we're holding here in the middle of the sugya, in Gittin, with the story with, with Yochanan ben Zakkai, Kamtza u'Bar Kamtza. So we're holding here, holding י״ח? No, we're holding before that. Yeah, we're holding in the middle of י״ז ע״א, yeah. So after the Gemara tells the story of what Rabbi Zechariah said, Rabbi Zechariah said that we can't be makriv the korban and we can't kill him because people are going to say, so the Gemara said that because of him the the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. Then the Gemara can נירון קיסר, שדר עלוייהו נירון קיסר. So now he was upset, the melech was upset, the king was upset, so he sent Neron Caesar. It's interesting, Neron was not a king, he was not Caesar, he was not a king. He was just a general, but he for some reason his title was Neron Caesar. כי קאתי, so he sent him. Actually, it was somewhere about him becoming king or something, that's why they called him? No, that's further, that's not him. That's later we'll see, we'll see in a minute. That's Vespasian. So, כי שדר עלוייהו, כי קאתי,

when Neron Caesar came to Jerusalem with his army to attack Jerusalem, שדא גירא למזרח, so he shot an arrow, shot to מזרח, אתא נפל בירושלים, it came to Jerusalem. למערב, אתא נפל בירושלים, sent to מערב it came to Jerusalem. לארבע רוחות העולם, אתא נפל בירושלים, sent to all four sides, and it all, something happened and it turned around and came to... Jerusalem is there, he sent the arrow there, and it turned around and came to Jerusalem. So he saw that this is epes nisht azoy poshut. אמר לו, you know, okay, so he said to a child, פסוק לי פסוקיך. Tell me what you learned today. אמר ליה, he said, I learned a פסוק, ונתתי את נקמתי באדום ביד עמי ישראל. The Eibershter said, I'm going to take nekamah in Edom because of what they did to the Yidden. Now this is a pasuk written by בית ראשון, we're talking about the בית שני, but it was a remez to him that the Eibershter is going to take nekamah. If he destroys Jerusalem, the Eibershter going to take nekamah in him. So אמר, he and this was also a רמז נוגע the arrows all went to Yerushalayim. אמר, he said, קודשא בריך הוא בעי לחרובי ביתיה, the Eibershter wants to destroy his house, ובעי לכפורי ידיה בההוא גברא, and he wants to use me and use me, I should be the one and then I'll be punished later. ערק, he ran away, ואזל, and he went, ואיגייר, and he was מתגייר. He came in and ונפק מיניה ר׳ מאיר, and Rabbi Meir came out of him. Actually, I was in Rome once and I went to Rome, I went to a tour to see the different places. It's very interesting to see, you see the the place where they had the the Senate, they had and they had the you had to see the Colosseum, it's all from the time of the חורבן בית המקדש. So in the history, they have that the king sent Nero, they have a different name for him, Nero, Neron, or something, and they don't know what happened to him. That's what they say the story in in the history. He went and he was sent with the army and then he got lost and they have no idea what happened to him. So that's when he sent Vespasian. I mean, so mamash like the Gemara says, we know what happened to him, he was misgayer, and then because later Rabbi Meir came out of him. And they don't know? Huh? And they don't know? Then they, yeah, now they don't know. Then they probably could be knew, yeah, but they didn't write it down in history. No, זאלן זיי לערנען גמרא, אפשר. If they had פארשטאנען גמרא, they they'd know it, but otherwise they takeh don't know. ונפק מיניה ר׳ מאיר, and Rabbi Meir came out. Rabbi Meir and this is all einiklach of Esav. So I once heard a pshat, an interesting pshat. It says in Parashat Vayishlach that ויירא ויצר, that like Yaakov was afraid and that he felt bad. So Rashi says, ויירא, he was afraid that he might get killed, and he was also ויצר, he might הרגענען אחרים. So what did he care to kill Esav, and Esav's people, the אנשי מעשה? No, אחרים, ר׳ מאיר הייסט אחרים. He was afraid that if he's going to kill Esav, he'll kill אחרים. It's a pshat, it's not a it's not so the pshat in Rashi. Yeah, so now that Neron Caesar didn't do his job, שדריה עלייהו לאספסינוס קיסר, so he sent Vespasian. So now

