1)

(a)Someone who always places ...

1. ... his hand on his mustache (or in that location) - will be afraid of the Evil Spirit (i.e. demons).

2. ... his hand on his forehead - will be constantly sleepy.

3. ... food under his bed - will find that his food becomes hexed (even if it encased in a metal container).

(b)One should refrain from drinking water on Tuesday night and Friday night - if there is no light.

(c)The 'Shivah Kolos' - is a reference to Kapitel 29 of Tehilim ("Mizmor l'David"), which contains seven times the word "Kol" ("Kol Hash-m Al ha'Mayim" etc.

(d)Besides an incantation ('Lul Shafan Anigron' etc.), if there is someone with him, he should arouse him and say 'so-and-so the son of so-and-so, I am thirsty'; If not, he can shake the lid of a barrel or throw something into the barrel and then drink.

2)

(a)One should refrain from drinking water from rivers and pools at night-time - because of the danger of being attacked by the demon called Shavriri.

(b)A thirsty person who has no companion - says 'So-and-so, my mother told me to be wary of Shavriri; Shavriri, Beriri, Riri, Yeri, Ri. I am thirsty for water in a white cup'.

3)

(a)Our Mishnah taught that even a poor person who receives from the Tamchuy should be given four cups of wine for the Seder. This is not so obvious - in light of the fact that the author of our Mishnah is Rebbi Akiva, who says that a person should rather make his Shabbos a weekday than come on to people for help. Consequently, we may have thought that a man who is so poor that he has to receive from the soup-kitchen, should avoid receiving four cups of wine.

(b)Even R. Akiva, who says that one should rather make one's Shabbos a weekday than rely on people, will concede here that on Pesach, a poor man must accept four cups of wine for each member of his family - due to 'Pirsumei Nisa' (the Mitzvah of publicizing the miracle).

(c)We cannot extrapolate from Rebbi Akiva that a very poor man should eat only dry bread on Shabbos - since we learnt in Tana d'Bei Eliyahu, that in spite of R. Akiva's principle, one should exert oneself and prepare a small dish (such as small fish fried in flour using their own oil) in honor of Shabbos.

(d)We learn that a Jew should exert himself and go beyond his means in order to do the will of Hash-m, from a statement by Rebbi Yehudah ben Teima, who says that one should be 'as bold as a leopard, as swift as an eagle, as fleet as a deer and as strong as a lion to accomplish the will of your Father in Heaven'.

(e)'As bold as a leopard' - to pursue Mitzvos even above one's means; 'as swift as an eagle' - to shut one's eyes in order to avoid seeing evil; 'as fleet as a deer' in performing Mitzvos, and 'as strong as a lion' - to vanquish the Yetzer ha'Ra.

4)

(a)A person should not ...

1. ... learn in a public-place - because he will be constantly disturbed by the people.

2. ... live in a town that is run by Talmidei-Chachamim - because they are too busy learning to tend to the town's affairs.

3. ... enter one's own home without warning (and certainly not someone else's) - because the members of his household might be doing something discreet, and will be embarrassed to be caught by surprise.

4. ... go without shoes - because it is considered a disgrace to walk around without shoes.

(b)One should eat ...

1. ... in the summer - before the sun comes up.

2. ... in the winter - before it gets cold.

(c)One should enter into business with partners who are currently enjoying a run of success.

(d)We learn from the Pasuk in Iyov "Ma'aseh Yadav Berachta", that anyone who received a Perutah from Iyov was blessed. The Gemara proves from there that the previous case incorporates entering into a partnership, and is not confined to buying from him or selling to him.

5)

(a)Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai threatened Rebbi Akiva that, if he would not teach him Torah, he would tell his father, who would then inform the authorities (it is unclear what he intended to divulge).

(b)Rebbi Akiva answered him that more than the calf wants to drink, the cow wants to feed (i.e. that his desire to teach was even greater than Rebbi Shimon's desire to learn - meaning that if he refused to teach Rebbi Shimon, it was only because he did not wish Rebbi Shimon to be caught studying Torah, like he was.

(c)'u'Mi b'Sakanah', Rebbi Shimon replied. 'It is I who want to learn and who is in danger for not studying Torah' (like Rebbi Akiva himself told Papus - in Berachos 63b); 'And I', he meant to say, 'am willing to take the risk'!

6)

(a)'Im Bikashta Leichanek, Hitaleh b'Ilan Gadol' - means that, if one wants to say something that will be accepted by everyone, he should learn by a great sage, and repeat his sayings in his name.

(b)It is important to teach one's children from a corrected Sefer - because once an error creeps in to one's mind, it is very difficult to eradicate it.

(c)One should avoid marrying a divorcee during the life-time of her previous husband - because Mar said that when two divorcees marry, there are four people in the bed. Why is that? Because each one inevitably thinks about his previous spouse (who is still alive).

(d)Some say that one should even avoid marrying a widow - because she may have derived more pleasure from her first husband, with the result that she will now despise him (her second one).

