Commentary for Taanit 45:20

Ugah: A circular line; like a cake, which is round.

In the manner that Habakkuk did: As is explained in the Targum on Habakkuk on, "I will stand upon my watch" - he made a type of prison and sat [there].

We have seen you, but we shall not die: "We have seen you, but we shall not die," is as a statement: Take efforts that we shall not die from hunger due to the stoppage of the rain.

A bull of hodaah: Upon which to confess [sins]. He leaned upon it; and they brought peace-offerings. And Choni [lived] at the time of the Temple.

Truffles and mushrooms: Boleiz, in [Old French]. As they come out from the dampness of the rain, and they knew that it was rains of blessing.

If you were not Choni and a great man.

For ostracism: As we ostracize [somone] on account of the honor of the master. And he cast [irreverent] statements and said, "I did not ask for this."

For were these years like the years of Elijah: [A time of] a decree on the stoppage of the rain.

And the key for rain was in Elijah’s hands: We teach [this version of the text].

Wouldn’t the name of Heaven have been desecrated: By way of a question. As Eliyahu had sworn (I Kings 17:1), "As the Lord lives [...], there will be no dew or rain except by my word"; and you swore that you would not move until rain falls.

Wouldn’t the name of Heaven have been desecrated: As one or the other would come to a vain oath.

Mitchateh (Nag): It is an expression of sin; meaning that he was continuing to sin.

The Chamber of the Hewn Stone:: The Sanhedrin.

A generation that was in darkness due to great pain. As there was no rainfall.

You saved through your prayer from death. As you brought them plenty.

Of that righteous man - Choni HaMe’aggel - he was distressed over this verse.

A song of Ascents: It is an expression of ascending.

We were like those who dream: The Babylonian exile, which was seventy years, was like a dream.

Seventy years in a dream: By way of a question: Is there someone who sleeps seventy years in his dream; and is there any person who sleeps seventy years at one time?

We teach [the following version]: I found a world full of carob trees. Just as my ancestors planted for me, I too am planting for my descendants.

He sat [meaning,] Choni HaMe'aggel, and he ate bread.

A cliff formed around him: A boulder arose around him.

And he was concealed from sight: So they did not find him there.

Several herds: The offspring of offspring. It was pregnant with a male, and during those years that he slept, it also mated with it and they were born.

He said to them: He asked them, "Is the son of Choni HaMe’aggel alive?"

These discussions are enlightening us: This discussion is as illuminated as if he had learned it in the lifetime of Choni HaMe’aggel, who would break it apart for us and illuminate it very well for us.

Either friendship or death: And we do not teach [the version], "like the friends of Iyov," here; but rather [only] in Bava Batra (16b), concerning the story of Iyov. If the friends of a person do not honor him as at first, it is better to him that he should die. "Alternatively, certain hooligans," is not written in our books (in Taanit 23b:7)>

In the manner that Habakkuk did, etc.: As everyone who prays stands in one place! But since it is written about him with a double expression - "I will stand and set myself, etc." - it implies that he made a circle in the place that he prayed, so that he not move from there until he was answered. And an ugah is a circular line, like Rashi explained. And he was called Choni HaMe’aggel based on this; meaning that he encircled himself with a circular line.

Like a member of the household: This is according to what is written in the chapter [entitled] Ain Omdin (Berakhot 34b:28) - that the wife of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai said to him, "And is Chanina greater than you, that you need to request from him that he pray for your son?" And he said to her, "No, but he is like a servant who is accustomed to the house of the king, whereas I am like a minister in front of the king" - as it is explained there. And so too here, this is what he means: It is not because of my greatness that they directed their faces towards me (for help), but rather since I am like a member of the household, accustomed to being before You.

Only to dissolve your oath, etc.: And even though he said in his oath, "until you have mercy upon Your children, etc." - it is possible that the students only heard the expression of the oath from him, "that I will not move from here"; but they did not hear the end of his words, such that he said, "until you have mercy, etc." So they thought that he only prayed that the rain fall; and that was fulfilled!

Rain of [good]will, blessing, and generosity, etc.: Meaning to say, of Your will - as it is said, "May it be Your will, etc."; and that it should also be the will of Israel, such that it not fall furiously. And blessing is that it be a blessing for You and a blessing for us. And [generosity] is that which they said in the blessing for rain, "and generosity for You" - that it not be by way of an obligation. And that it be generosity (nedevah) for us - as it stated (Psalms 54:8), "Then I will sacrifice to You with a freewill sacrifice (nedevah); I will praise Your name, Lord, for it is good, etc." That is why he brought a bull of hodaah (thanksgiving).

Over an excess of good, etc. Bring me a bull, etc.: It appears that it can be explained that the reason of the thing, that we do not pray over an excess of good - even though this good of excess rain is bad, as I wrote above, since it weakens the land, so it doesn't produce fruit - because it is nevertheless like ingratitude. For at the beginning, he prayed and requested rain, which is good for the world. Yet he said, "Bring me a bull of hodaah," upon which to confess [sins], as Rashi explained. That is to confess that he did not act properly, by requesting the stopping of excess good. But "Israel, whom You brought out of Egypt" - he made the thing depend upon His taking them out of Egypt. As You grew angry with them [and] they could not withstand [it] - for example, the trials of water and Mei Merivah. [And] they were not able to withstand the flow of excess good to them - for example, with the manna and the quail. They were not able to withstand [it], as it is stated about it (Numbers 11:33), "The meat was still between their teeth, etc. when the anger of the Lord flared up, etc."

Wouldn’t the name of Heaven have been desecrated by you, etc.: See the commentary of Rashi. However the expression, "desecrated by you," would appear to be better explained [as], that you would come to a false oath, since the key to stop the rain is in the hands of Eliyahu.

As you mitchateh (nag) before the Omnipresent, etc.: Rashi explained [it as being] from an expression of sin. But Arukh explained it as something else, see there.

A song of Maalot, etc. Rashi explained, it is an expression of ascending (iluy). To here are his [words]. But in the chapter [entitled] HaChalil and in Tractate Makkot, it is explained that it is based on the fifteen ascending steps (maalot) in the Temple, in the courtyard.

And they did not pay him proper respect, etc.: Even when they saw that he was a master of Torah and "his discussion is enlightening us as if it was in the lifetime of Choni HaMe’aggel" - they nevertheless did not see about him that he was a master of [good] deeds like Choni. And that is why they did not pay him proper respect. And it said that he prayed for mercy and he died, etc. As his time to die had not yet arrived, since those seventy years that he was sleeping were not counted for him at all. And in the Yerushalmi, it brings a story about Choni HaMe’aggel, that he was [alive] during the destruction of the first Temple and he slept seventy years from the destruction of the first Temple until the Second Temple was built; whereas this story of the mishnah was a long time after this, at the time of Shimon ben Shetach. And the author of Yafeh Mareh wrote that there were two Choni HaMe’aggels, and the one of the mishnah was his grandson, see there. And in the Sefer Yuchasin, it is written in the name of Yosef ben Gurion that Choni HaMe’aggel was killed outside of Jerusalem in the wars of the descendants of the Chasmoneans. And this agrees with our Talmud: Since he was lost from the world for seventy years, sleeping, they said about him that he was killed in the civil war. And that is why when he came, even his grandson did not believe him.