Vespasian is called Caesar. At this point, he wasn't called Caesar yet. But as the story will go, he the one that became the Caesar later, so that's why the Gemara refers to him as Vespasian Caesar. אתא, he came, צר עליה תלת שני, so he surrounded, besieged Jerusalem for three years. הוו בה הנהו תלתא עתירי, there were three rich people in Jerusalem, their names were Nakdimon ben Gurion, and Kalba Savua, and Tzitzit Hakaset. The Gemara explains Nakdimon ben Gurion, his name wasn't really Nakdimon. Why was he called, his father's name was Gurion, but his name wasn't Nakdimon, שנקדה... Hm? בוני שמו. בוני, oh. שנקדה לו חמה בעבורו. נקדה, נקדירון comes from נקדה means it penetrated, it went through, because the whole story in the Gemara that the sun shined after the time it was already set, the sun shined again for his zechut. What happened? So it says in the Gemara a whole story, that it was עולי רגלים, time to be עולי רגלים and there was not enough water in Jerusalem, and what will we do to עולי רגלים? So he went to this this guy, to this הגמון, ווייס And this guy had a lot of wells full of water, and he said, \"I want to borrow it from you. And I promise to pay you back this and this date, and I told you, if I don't pay you back this and this date, I give you all my possessions, I'll give him a\" And he was very rich. So he made a deal. Came the last day and it didn't rain till then, so it was empty. So the guy sent a message, you know, \"Time to pay.\" He says, \"Well, the day's not up yet.\" So finally it came later, finally it came the shkiyah already. So he he went into the, it's almost the shkiyah, and there's no water. So he went into the בית המקדש, and he davened, and it started raining. And it rained so much, it filled up all the wells. So he told the, so the guy came to him, \"Yeah, but it already after the shkiyah. We made up up that till till the date.\" So he went to the בית המקדש again, and he davened, and all of a sudden the sun came out. So the sun came out because of him, that's why he's called Nakdimon ben Gurion. Why is he, the other one was called ben Kalba Savua? כלבא means a dog, and שבוע means satisfied, full. שכל הנכנס לביתו, anybody came into his house כשהוא רעב ככלב, hungry like a dog, יצא כשהוא שבע, would go out full. The third one was Ben Tzitzit Hakeset. שהיו ציצותיו נגררות על גבי כסתות. Why was he called Tzitzit Hakeset? Because his tzitzit, when he would walk, and his tzitzit was dragging on כסתות, and means like a certain silk silk, clothing, certain silk. And the way it says there that he was what he did with it was that עניים would follow him, and would take pick it up, and that was they used to to buy stuff. איכא דאמרי, some say שהיה כסאו מוטל בין גדולי רומי. His chair was amongst the big people of Rome. In other words, he was in the government. He was also a chashuv person in the government. Anyway, so they had these three very rich people. חד אמר להו,

