט, פסים is כלי מילת, doesn't say there'd be striped things will grow. תנו רבנן יהי פסת בר בארץ בראש הרים. The pasuk says there will be פסת בר in the land on top of the mountain.
אמרו, they said, עתידה חטה שתצמח כדקל, the wheat is going to like pop out and grow out like a palm tree ועולה, and it'll come up בראש הרים, top of the mountains. ושמא תאמר, now are you going to say יש צער לקוצרה, so now it must be hard to cut it if it's on top of the mountain and תלמוד לומר, the pasuk says further, ירעש כלבנון פריו. The Eibershter will make his fruit with a ra'ash. הקדוש ברוך הוא מביא רוח מבית גנזיו, Hashem is going to bring a wind from his treasure house, ומנשבה עליה, it'll blow on it, ומשירה סלתה, and it's going to throw down the סולת, which in this case means that it'll crawl throw throw down. The wind will knock down that those wheat that grow on top, ואדם יוצא לשדה, and the person goes out to the field, ומביא מלא פסת ידו, and you could bring his handful, in other words, he doesn't have to go and cut it, the אייבערשטער make it come out, it'll be so big and he'll be able to bring it, וממנו פרנסתו ופרנסת אנשי ביתו, and from that you could feed yourself and you could feed your family, there'll be so much. Then the Pasuk, there's another Pasuk that says, עם חלב כליות חטה. כליות. It says there כליות? Yeah. The Pasuk says כליות. Pasuk it says, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right. כליות, yeah, the Pasuk says. No, no, no, it'll grow on top of the mountain. בראש הרים. It says, what does that mean? אמרו, they said, עתידה חטה שתהא כשתי כליות של שור הגדול. A wheat is going to be the size of two כליות is the kidneys. Kidneys of a big ox. ואל תתמה, don't wonder, how could it be? It's something that never happened, I mean it's something new? So he says no, it did happen, something like that. שהרי שועל קינן בלפת, there was a fox who dug a hole in a לפת, לפת is a No. What's a לפת, a pumpkin or Yeah. So what it did, it made a hole, went inside, made its nest there. Imagine, a fox! And when it makes its nest, usually it has gives birth to children, it gave birth there inside this whatever, melon or pumpkin, ושקלוה, later they come and weighed it, ומצאו בה, they found ששים ליטרין בליטרא של צפורי. 60 ליטרין, a certain measurement, in the ליטרא of צפורי, 60, and this was after they dug a hole already in it. So you can imagine how big this was. Wow. Tanya, it
says in a ברייתא, אמר רבי יוסי, רבי יוסי said, מעשה בשיחין, a story in the city of שיחין, באחד שהניח לו אביו שלשה בדי חרדל, No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. You'll see. You'll see. His father left him three branches of mustard. Mustard. ונשפח, נפשח אחד מהם, and one of them got broken off, ומצאו בה, they found in this like branch, ט' קבין, four קבין of חרדל, of of mustard. That's how big it was. ומעציו סיככו בית סוכת סוכת יוצרין, and the wood was so much that they were able to cover a hut made for people who work, covered it with the wood from from that one one branch. Did they, were they getting a sign of לעתיד? They were like tasting the le'asid lavo, yeah. אמר רבי שמעון בן תחליפא, בן תחליפא, שמעון בן תחליפא said: קלח של כרוב הניח לנו אבא, a bunch, not a bunch, a a head of כרוב, of כרויט, our father left us, and it was so big, והיינו עולים ויורדים בו בסולם, to go up to it they had to go with a ladder, up and down with a ladder. Cabbage? Cabbage, yeah, כרויט, cabbage. Imagine a big cabbage like that, this size a cabbage. No, this is not guzma'ot, this happened. It's trying to show that this is like a מעין דלעתיד לבוא. They had radiation in those days? Now they do that. Radiation. They irradiate the strawberries. You get a strawberry like that, and it's because it's chemically injected. It's huge, yeah. You don't touch it. I try not to. They make a lot of... I might touch it, but I don't eat it. Huh? I might touch it, but I don't eat it. That's life. Then
