Commentary for Berakhot 116:17

After the destruction, Jerusalem was compared to a widow; Lam. i. 1.

M.: Nathan.

"Sixty" is often used in the Talmud not literally, but to denote an indefinite number.

Rab Hanna b. Hanilai.

M.: Rab Nahman said; and D.S. mentions another variant, Rab Nahman b. Isaac.

I.e. why should Rab Hanna's house meet with a better fate than the Temple which had been destroyed?

What follows is included in the Burial Service; see Singer, p. 319.

M. adds: b. Isaac.

M. inserts here: What is the Scriptural authority for this? Rab Aha b. Rab Jacob said.

If an article was lost and not found within twelve months, it was deemed irrecoverable.

The benediction to be said on beholding a "crowd" of Israelites; see the preceding folio.

They were apparently annoyed by his excessive praise in comparing them with the sixty myriads of the house of Israel and suspected him of sarcasm. He would in that case have used the Divine Name in the benediction disrespectfully.

Which obviously happened after birth.

Wiesner (p. 186) sees here a trace of the idea that the souls of the wicked are made to inhabit the bodies of such animals. Cf. Sanh. 109 a.

Rashi explains this to mean "shooting stars." Other commentators hazard "comet." The 'Aruk translates Zikin "comets" and K. di-S. "shooting stars." They both probably mean "shooting stars." On this astronomical passage, see Brodetsky, J. R. II. pp. 167 ff.

See p. 74 n. 2.

M.: b. Judah.

There are "seven heavens of which the first, Vilon, was merely a 'curtain' which was withdrawn by day and replaced by night, thus alternately exposing and hiding the Sun, which, together with the moon, planets, and stars, was fixed to the second, Rekia'." Brodetsky, loc. cit. p. 171.

It is merely an error of perspective (Brodetsky).

That the order is reversed.

They thus counteract each other's intensity ; and that is why the same order is not retained in the two passages.

A mythical river mentioned in Dan. vii. 10. It is perhaps meant to denote the Milky Way; see J. E. IV, p. 249.

Wiesner identifies this with Ὑάδες the Hyades, a group of seven stars.

R.V. "Or canst thou guide the Bear with her sons." But the legend that follows requires tanhem to be read as tinnahem.