Rabbi Kook

Rav Nachman said to his servant Daru: “Insulate for me a cold dish and bring water that was heated by a non-Jew.” Rav Eliezer heard of this and became upset. Rav Yosef asked: why did Rav Eliezer get upset? Surely Rav Nachman has acted in accordance with great authorities – one halacha is in accordance with Rav, and the other is in accordance with Shmuel. For Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel that it is permitted to insulate cold food, and Rav said that anything that can be eaten in its raw state is not included in the prohibition of bishul akum. Rav Eliezer felt that an important person should act differently.

Rav Huna said in the name of Rebbi: It is prohibited to insulate cold things on Shabbat (Rashi – to protect it from being warmed by the sun), But we learned in a baraita that Rebbi permitted it (Rashi – for we do not decree to prohibit this lest people come to insulate things to keep them warm)!? It is not a contradiction. The first statement (where Rebbi was stringent) was before he heard from Rabbi Yishmael in the name of Rabbi Yossi, whereas the baraita was said after he heard from Rabbi Yishmael in the name of Rabbi Yossi. For Rebbi was sitting and stated that it is prohibited to insulate cold things. Rabbi Yishmael son of Rav Yossi said: “But my father permits it!?” Rebbi responded: “If so, the elder has already ruled upon it [and I retract my ruling].”

[According to one opinion in the gemara, the number of thirty-nine categories of forbidden work on Shabbat corresponds to the thirty-nine times the root appears in the Torah in the forms of “melacha,” “melachto,” and “melechet.”] Rav Yosef asked: Is [the pasuk regarding Yosef], “He came home to do his work (melachto)” (Bereishit 39:11) part of the count? Abaye responded: Let us bring a sefer Torah and count. Didn’t Rabba bar bar Chana say in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: They did not move from there until they brought a sefer Torah and counted them.

Gemara: That which it says in the mishna that there are thirty-nine categories of work that are forbidden on Shabbat – what does the number correspond to? Rabbi Chanina bar Chama said: It corresponds to the work done in constructing the Mishkan.

Rabbi Yannai said: Tefillin require a clean body, like Elisha Ba’al Kenafayim (the possessor of wings) … Why is he called Ba’al Kenafayim? Once the Roman’s decreed that whoever put on tefillin would have his brain pierced. Elisha wore them and went out to the marketplace. An official saw him. Elisha ran away, pursued by the official. When the official caught him, Elisha took the tefillin off his head and held them in his hand. He asked: “What is in your hand?” He answered: “The wings of a dove.” He opened his hand, and there were dove wings.

One who bathed in hot water but did not drink hot water is similar to one who heated an oven from the outside but not the inside.

Rav Yehuda said: Whoever moves from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael, violates a positive commandment, as it says: “They will go to Bavel and will remain there” (Yirmiyahu 27:22)

Rav Zeira was avoiding Rav Yehuda because he wanted to move to Eretz Yisrael [which Rav Yehuda opposed].

Gemara: Rava said to his attendant: You, who do not know how to determine the times of the Rabbis, should light the Shabbat candles once the sun is at the top of the palm trees. What does one do on a cloudy day? In a city, see a rooster; in a field, see a raven, or see an adani (a plant that follows the sun, like a sunflower).

One who wants to see Miriam’s well (which sustained Bnei Yisrael in the desert) should go to the top of the Carmel, gaze, and see something (Rashi - a boulder) that looks like a sieve in the sea. This is the well of Miriam.