one said to them, אנא זיינא להו בחיטי ובשערי. \"I have enough to feed all the whole city, all the Yidden, with wheat and barley.\" חד אמר להו, one said, בחמרא ומלחא ומשחא. \"I have enough to give everybody, all the people, wine, salt, and oil.\" וחד אמר, one said, בציבי. \"I have enough to give them wood, cuz you need wood to cook, you have to have wood to to stay warm.\" ושבחו רבנן לציבי. The Rabbanan said, which is the one that's more chashuv? The wood. The Gemara gives an example that רב חסדא, כל אקלידי הוה מסר לשמאשי, בר מציבי. Rav Chisda would give the keys to all his treasures, to all his storages, to the שמשין. The storage of wood he wouldn't give to anybody, cuz that to him was more important than the rest, because that's something that you must have to live. דאמר רב דאמר רב חסדא, Rav Chisda said, אכלבא דחיטי בעי שיתין אכלבא דציבי. Rav Chisda said for one אוצר, one storage of wheat, you need 60 storages of wood. You need a lot of wood to prepare the food. Mimela, if without food you can't eat, without wood, without cooking you can't eat, so mimela that's more Anyway, הוו להו למיזן עשרין וחד שתא. They had enough for 21 years to feed the whole city. הוו בהו הני בריוני, but amongst them there were the בריוני. The the the are gangsters, Yiddishe gangsters. אמרו להו רבנן, the Rabbanan said to them, ניפוק ונעביד שלמא בהדייהו. \"Let's go and surrender. Let's go make peace with them, and then it's not a not a good idea, but we have no choice.\" לא שבקינהו. The בריוני didn't let. אמרו להו, they said, ניפוק ונעביד קרבא בהדייהו. \"Let's go make a war with them.\" אמרו רבנן להו, לא מסתייעא מילתא. Rabbanan said, \"It ain't gonna work, you're not gonna succeed. We can't fight them.\" They didn't care. קמו קלונהו להנהו אמברי דחיטי ודסערי, so they went and burned down the storages of the wheat and the barley, והוה כפנא, became a hunger in the city. These בריוני, the Jews, the bad guys. Why? Cuz they wanted to force the Yidden to have to fight. The Gemara says what happened now that there was כפנא, there was a hunger? מרתא בת בייתוס עתירתא דירושלים הות.

Marta bat Baitos was the richest woman in Jerusalem. שדרתיה לשלוחה, she sent her shaliach to go out and buy food for her. אמרה ליה, she said to him, זיל אייתי לי סמידי. \"Go bring me fine flour.\" Cuz she was rich, she was used to eating the finest food. עד דאזל, by the time he got to the market, איזדבן, was sold already. אתא, he came back, אמר לה, he said to her, סמידי ליכא, \"Fine flour isn't there.\" חיורתא איכא, \"There's white flour, not so such good, but\" אמרה ליה, זיל אייתי לי, \"Go bring.\" עד דאזל, still till you got, איזדבן, was sold. אתא, he came back, אמר לה, he said, חיורתא ליכא, \"There's white is not there.\" גושקרא איכא, \"There is, you know, the the brown, burnt, not good, not such good wheat flour.\" איכא, that is. אמרה ליה, זיל אייתי לי. I don't know if this chacham why did he not, why did he have to come back? He couldn't buy it? This guy, the shaliach, had to come back. And what happened? עד דאזל איזדבן, by the time he got back was sold. Why? He knew that from the first time. Mimaila I guess he thought maybe he saw that she wants he buy that, why? Farshtei, ober besser? Vos heist machen besser? You come back, what is he going to gain? דא לית ליה תקנה? דא לית ליה תקנה, הא? Nein, di Gemara dertzeilt dos, farshtei ich. Ich freg oyf ir? Ich freg oyfn shaliach! What kind of a chacham was he? He must have... was he afraid? He had such fear of her that maybe she didn't want it, maybe she wouldn't like it. And what would have been? No, if there's a choice of better... there's no better. There's this. This is the best that you could get. Now what, should he not get it? What did he think she had? I don't know, maybe the mefarshim talk about it, I just didn't see. She was very picky, so... But she was very rich, what would be, waste a waste of a few dollars? So he would buy this and she come back and she didn't like it. So, what, she'd be angry with him that he spent the five dollars? I don't know, whatever. אתא, he came back, אמר ליה he said גושקרא, like even that flour was... קמחא דסערי, flour of barley, which barley is not good. The Gemara actually says in Pesachim barley is מאכל בהמה. Barley is for this, for behemot. The Gemara even says there that... He should... the Gemara talks that you should talk לשון נקי, you should speak very nicely, you shouldn't speak grob, shouldn't say not not good things. So once they sent a shaliach to go to find out if the חיטין grew well. L'poel they didn't. He didn't want to come back and give them a bad besorah, so he came back and he said, didn't say the חיטין didn't, he said the שערי, the the barley grew well. So they said to him, \"Yeah, go tell it to the to the to the dogs, go tell it to the בהמות, because what do we care?\" But l'poel what he meant to say was that but this the flour not, but there we see it's מאכל בהמה. So he said, \"That's all there's left.\" אמרה ליה זיל אייתי לי, go bring me that. עד דאזל איזדבן. As long as he went, till he got there, that's sold. הוה שליפא מסאני,

