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Bava Basra 012a: Misuse of a shortcut
Shlomo Flam asked:
what is the significance of the 22 years that were added to Binyamin ha'Tzadik?
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The Kollel replies:
(a) The VILNA GA'ON explains that the reason why 22 years were added to
Binyamin ha'Tzadik's life was because the Gemara earlier (9b) teaches that
a person who appeases and encourages a poor person is blessed with 11
blessings. Binyamin ha'Tzadik appeased the poor woman and her seven sons
when he said that he wished with all his heart that he could help her, but
that the communal funds were depleted. He thereby appeased 8 people (the
woman and her seven sons), and thus he was deserving of 88 blessings (11 X
8). The Chachamim teach (see Sotah 21a) that each blessing is comprised of
three months of added life. 88 blessings times 3 months equals 264 months,
or 22 years.
(b) The TORAS CHAIM writes that Binyamin ha'Tzadik was given an extra 22
years of life to correspond to the 22 letters with which the Torah was
written, because he fulfilled the Torah's dictum, "Whoever saves one life
is considered to have saved an entire world." (A similar reward of 22 years
was granted to Rebbi Yosi, as the Zohar, Parshas Balak, relates.)
(c) The CHASAM SOFER explains that Binyamin ha'Tzadik was rewarded not only
for the eight actual lives that he saved, but also for the lives of their
descendants. This is based on the words of RASHI in Bereishis (4:10), who
explains that Kayin was punished not only for killing his brother, but also
for preventing the lives of his brother's descendants from coming into
existence ("Kol *Demei* Achicha Tzo'akim"). Each of the woman's seven sons
would bear, in the future, at least two children (a boy and a girl) in
order to fulfill the Mitzvah of Piryah v'Rivyah. Hence, Binyamin ha'Tzadik
saved the 8 lives of the woman and her seven sons, plus the 14 lives of the
children of the seven sons. For these 22 lives, Binyamin ha'Tzadik was
rewarded in this world with 22 extra years of life. (See also third
explanation of BEN YEHOYADA.)
(See also MAHARSHA, BEN YEHOYADA, IYUN YAKOV, and EINAYIM LA'MISHPAT.)
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