Gemara Clarity

Pesachim 49b

פסחים מ״ט ע״ב

Learn Pesachim 49b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Pesachim 49b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Marriage and the harsh rhetoric about the עם הארץ; then the minimum amounts for returning sacrificial meat compared with זימון

Overview

This amud opens by finishing a ברייתא's image: a match between a Torah family and an עם הארץ family does not take hold. A new ברייתא ranks the best families to marry into, starting with the daughter of a תלמיד חכם, and warns against marrying into an עם הארץ family. The גמרא then brings a series of very harsh statements from רבי, רבי אלעזר, רבי יוחנן, רבי עקיבא, רבי מאיר, רבי אליעזר and רבי חייא about the bitter hostility between עמי הארץ and תלמידי חכמים. These statements are deliberate exaggeration aimed at people who were openly hostile to Torah, not practical halacha. A ברייתא then gives six practical rules of caution with an עם הארץ, and a יש אומרים adds that we do not announce his lost item. The גמרא explains that the תנא קמא disagrees because righteous descendants may inherit the item. Finally, the גמרא returns to the משנה about someone who left Jerusalem with sacrificial meat. It raises a contradiction with the amounts רבי מאיר and רבי יהודה give for זימון. רבי יוחנן switches the names, while אביי explains that one dispute rests on פסוקים and the other on סברא. רבי יהודה's reasoning continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

וְאֵינוֹ מִתְקַבֵּל.

and it is not accepted (does not take hold).

תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן:

The Sages taught:

לְעוֹלָם יִמְכּוֹר אָדָם כׇּל מַה שֶׁיֵּשׁ לוֹ,

A person should always sell all that he has,

וְיִשָּׂא בַּת תַּלְמִיד חָכָם.

and marry the daughter of a Torah scholar.

The steps (28)

  1. ConclusionClosing the grapevine metaphor
  2. StatementThe ladder of preferred families to marry into
  3. StatementWarning against marrying into an עם הארץ family
  4. Statementרבי: one who does not learn Torah may not eat meat
  5. Statementרבי אלעזר's extreme hyperbole about the עם הארץ
  6. QuestionThe students ask about the wording
  7. ResponseWhy 'stab' and not 'slaughter'
  8. StatementDo not travel on the road with an ignoramus
  9. StatementTearing an ignoramus like a fish
  10. StatementAnd from his back
  11. Statementרבי עקיבא's confession about his past hatred
  12. QuestionThe students ask: why not say 'like a dog'?
  13. ResponseA donkey's bite breaks bones
  14. StatementMarrying a daughter to an ignoramus is like placing her before a lion
  15. StatementOnly business keeps them from killing us
  16. StatementLearning Torah in front of an עם הארץ
  17. StatementTheir hatred is greater than the nations' hatred
  18. StatementOne who learned and quit hates most of all
  19. StatementSix practical rules about עמי הארץ
  20. StatementSome say: we do not announce his lost item
  21. QuestionWhat is the first opinion's reason?
  22. ResponseRighteous children may end up using it
  23. StatementBack to the משנה: one who left Jerusalem
  24. ChallengeContradiction from the laws of זימון
  25. ResolutionThe opinions are reversed
  26. Resolutionאביי: Keep the names, because the two disputes have different bases
  27. ResolutionHow the זימון dispute depends on reading the verse
  28. Resolutionרבי מאיר compares returning sacrificial meat to its impurity