took off her shoes, אמרה she said, איפוק ואחזי, I will go and see, אם אשכחנא מידי דאמיכל. I have to go, I'll see if there's anything to eat. Why did she take off her shoes? So some say she took off her shoes because to walk, I guess the... dirt herself poor? Poor-looking? No, to save something, huh? She walked for that, yeah. Spoil her shoes. Spoil her shoes. In other places we find such a thing, or in Ta'anit we find that who was it, who went and took off his shoes? When they came through thorns, he took off his shoes. So he asked, \"Why you take off your shoes? You're going through thorns.\" So he said that thorns are gonna tear, they'll tear my body, they'll heal, but the shoes can't heal, so so he took off his shoes. Huh? Abba Chilkiya. Abba Chilkiya, Abba Chilkiya, yeah. Rich woman who has many shoes doesn't care. Well, it's not that, אפס it says because there was the the streets were dirty, and yeah at that time, yeah at this time that's I think that's what it says, so she took off her shoes. And she said, \"I want to go,\" אמרה she said, \"איפוק I'll go out, ואחזי I'll see אם אשכחנא מידי דאמיכל, is anything to eat.\" יתיב לה פרתא בכרעא ומיתה. She stepped into, yeah, from animals, and she was such an איסטניס that that from like a סכנת נפשות she died. קרא עליה רבן יוחנן בן זכאי, רבן יוחנן בן זכאי called up talked, said upon her the pasuk, it says, הרכה בך והענוגה. The pasuk says that what will be in her, will be delicate, מי התנסתה מדרך כף רגלה, from stepping. איכא דאמרי, some say that's not how she died. גרוגרות דרבי צדוק אכלה. She ate the גרוגרות, the dried figs of Rabbi Tzadok, and the Gemara will say what it is, and איסטניס, and it was so disgusting to her that from being being such an איסטניס, ומיתה, from that she died. What's the story with Rabbi Tzadok's גרוגרות? רבי צדוק יתיב ארבעין שנין בתעניתא דלא ליחרב ירושלים.

Rabbi Tzadok fasted for 40 years Yerushalayim should not be destroyed. In other words, before the חורבן, 40 years before he already started fasting. Why? Because 40 years before he saw, I mean, the מצב was bad. What does it say, why did the Sanhedrin move from לשכת הגזית 40 years before the חורבן? Because things were bad. They saw what's going to happen, so he started fasting. Did he fast once a week or every 48 hours? Every day, every day, every day. He didn't eat for 40 years? No, he ate at night. Oh, at nights. But he ate very little. כי הוה אכיל מידי, then when he finished his 40 years, I guess there was a cheshbon of 40 years, מידי דהוה, when he would eat something, הוה מיתחזי מאבראי. He became so skinny that if he'd eat some food, pashut you could see from the outside, the food going down. וכי הוה ברי, when he wanted to cure himself, so couldn't, what could they give him? Now he started eating, but he can't eat. Eat too much, no good. We know after, Rachmana litzlan, the Holocaust when they when they liberated them, they got food, some people, האבן געכאפט in them and they died from that. So מייתי ליה גרוגרות, so the first thing they did, they brought him these dried figs, מייץ מייהו, he would suck out the juice ושדי להו, and he would throw it away. He couldn't he couldn't eat anything but the juice. So, this is according to one opinion, this is what she ate, found that, she ate it, and from that she died. כי נחה נפשה, when she died, אפיקתא לכל דהבא וכספא, she took all her gold and silver, took it out, ושדיתו בשוקא, she threw it in the street, אמרה, she said, האי למאי מיבעי לי? What do I need this for? היינו דכתיב it says, כספם בחוצות ישליכו in Yechezkel, what it says throw out the כסף outside, this is what she did. Okay. Now let's go back to the story. This is about just showing how how poor they not poor, how hungry they were. אבא סיקרא, ריש בריוני דירושלים.

