1)

(a)Rebbi Meir learns from the Pasuk in Yo'el "va'Yored Lachem Geshem Moreh u'Malkosh ba'Rishon" - that the rain season extends right up to the end of Nisan (and that one therefore continues to ask for rain until then).

(b)'Moreh' (referred to in the second paragraph of the Shema as "Yoreh") is - the early rain, which normally occurs in Mar-Cheshvan; and 'Malkosh' - the late rain, which occurs in Nisan.

(c)Rebbi Yochanan explains that the Pasuk in Yo'el, which records that 'Moreh' occurred in Nisan - is refering to that particular year only, when a drought had racked the country, and this was the first rain that fell that year.

(d)The famine had lasted seven years.

2)

(a)When the Navi instructed the people to plant in Nisan that year, they replied - that it made more sense to eat the grain that they had and live (at least momentarily) rather than to plant it and die.

(b)But he insisted, and they listened to him. They subsequently ate - grains of corn that they miraculously found that the ants and the mice had stored away in their holes.

(c)They sowed on the second, third and fourth of Nisan - and the second rain fell on the fifth. By the sixteenth of Nisan, the day of the Omer, the barley had grown (in eleven days instead of six months, in time to bring it for the Omer.

(d)It is about that generation that David ha'Melech wrote - "ha'Zor'im b'Dim'ah b'Rinah Yiktzoru".

3)

(a)Rav Yehudah and Rav Chisda (or the Tana of a Beraisa, reapectively) ascribes the Pasuk in Tehilim...

1. ... "Haloch Yelech u'Vacho ... Bo Yavo b'Rinah" - to the starving oxen of the same period, who walked along the furrows 'crying' (with hunger), but who rejoiced on their return journey, because they were able to eat the young shoots that miraculously had already begun to grow.

2. ... "Nosei Alumosav" - to the stalks of corn, which in normal times grow two thirds stalk and one third corn, but which then miraculously grew in reverse proportions; one third stalk and two thirds corn.

4)

(a)In the days of Yehoram ben Achav, the Pasuk in Melachim speaks of another seven-year famine. When Rav Nachman asked Rebbi Yitzchak what they ate for the first two years, he replied - that they ate what was in the houses and what was in the fields, respectively. Note, that from here until the end of the Daf comprises the answers of Rebbi Yitzchak to Rav Nachman's questions.

(b)In the third year, they ate the Kasher animals - and in the fourth, the non-Kasher ones.

(c)In the fifth year, they ate insects - in the sixth year, their children, and in the seventh, the flesh of their own arms.

5)

(a)Rebbi Yitzchak quoting Rebbi Yochanan, explains the Pasuk in Hoshea "Bekirbecha Kadosh, Lo Avo b'Ir" to mean - that Hash-m will not enter the Beis-Hamikdash shel Ma'alah (the celestial Beis-Hamikdash), before He enters the Beis Hamikdash shel Matah (the one on earth).

(b)We learn from the Pasuk "Yerushalayim ha'Benuyah, k'Ir she'Chubrah Lah Yachdav" - that just as there is a Beis-Hamikdash shel Matah, so too, is there a Beis-Hamikdash shel Ma'alah.

(c)The connection between the Pasuk in Yirmeyahu "uve'Achas Yiv'aru, v'Yichsalu, Musar Havalim, Etz Hu", and the Pasuk there "Hevel Heimah, Ma'aseh Ta'atu'im" - is that from the latter, we learn that "Hevel" in the former means Avodah-Zarah, to teach us that that is the sin which, more than any other, causes the fires in Gehinom to burn stronger.

6)

(a)Another Pasuk in Yirmeyahu writes "Ki Shtayim Ra'os Asah Ami". In spite of the fact that they were guilty of the twenty-four sins listed in Yechezkel (and of contravening the twenty-four Books of Tanach), the Navi nevertheless refers to just two sins - because he wants to stress the sin of Avodah-Zarah (which, as we just explained, was the one that weighed heaviest of all their sins), and that was considered like two sins, because not only did they forsake Hash-m, but they also adopted other gods (like giving up a pit of water in exchange for empty broken pits which cannot hold water), as Yirmeyahu ha'Navi explains.