there's another pasuk: דם ענב תשתה חמר. The blood of the grapes, you will drink wine. אמרו חכמים said: לא כעולם הזה העולם הבא. Olam Haba is not like this world. בעולם הזה יש צער לבצור, in order to to to cut the grapes is hard, ולדרוך, and then you have to squeeze them, you have to go... Olam Haba is different: מביא ענבה אחת, bring one grape, בקרון, בקרון, a wagon, או בספינה, in a boat, ומניחה בזוית ביתו, you could put in the corner of your house, ומספק הימנה כפיטס גדול, and you could take from it like a big jar of wine. A barrel. A barrel of wine. ועציה, and the wood of it, מסיקין תחת התבשיל, you could use to cook under your food. ואין לך כל ענבה וענבה, you don't have you don't have one grape, שאין בה ל' גרבי יין, not one grape will have less than 30 barrels of wine. שנאמר, it says, where do we get 30 barrels? Because it says: דם ענב תשתה חמר. It says the blood of the grape you will drink חמר, חמר means wine, but אל תקרי חמר אלא חומר. חומר, חומר is a measurement. It's 30, yeah, as we learned it from the Mishkan. So that's 30. So
from there we know that each grape, and ענב, it says ענב is a grape, not grapes. A grape. One grape will have that much of wine. כי אתא רב דימי, when Rav Dimi came, אמר, he said: מאי דכתיב, what is the meaning of the pasuk where it says: אוסרי לגפן עירו... It's not mevushal. Huh? It's not mevushal. All eaten by the frume. Yeah? It says you will have to saddle... Goyim working for us though. ...have to saddle, prepare for a gefen, for a vine, עירו, עירו is an animal, like a horse, a donkey. He meant means to say: אין לך כל גפן וגפן שבארץ ישראל, there's not one vine in ארץ ישראל, שאין צריך עיר אחת לבצור, to take off one vine, you have to have pashut an animal to to to cut it, a whole... ולשורקה בני אתונו אין לך כל אילן סרק שבארץ ישראל, you don't have any tree in ארץ ישראל that doesn't give fruit, שאינו מוציא משא שתי אתונות, could give out the amount of two donkeys, heavy load of two donkeys, from one tree. This is L'Olam Haba, or L'Olam Hazeh? No, olam haba, but in this world. It means after תחיית המתים. After Mashiach and תחיית המתים, yeah. ושמא תאמר, now it says, שמא תאמר אין בו יין, we said they're going to have grapes, big grapes, maybe it won't have wine? When it says that you have to take to a gefen, you have to take a a a donkey, a whole donkey for one gefen, but maybe a gefen means big grapes, but how says, who says it'll have wine? תלמוד לומר, the pasuk says: כבס ביין לבושו, you're going to wash your clothes in wine. Wait, I understand, before we needed a boat just for one one grape, now a whole vine on a donkey, full of grapes. No, I don't know if vine, gefen is a vine, but could be means one bunch of grapes. A bunch of grapes, here we had one grape. Okay. Good. Not as big. ושמא תאמר, you might say אינו אדום, it'll be, but not red grapes. תלמוד לומר: ודם ענבים, it'll be like blood. ושמא תאמר, you might say אינו מרווה, it doesn't fill you. תלמוד לומר: סותו. סותו means it it shlept you, it gives you. ושמא תאמר, you might say אין בו טעם, that it's not so tasty. תלמוד לומר: חכלילי עינים מיין. Now, חכלילי עינים מיין, פשט means your eyes will get red from wine, but he taytsh different: חכ לי לי is made up of two words: חך is חיך, חיך means your gum. So he says, כל חיך שטועמו, any gum that tasted this, that will taste this, אומר, will say: לי לי, oh, it's good for me, it's mine, oh! So that means that it will taste good. ושמא תאמר, you might say לנוערים יפה ולזקנים אינו יפה, it's only good for youngsters, but not for older people. תלמוד לומר, the pasuk continues: ולבן שנים מחלב, you'll have white teeth from milk. אל תקרי ולבן שנים אלא ללבן שנים. You read it לבן שנים means a person who is an older man. So he taytsh: חכלילי עינים מיין ולבן שנים. Even though the word ולבן שנים מחלב goes later, but a lot of times we darshenen