Shabbat 140: Mustard, Rav Chisda's Advice for Poor Students & His Daughters, Moving Hay

The rabbis continue their discussions regarding food preparation.  They turn to the making of mustard, where mustard seed must be kneaded and the mixed with water or wine using a vessel or one's hand, in the case of feeding donkeys.  Some rabbis are more strict than others when it comes to consumption of this food if it is made on Shabbat.  We also learn about rabbis' preferences in mustard preparation: it could be mixed with garlic or honey.

The rabbis move on to a drink called anumlin, which combines wine, honey and pepper.  Some find it too strong to bear and others have become accustomed to it.

A new Mishna teaches that we may not soak asafoetida, chiltit, or giant fennel in lukewarm water to create medicine but we may place it into vinegar like other spices on Shabbat.  We cannot soak vetches unless we allow their chaff to be washed off in a sieve.  We are not to sift straw in a sieve and we cannot put it on a high place so that the chaff blows away in the wind. At the same time, we may take the straw in a sieve and put it into the trough of an animal even if the chaff is removed in the process.

The rabbis consider intentionality, soaking asafoetida in cold water or hot water, its significant healing properties, and its dangers.  The rabbis turn to stories that feature Rav Acha and laundering.  They logically determine whether Rav Acha wishes to whiten a shirt or to soften a shirt.  The latter is permitted. 

Moving on again, the rabbis discuss moving different vessels or hooks on Shabbat.  Rav Chisda notes that poor scholars who cannot earn a sustainable livelihood:

• should buy long vegetables.  Each bundle has a standard thickness and price, but "the length comes on its own for free".  
• He speaks to the difficulty with eating vegetables when bread is not available, for it whets the appetite.  
• He also says that poor Torah students should not break it for guests, for he will not do so generously.  
• Rav Chisda says that we should drink wine and not beer; eat barley and not wheat because we should treat our bodies to the best food possible.  
• He advises students who cannot oil themselves to wash themselves with ditch water because the scum there is as useful as oil.  
• Poor students should buy necks because there are three types of meat in that one part of an animal
• Don't sit on a new mat for the dampness will ruin his clothing
• Don not give clothing to one's host to wash because they might see evidence of a seminal emission which will cause them to look down on him

To his daughters, Rav Chisda says:

• be modest before your husbands
• don not eat bread before your husbands who might look down on you for this action
• do not eat vegetables at night for they cause bad breath
• do not eat dates at night or drink beer at night for they loosen the bowels
• do not relieve yourselves where your husbands do because they might become revolted by you
• when answering the door, use the feminine form of "Who is it?" to demonstrate that you do not deal with other men
• he showed them a pearl in one hand and left the other closed until they were upset by curiosity to teach them that a mystery object is more attractive than one on display

This advice from Rav Chisda seems to indicate what he might find unattractive or even repulsive in women: eating without modesty, having bad breath, having to defecate at night, having to relieve oneself at all, and conversing with men other than himself.  Pretty high standards, and ones that might indicate difficulties in his own marriage.  But I digress.

A second new Mishna is introduced.  It teaches that we may sweep hay from an an animal that is being fattened and we may move hay to the sides for an animal that grazes on its own in the field.  The rabbis challenge this statement, saying that one may take the had from an animal and put it in front of that animal on Shabbat. 

The Gemara asks about the two parts to this Mishna.  Rav Chisda suggests that the dispute regards a trought formed in the ground but that if the trough is a vessel, all would agree that it is permitted.  The rabbis challenge this and Rav Chisda changes his position to accommodate their critique.  Abaye wonders whether we might be considering taking hay from a donkey and give it to an ox but not the other way around, because a donkey's mouth is "fine" (without spittle) and an ox's mouth is "foul" (with spittle).