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Text Excerpt
אמר רבי יוסי ברבי חנינא: זוכה לברכות הללו, שנאמר: ״לוא הקשבת למצותי ויהי כנהר שלומך וצדקתך כגלי הים. ויהי כחול זרעך וצאצאי מעיך״ וגו׳.
In terms of this reward, R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina said: One who waits in the synagogue for the other to finish his prayer merits the following blessings, as it is stated: “If only you had listened to My mitzvot then your peace would be as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea. Your seed would be as the sand, and the offspring of your body like the grains thereof; his name would be neither cut off nor destroyed from before Me” (Isaiah 48:18–19). The explanation of this passage is based on the etymological similarity between the word mitzva and the word tzevet, which means group. If he keeps the other person company and does not abandon him after his prayer, all of the blessings that appear later in the verse will be fulfilled in him (Talmidei Rabbeinu Yona).
תניא, אבא בנימין אומר: אלמלי נתנה רשות לעין לראות — אין כל בריה יכולה לעמוד מפני המזיקין.
In another baraita it was taught that Abba Binyamin says: If the eye was given permission to see, no creature would be able to withstand the abundance and ubiquity of the demons and continue to live unaffected by them.
אמר אביי: אינהו נפישי מינן, וקיימי עלן כי כסלא לאוגיא.
Similarly, Abaye said: They are more numerous than we are and they stand over us like mounds of earth surrounding a pit.
אמר רב הונא: כל חד וחד מינן, אלפא משמאליה ורבבתא מימיניה.
Rav Huna said: Each and every one of us has 1,000 demons to his left and 10,000 to his right. God protects man from these demons, as it says in the verse: “1,000 may fall at your side, and 10,000 at your right hand; they will not approach you” (Psalms 91:7).