the פסוק that the second half, even though it's a separate inyan, we put it together and we we break up the pasuk in the wrong place. ולבן שנים, לבן שנים, and what of the word מחלב? But that's how we darshenen always. Famous story with the Gra. They once came to the Gra, and they told the Gra that חסידים דרשנ'ן פסוקים, and they make they stop at a pasuk in the middle with a drasha, doesn't make sense. So he says, דא, אי משום הא, that doesn't bother me. Why? He said, פלשתים יוכיח. I have a re'aya from a Midrash of Plishtim. So they asked, what do you mean? There's a Midrash that says, when it says when the Yidden went out of מצרים, ויהי בשלח פרעה את העם ולא נחם אלקים דרך ארץ פלשתים, השם did not take them to the land of Plishtim. So the Midrash says, ולא נחם אלקים דרך ארץ. The Eibershter didn't behave with them with derech eretz. Doesn't make any sense! What is the word Plishtim? So similarly we could darshenen it. Okay. There's a Midrash, by the way, that the whole Torah was one letter after, and you can divide it that's how you want. You have to know, you have to be able to. The fact is they did, like It's a mashal. There's a mashal from a, Baal Shem Tov I think, with a מלך, he could change things around and divide differently. Even the parshiyot, when when you say that there's 600,000, or how many pesukim it says in the, that it's really all depends how you divide it, the Gemara says, right? We don't have the mesorah. Yeah, but that's Even that, the עצם. But there's certain places it's clear. Everyone knows it's not derech eretz, and that the word Plishtim is אריינגעפלויגן. It's clear this is the way the pshat is. But the fact that it was But we're able to darshenen it. Darshenen it anyway you want. That's, however you want, you have to be a בעל, okay, בר סמכא. All right. Says the Gemara: פשטיה דקרא במאי כתיב? What's the simple pshat of the pasuk? כי אתא רב דימי, when רב דימי came, אמר, he said this is the pshat: אמרה כנסת ישראל לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא, the Yidden say to the Eibershter: רבונו של עולם, רמוז בעיניך, make a siman, a sign with your eyes, in other words, wink with your eyes. You know, when you're happy with somebody you just, you look at him, you know, you wink to him. דבסים מחמרא, that is tastier to me than wine. ואחוי לי שינך, and show me your teeth, which means smile to me, דבסים מחלבא, that's geshmaker, that's tastier to me than milk. That's how he taytsh: חכלילי עינים מיין ולבן שנים מחלב. חכלילי עינים, move your eyes, and that's מיין, better than wine. ולבן שנים, let me see your white teeth, that means smile to me. פשטיה דקרא. That's פשטיה דקרא. מחלב, that's better than chalav. Pshat. Is פשטיה דקרא mean simple pshat of the pasuk? Oh. Okay. ומסייע ליה לרבי יוחנן. And this proves what Rabbi Yochanan said. דאמר רבי יוחנן, רבי יוחנן said: טוב המלבין שנים לחבירו יותר ממשקהו חלב. A person who shows his white teeth to somebody is better than he gives him milk. That means he smiles to him, שנאמר, it says: ולבן שנים מחלב. And white teeth from milk, אל תקרי ולבן שנים אלא ללבון שנים, the whiteness of your teeth. That if you show the whiteness of your teeth, that means you smile to a person, giving him a smile is better than even giving him milk, giving him something to eat, to drink. You know, we know to make a to smile to a person, to make a person feel good is more important than feeding him. Actually, that's the whole idea of, by tzedakah it says: המפייסו, it says if you give tzedakah you get six ברכות, המפייסו, if you make him feel good, you get 11 berachot. So that's a The
