The גמרא says that when רבי used to have 13 פּשטים in something and would teach 7 to רבי חייא. His כובס overheard the other six and when רבי forgot his learning this כובס was able to teach it to רבי חייא who in turn reminded רבי. רבי then told this כובס that he had “made him”. What is fascinating is that this כובס seems to be mentioned several times in ש"ס (similar to אמתיה דרבי). In the גמרא in כתובות דף ק"ג ע"ב it says that anyone who was present at רבי’s funeral was מזומן לחיי עולם הבא. "ההוא כובס" who was there every day happened to not be there that day and was so upset that he went up to a roof and jumped off and a בת קול came out saying that the כובס was also מזומן לחיי עולם הבא. Theמהרש"א here says that “perhaps” this is the same כובס as our גמרא in נדרים. Both of these גמרותsound like the כובס was a תלמיד חכם and צדיק. However, there is also a גמרא in בבא בתרא דף ח ע"אthat says that there was a tax put on a city and רבי said that the תלמידי חכמים didn’t need to pay. The other townsfolk said if they don’t pay we will leave the city and it will all be on the Rabbis to pay. רבי maintained that the רבנן didn’t need to pay. They all ran away leaving one כובס so the whole tax burden was put on him. Then he ran away too and the tax was cancelled. רבי said “we see from here that bad things only happen because of עמי הארץ”. That means רבי considered the כובס to be an עם הארץ. It is possible there was more than one כובס. Or perhaps the כובס came back and spent time near רבי and became a תלמיד חכם. One last source: in ברכות דף כ"ח when רבן גמליאל and רבי יהושע were in a disagreement and רבן גמליאל came to ask רבי יהושע for מחילה, רבי יהושע was מוחל. They said “who will tell the רבנן”? “ההוא כובס” said he would go tell them. There is no מפרש on that גמרא I saw explains who this mysterious person was. Just a הערה.

The גמרא says that you should not visit a חולה unless they have a fever. The מהר"ל in גור אריה at the beginning of פּרשת וירא in ד"ה אמר ר׳ חמא says that Hashem waited for the third day to visit אברהם because on day one he was only a חולה in one אבר and by day three he had weakened and become a חולה כל גופו. The מצוה of ביקור חולים is only by a חולה כל גופו so Hashem waited for day three. This is a great חידוש since our גמרא when it says one only visits a חולה who has fever then says לאפוקי מאי and does not give this נפקא מינה.

The משנה says you can eat at the same table as someone you are מודר הנאה from. The פּירוש הרא"ש(implicitly) asks why don’t we need to require a הרחקה like we do by people eating milk and meat at the same table lest they come to eat from each other? He answers that since people who are מודר המאה from each other probably hate each other, they won’t come to eat from one another regardless. The ש"ך in יו"ד סימן פּ"ח ס"ק בis מחדש that that we only require a הרחקה by milk and meat since those are מותר alone and only forbidden when mixed so someone may forget. However, if that were true, why would the רא"ש need to explain the reason by מודר הנאה that they hate each other? He answers that since these exact foods are מותר when not owned by the other guy, it is similar to בשר בחלב.

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