Abba Sikra was the head of these בריוני. בר אחתיה דרבי יוחנן בן זכאי, he was a nephew of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, he's the son of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai's sister. הוה שלח ליה, so Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai sent him a message, תא בצינעא לגבאי, I want to talk to you, come privately, quietly to me. אתא, he came, אמר ליה, he said to him, עד אימת עבידתו הכי? How long are you going to continue doing this? וקטליתו ליה לעלמא בכפנא, you kill everybody by hunger? It's hunger! We're all going to die! Why did you do, what are you going to do? אמר ליה, so he said, מאי אעביד? What should I do? דאי אמינא להו, in other words basically he was telling him tell your chevra to stop, so he said if I say do anything, if I if I tell them anything, קטלו לי, they'll kill me. אמר ליה, so he said, חזי לי תקנתא לדידי, find me an עצה, דאיפוק, I will go out, I want to go out. They didn't let anybody Who didn't let anybody go out from this the city? The בריוני. So he said, get to me get me an etzah to go out, אפשר דהוי הצלה פורתא, that maybe when I go out, I'll find some at least something a help, and I can do something to be lehatzil a little bit. No, they probably had something, or higher people they didn't all die out all of a sudden, but it was very little. אמר ליה, so

he said, I have an etzah for you, אנקיט נפשך בקצירי, make yourself sick, give out a rumor that you became sick, וליתו כולי עלמא ולישאלו בך, so many people are going to come, and they're going to see how you're doing. ואייתי מידי סריא ואגני גבך, and bring something that smells bad, put it next to you, ושמעו ולימרו, and then you'll say דנח נפשיה. They'll say, we'll give out a rumor he was sick, now he died! And when they'll walk in, they'll see, takeh it smells. וליעלו בך תלמידך, let only now your talmidim come, ולא ליעול בך איניש אחרינא, don't let anyone in, דלא לירגשו בך דקליל, in other words when they're going to take you out, they'll if anybody who carries you will feel that you're not so heavy, you're light, דקלילת, דאינהו ידעי, they know, דחייא קליל ממתא, that a person who's alive is lighter than a person who's dead. So this how we're going to get you out, if your talmidim will carry you, they'll know the secret, and their rule was by these בריוני that a dead body they let, if someone died, they would let him out to get buried. עבד הכי, he did that, he made himself sick, and the whole story. נכנס בו ר' אליעזר מצד אחד ור' יהושע מצד אחר, they came in the two talmidim, Rabbi Eliezer on one side, Rabbi Yehoshua on the other side. כי מטו לפתחה, when they came to the door of the gate, to the gate to go out, so the guards were the בריוני. But they wanted to make sure that he's takeh dead, בעו למדקריה, they wanted to stab him, stick in a sword to make sure that if he's not dead, he's dead, or to see if he's dead. אמר להו, so he said to them, יאמרו רבנן דקרו? How could you say, they'll רבנן דקרו, people are going to say you you stabbed your Rebbe? I mean they agreed, it's an interesting thing, they were בריוני, they didn't listen, but they still knew he was Rebbe, they they still considered him Rebbe. Which just reminds me, the Frierdiker Rebbe writes in his reshimos, of Reshimos HaMa'asar when he was in jail, so when this Lulov and Nachmanson, the two who arrested him, and he came and they take took him to jail, so one of them said when he took his package that they took along, he said, \"Rebbe, let me carry your package.\" So he said, look, these are the רשעים גמורים, they were the ones that arrested him, and and they put a death sentence on him, but they said, \"Rebbe is Rebbe, I want to carry your things.\" Anyway, they called the Rebbe though. אמרו בעו למדחפיה, they said okay we're not going to stab him, we'll just kick kick the bed that yours is on, to see if he's alive, to see if he'll shake. אמר להו, so he said to them, יאמרו רבנן דחפו, they'll say the same thing, they pushed the Rebbe? Okay, so פתחו ליה בבא, they