Rebbe taytsh the whole inyan of hachnasat orchim, the whole אריכות השיחה is not the food that you give him, why levaya, it's the שימת לב, it's the attention that you give, pay to him and you show him how you care about him. You make him feel good, that's basically make him feel good. That's what the Rebbe answers, interesting kashya. It says that how do we know that hachnasat orchim is greater than kabbalat pnei haShechinah? From Avraham. לפועל ממש it says Avraham, לפועל it was malachim and they didn't eat. So he thought they were people takeh, is that why he left the Shechinah, but in truth he wasn't מקיים הכנסת אורחים? No, we're learning from the way from Avraham what he thought, but לפועל it means he was נכשל. So the Rebbe answers, it's not the eating, it's make him feel good, and that's to malachim also. That fits to malachim also, yeah. The eating it says נראה כאוכלים, they didn't really need to eat. זאגט די גמרא weiter: It's really opposite, what's he talked about that if you don't give him that you actually don't fulfill the mitzvah in some fashion or negates the mitzvah takes away from it. That's true. It says that. דף קי״א עמוד ב׳. זאגט די גמרא, רב חייא בר אדא מקרי דרדקי דריש לקיש הוה. רב חייא בר אדא was a teacher of ריש לקיש's children. איפגר תלתא יומי. He skipped three days, three days he didn't come. ולא אתא, he didn't come. כי אתא, when he came, אמר ליה: אמאי איפגרת? Why did you not come? אמר ליה, he said, דלית אחת הניח לי אבא, my father left me one vine, ובצרתי ממנו, and I took me three days to take off the grapes from the vine. יום ראשון, the first day, ג' מאות אשכולות, I took off 300 bunches, אשכול לגרב, גרב, for every and each bundle gave me a bucket of wine. יום ב', the second day, בצרתי ג' מאות אשכולות, I also was able to take off 300 grape bunches, ב' אשכולות לגרב, here you needed two bunches for a for a barrel. Okay, everything was bigger. יום ג', no, the same barrel, it was יום ג', the third day, בצרתי ממנו ג' מאות אשכולות, I also took off 300 bunches, but ג' אשכולות לגרב, for every bottle, every jug, every barrel I needed three bunches. And like so much, והפקרתי יותר מחציה, I was מפקיר, half more than half I was מפקיר. אמר ליה, so he said to him, אי לאו דאיפגרת הוה עביד טפי, had you not skipped school, skipped teaching, you would had more. In other words, he told, didn't you see it went down? The first day you had 300 barrels from the 300, next day you had only 150, then you had only 100. It went down. Why'd it go down? As a punishment for you for skipping class. He had enough that he had to make it הפקר anyway, so what's the difference? I think what was included here is that you would have been able to use it, you could sell it or something, yeah. Yeah. עונש על ביטול. רמי בר יחזקאל איקלע לבני ברק. Rami bar Yechezkel happened to be in Bnei Brak. חזינהו להנהו עיזי דקא אכלן תותי תאיני. He saw goats eating under a תאנה, a fig tree. And while they were eating them, וקא נטיף דובשא מתאיני, honey was running from these figs, וחלבא טייף מנייהו, and milk was running out of them, ומיערב בהדי הדדי, and they mixed. The milk came down into the honey and they got mixed. אמר, he said, היינו זבת חלב ודבש. This is what the pasuk means, that it's to be a country which is running milk and honey. אמר רבי יעקב בן דוסתאי מלוּד לאונו ג' מילין. From walking from לוד to אונו is three מילין. פעם אחת קדמתי באשמורת והלכתי, once early morning I went, and I walked עד קרסולי בדבש של תאנים. And I walked in till my my ankles. No, till my knees. No, my ankle, my ankles. In the in the honey of תאנים. That's how it was. That was חלב ודבש. Okay. Yeah, honey. So I don't know if they had all these things then. Good times. ארץ זבת חלב ודבש. Yeah. You think it could have been perception, what was like something beautiful? Like sometimes we take things for granted. You could look at a meadow with whatever or cactus, and we don't we don't see it as much or as we don't see it as big and sweet. Gayn davenen. Our perception will be that much more deeper. It'll seem bigger. Now. I had such a race to see everyone. It tastes delicious, and I can still taste the food. Very nice.