7)

(a)

1. 'Mitzvah v'Guf Gadol' - is lending someone money against a security of land from which the creditor is permitted to benefit, and which is deducted from the loan (known as 'Mashkanta d'Sura'). This is a great favor towards the debtor, who has the advantage of a loan of cash, whilst having to repaying it on the easiest of terms.

2. 'Mitzvah v'Guf Tahor' - is someone whose wife has died and, although he has already fulfilled the Mitzvah of 'Pru u'Revu', he marries again.

8)

(a)Living in Shechantziv was inadvisable - because they were mockers (people who wasted their time with pursuits not connected with Torah).

(b)When Rebbi instructed his sons not to sleep on the bed of a gentile women, he may have meant ...

1. ... exactly what he said - due to the possibility of gentiles placing their dead babies underneath the sheets, and then accusing the Jew of having murdered him (as happened many years later with Rav Papa) - apparently, this was not an uncommon strategy (similar to the blood-libel, that would recur centuries later, generation after generation).

2. ... that they should not marry a convert - because until ten generations, a convert is still attached to his roots (as Chazal have said 'Until ten generations, do not despise a gentile in the presence of a convert').

(c)He also commanded them to avoid ...

1. ... paying customs duties - because he may get caught and everything that he owns will be confiscated (presumably Rebbi was speaking in a case when there was no likelihood of Chilul Hash-m, which is a far more serious issue).

2. ... a black ox in Nisan, when it comes up from the meadow - because 'the Satan dances between its horns'.

9)

(a)One is advised to leave a distance of at least fifty Amos between oneself and a Shor Tam, but as far as the eye can see from a Shor Mu'ad.

(b)Rebbi Meir advised anyone who sees the head of an ox among the palm-trees - to climb up to the roof and to pull the ladder up after him.

(c)The incantation to stop an ox from goring is 'Hein Hein', a lion from charging 'Zeh Zeh', and a camel from attacking 'Da Da', and the jingle used when pulling a boat is 'Hilni, Hiya, Hila, Hilak'. According to the Rashbam, these are all not incantations, but the natural way to frighten away the beasts or to make them work.

(d)Each of the following cause leprosy: Someone who sleeps on skins before they are completed; someone who eats Shivuta fish in Nisan; the remainder of 'Kasa d'Harsena' (a cup containing a preparation of small fish); hot water that one pours on to one's skin; someone who steps on egg-shells and washed clothes within eight days (which are subject to white lice).

10)

(a)Rav Papa said that one should not enter a house bare-footed, where there is a cat - because cats kill and eat snakes, and one might step on a very small snake-bone, which enters the skin and cannot be extracted.

(b)In the second version of Rav Papa's statement, he warns against entering a house where there is no cat in the dark - because a snake (e.g. a python) might wrap itself around him before he realizes it.

11)

(a)Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi commanded Rebbi three things: One should not ...

1. ... make a Din Torah with three people - because they are likely to appoint two of themselves as witnesses, and the third as the litigant.

2. ... stand looking at an article for sale if one has no money with which to buy it - because whilst he is admiring the article, other potential customers are unable to examine it.

(b)He also forbade him to be with his wife the night she Toveled - because, since she saw blood (and now has a Chazakah of seeing blood), there is a good chance that, although after seven days she is Tehorah, she might just see again that night during Tashmish (i.e. the first sighting of Zivus). This is not applicable nowadays, seeing as the women require seven clean days. (In any case, it is no more than a Chumra, because how can a Chazakah of Nidus carry over into the period of Zivus)

(c)Rebbi Yosi b'Rebbi Yehudah also commanded Rebbi three things: Not to go out alone on Tuesday and Friday nights, because Igras bas Machalas with her 18,000 destructive angels (each one of which has the power to damage) are out and about.

(d)One should not enter a new bath-house for the first twelve months after it opens - because the floor might cave in, and one will fall into the cistern of water below and drown.

12)

(a)Someone who ...

1. ... stands in front of a light, naked - will become an epileptic.

2. ... is intimate with his wife by the light of a lamp - will have children who are epileptics.

(b)The same will happen to someone who is intimate with his wife when there is a small child who is less than twelve months old asleep on the same bed.

(c)The above only applies if the baby is sleeping at the foot of the bed, but not if he is sleeping at the head.

(d)It is permitted anyway - if one places one's hand on the baby's head.

13)

(a)Igras Bas Machalas once met Rebbi Chanina ben Dosa. She told him that had they not decreed in Heaven that she is to leave him alone, she would have killed him. To which he replied that, since he was held in such high esteem in Heaven, he duly decreed that she be banished from inhabited country forever. When she pleaded with him to leave her some leeway, he allowed her Tuesday and Friday nights.

(b)Abaye finished what Rebbi Chanina ben Dosa began - he banished her from inhabited country completely.

(c)They referred to Abaye as 'Nachmeni' - because he was brought up by Rabah bar Nachmeni.

(d)They thought that Igras and her retinue continued to pass through residential areas after that episode - but really they were only going to retrieve their horses, which had run away into inhabited country.