(b)This is in contrast with other nations, who would not dream of swapping their gods (in spite of the fact that they are useless), for other (equally useless) gods, as Yirmeyahu writes "ha'Hemir Goy Elohim v'Heimah Lo Elohim, v'Ami Hemir Kevodo b'Lo Ho'il"!

(c)The connection between this and the Kuti'im and the Keidari'im - is that these two nations are the prime example of what we are discussing, inasmuch as the former used to worship fire, and the latter, water, and, even though the Kuti'im knew full-well that water extinguishes fire, they did not exchange their god for that of the Keidari'im.

7)

(a)Shmuel was fifty-two when he died. We know this - from the fact that he was two years old (immediately following his weaning) when his mother dedicated him to serve in the Mishkan "Ad Olam", and in terms of a ben Levi, that means fifty years.

(b)Rav Yitzchak explain the Pasuk "Vay'hi Ki Zaken Shmuel" - to mean that, although he was not really old - old age 'sprang on him' prematurely.

(c)Shmuel requested from Hash-m that - just as Yehoshua, who was appointed leader by Moshe, and who was also the disciple of Aharon (see also Agados Maharsha) did not die during their life-time, so too, should Shaul, who was anointed by him, not die during his life-time.

(d)Shmuel compared himself to Moshe and Aharon - because Hash-m had already done so (as we find in the Pasuk in Tehilim - "Moshe v'Aharon b'Kohanav, u'Shmuel b'Kor'ei Shemo).

8)

(a)Hash-m's subsequent dilemma - was that He could not now kill Shaul as long as Shmuel was alive, whilst on the other hand, if He would kill Shmuel first, people would ascribe his premature death to his having sinned. Nor could He kill neither of the two, because David's time had arrived to rule, and one king does not have the right to encroach on the reign of another.

(b)Hash-m circumvented the problem - by making Shmuel look old, so that nobody would have any misgivings about his dying young (because they would take him to be older than he really was.

(c)Ramah (Shmuel's home-town) is mentioned in a Pasuk which speaks about Shaul living in Giv'ah - because it was thanks to Shmuel's Tefilah that Shaul lived for an extra two and a half years (otherwise, he would have died immediately after his sin).

(d)We learn from the Pasuk in Hoshea "Al-Ken Chatzavti bi'Nevi'im Haragtim b'Imrei Fi" - that Hash-m removed Shmuel (Rashi writes Shaul) from before David (meaning that He killed Shmuel because of His decree that David should now take over from Shaul, and not because he had sinned).

9)

(a)Rav Yitzchak initially declined to say a Dvar Torah, when Rav Nachman asked him once to say something during the meal - because Rebbi Yochanan had said that one should not speak whilst eating (to avoid the food goes down the wrong pipe and choking).

(b)When he eventually said that Yakov Avinu never died, Rav Nachman objected - because how can the Pasuk then go on to relate how they eulogized and embalmed him?

(c)Rav Yitzchak learned from the Pasuk in Yirmeyahu "v'Atah Al Tira Avdi Yakov ... Ki Hineni Moshi'acha me'Rachok, v'es Zar'acha me'Eretz Shivyam" - that just as Yakov's children were alive at the time, so was he ...

(d)... and the reason that they eulogized and embalmed him is - because they took him for dead, but not because he really was dead (though it is not clear how one can possibly embalm a live man).

10)

(a)Rav Yitzchak explained that Rav Nachman said 'Rachav Rachav', and remained physically unaffected (even though he had told him that whoever mentioned her name twice, would have an emission) - because he had only referred to someone who actually knew her, but not to someone who, like Rav Nachman, did not.

(b)When Rav Nachman asked him for a Berachah before parting company - Rav Yitzchak compared him to a man walking in the desert, who was hungry, thirsty and tired, when he came across a tree whose fruit was sweet, whose shade was pleasant and underneath which, a river flowed. After eating from its fruit, drinking from the water of the river and resting under the tree's shade, he got up to leave. 'How can I bless you?', he said to the tree. 'Your fruit is already sweet, your shade is already pleasant and there is already a river flowing beneath you. May it be Hash-m's will that all the saplings that one plants from you, should be like you'.

(c)Rav Nachman was already blessed - with Torah, wealth and children (corresponding to the fruit, the shade and the water - see Agados Maharsha).

(d)So Rav Yitzchak bestowed upon his Talmid the Berachah - that his children should be like him.