opened the door. נפק, he went out. So he got out, as soon as he got out, I guess he went out of the casket off the bed, and he went to Vespasian. כי מטא להתם, when he came there to אספסיאנוס, אמר, he said, שלמא עלך מלכא, שלמא עלך מלכא, שלום, hello king! אמר ליה, so he said, מחייבת תרי קטלא, you're chayav to get killed for two reasons. חדא דלאו מלכא אנא וקרית לי מלכא, first of all, you're calling me king, I'm not king. And if I'm not king, it's a מרידה במלכות. You call somebody else king when there is a king, you're a מורד במלכות, so you deserve to die for מורד במלכות, which is interesting, this is by a goy, but the same by Yidden we find the same thing. It's interesting Tosafos Uriyah Hachiti. Uriyah Hachiti the Gemara says was chayav misah, the one by David Hamelech, Bas Sheva, Bas Sheva's husband, because David Hamelech had him killed, make send him to get killed. So, he said מורד במלכות. Why was he מורד במלכות? So, the Gemara says, because he said to David, אדוני יואב. He said, \"My master Yoav.\" So, what's the problem? Because in front of what's according to Tosafos the in front of the king there's no אדוני, there's only the king. Nobody else is is chashuv. So, imagine if there he just said אדוני יואב because he was his adon, he was his general. Here you're calling somebody else king when there is a king? You're chayav misah. This

reminds me of another story, it's not the not in the Gemara. They say they once asked the Rozhiner, I think, it was told to the Rozhiner they asked him, \"Nu, ya Rebbe, they give you so much kavod,\" so he says, \"How do you take the kavod? Doesn't it fall on you to become a baal gaavah? How do you take it?\" So, he said, \"I'll give you a mashal.\" See, the king most people didn't even know what he looks like. When do they see the king? They never see the king. The general, people know, cause he's more with the people. Once the king and the general were walking in the street, people saw two people walking, the general they recognize, look somebody's walking with the general. So, as he's walking by, all the people gave such kavod to the general, no one even turned to the king. You can imagine how the general felt. Standing in front of the king and he's getting all the kavod, and the other not. I'm sure he said he wants he wants to bury himself. Same thing here, I know the Aibershter is always next to me, and the more kavod they give me, the more I want to bury myself, the more it falls on me a שפלות. So, here, but anyway, he called him king, and he said you need deserve to Now, let me just finish in a second. And

two, another reason, אי מלכא אנא, if I'm king, עד האידנא אמאי לא אתית לגבאי, why did you come to me till now? Again, in our Machzor, Lubavitcher Machzor, it says right before המלך, that once, who was it say there? Who does it say there? What was it? He fainted? He fainted before he came to המלך? Why did he faint? When Before he started When he started saying המלך, he realized this Gemara. אי מלכא אנא, why where were you till now? What's Rosh Hashanah you're remaining yourself you're coming, אי מלכא אנא, this Anyway, he told him he's going to become king, so we'll stop here. We'll weiter continue. הכל הולך אחר החיתום. He had a nevuah, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai had a had a nevuah and was able to come? I don't know, he said, \"You're going to become king.\" He explained himself. Yeah, yeah, but how did he know it? Who, Vespasian? He was a big chacham. חכם עדיף מנביא, a chacham, he knew the going there.