Your strength is fit for Torah: Meaning to say, your strength and this power of the evil inclination is for Torah - when you are occupied with it, it weakens your strength. And that is as it concludes; that when he only accepted it, his strength weakened and he was unable to [jump] back. As the Torah is called toshiah (wisdom; but used here, because it sounds like tash, which means weaken) for this reason.

What benefit did you provide me? There they called me, Master, etc.: It appears that it can be explained that Reish Lakish's intention was certainly not like Rabbi Yochanan understood from him. But [he responded] since Rabbi Yochanan told him, "A brigand knows about his brigandry" - that since you were a brigand, you saw that shining a sword is the completion of its production. As swords are in the hands of brigands to intimidate and scare those who are robbed, so that they not stand up to them. For the shine of a sword is something that bewilders and scares. So Reish Lakish answered him - that what benefit did you provide me with this, to concede to my words, since I know about this more than you from this reason, that I was a brigand? For it is not so! As already even there, they called me, Master, etc. - like Tosafot explained - and now I remember [this]. For then, before I became a thief, I also taught this - that shining is the completion of their production. But Rabbi Yochanan understood his words according to their simple meaning, like the explanation of Rashi. And that is why he got so angry with him and punished him. And it is easy to understand.

He went around, rending his clothing, etc.: Because now he saw that, from those twenty-four difficulties and answers, the discussion would become broadened. So it was as if he learned from him, and he was [then] obligated to rend [his clothing] for him. As it is for that reason that we say, at the end of the chapter [entitled] Elu Metziot, "The Torah scholars of Babylonia would stand up before one another" - and like Rashi's explanation there. And the matter of the twenty-four difficulties and the twenty-four answers is that they were [all] about one matter. So twenty-four difficulties and twenty-four answers were newly generated about that matter, such that there were forty-eight faces (approaches). And with the matter itself, these are the forty-nine faces of the Torah, as it is written (Proverbs 2:4), "and search for it, as for treasures (matmonim, which can also be broken down into two words, which mean, forty-nine counts)." And it is simple to understand.