- cooked foods, allows one to eat roasted and boiled foods
- "cooked foods are konam and thus I can't taste": thick cooked foods can be tasted, turemata eggs and remutza gourds are permitted
- "cooked foods in a dish are konam": only foods boiled in a dish are prohibited
- "that which enters a dish is konam and thus I cannot taste it:: anything put into that dish is forbidden
The Gemara looks at vocabulary. "Cooked" might mean different things in different places. The rabbis teach "halach achar l'shon bnei adam," walk after the speech of people, which implies that we should follow the custom of a certain place and time. Thus if a person vows that cooked food is koman for him/her, and his/her village considers boiled and roasted foods to be 'cooked' foods, then all of those foods are off-limits. But if his/her village separates cooked foods from boiled and roasted foods, only cooked foods are forbidden to him/her by this vow.
Our notes teach that boiled foods might refer to foods that are overcooked. Or undercooked. Or cooked in water without spices. Cooked foods might be foods cooked with spices. And what does it mean to be cooked in a dish? Does it mean that the food need not be transferred to a stewpot? Or are they foods that melt? Or foods made from cereals? Or foods made from boiled wheat, or soft bread boiled in water?
We understand that when people are sick, they dip bread in soft gourds or perhaps eat a dish made from breading covering a soft gourd. But a doctor about to heal Rabbi Yirmeya noticed a gourd in the home and left, claiming that the gourd was an angel of death. How could this be? The rabbis confirm that only the soft innards of gourds are healthy for sick people. Rava bar Ulla goes on to state that as Rabbi Yehuda said, the innards of gourds are best eaten with chard, and the innards of flax seeds are best eaten with kutecha/kutach, a Babylonian dip made of whey, salt and mouldy bread.
Who are the sick and the suffering whom we pray for every day? One suggestion is that the sick are people who are truly ill, and the suffering are the Torah Scholars who are frail.
Some interesting food habits are brought to our attention. People who eat wheat with wheat - bread dipped in porridge - are thought of as somewhat crass. But how should wheat porridge or barley porridge be eaten? With wheat or barley bread? With something else altogether? Rav Huna stated that porridge is best enjoyed when eaten with at least one finger - two or three fingers make the porridge even more enjoyable! And we learn that while it may be recommended to travel two or three parasangs before eating different foods, we also learn that it is rude to spit out food in front of one's teacher. Unless, of course, it is gourd or porridge, which can be as hot as a burning lead wick. One is even permitted to spit these foods out of one's mouth in front of King Shapur.
We end our daf with a number of stories about food:
Our notes teach that boiled foods might refer to foods that are overcooked. Or undercooked. Or cooked in water without spices. Cooked foods might be foods cooked with spices. And what does it mean to be cooked in a dish? Does it mean that the food need not be transferred to a stewpot? Or are they foods that melt? Or foods made from cereals? Or foods made from boiled wheat, or soft bread boiled in water?
We understand that when people are sick, they dip bread in soft gourds or perhaps eat a dish made from breading covering a soft gourd. But a doctor about to heal Rabbi Yirmeya noticed a gourd in the home and left, claiming that the gourd was an angel of death. How could this be? The rabbis confirm that only the soft innards of gourds are healthy for sick people. Rava bar Ulla goes on to state that as Rabbi Yehuda said, the innards of gourds are best eaten with chard, and the innards of flax seeds are best eaten with kutecha/kutach, a Babylonian dip made of whey, salt and mouldy bread.
Who are the sick and the suffering whom we pray for every day? One suggestion is that the sick are people who are truly ill, and the suffering are the Torah Scholars who are frail.
Some interesting food habits are brought to our attention. People who eat wheat with wheat - bread dipped in porridge - are thought of as somewhat crass. But how should wheat porridge or barley porridge be eaten? With wheat or barley bread? With something else altogether? Rav Huna stated that porridge is best enjoyed when eaten with at least one finger - two or three fingers make the porridge even more enjoyable! And we learn that while it may be recommended to travel two or three parasangs before eating different foods, we also learn that it is rude to spit out food in front of one's teacher. Unless, of course, it is gourd or porridge, which can be as hot as a burning lead wick. One is even permitted to spit these foods out of one's mouth in front of King Shapur.
We end our daf with a number of stories about food:
- Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Yehuda ate porridge together form the same bowl, one with his finger and one with a fork. One complained about eating from the other's dirty fingernail, and the other complained about eating from the other's spittle left on the fork.
- Rabbi Shimon refused to eat figs with his colleagues as he believed that they never left the intestines. Rabbi Yehuda responded: all the more that one can rely on them to feel full tomorrow!
- Rabbi Tarfon told Rabbi Yehuda that his face looked ruddy. Rabbi Yehuda explained that he ate beets collected by his students the night before - and if they'd eaten them with salt, all the more so they would be ruddy!
- A gentile woman asked Rabbi Yehuda how a man could be a drunk and a teacher of Torah. Rabbi Yehuda vowed to drink only at kiddish, havdala, and Pesach. He stated that he should tie his head between Pesach and Shavuot, indicating a headache from alcohol. My ruddy face is due to my wisdom (Ecclesiastes 8:1).
- A heretic told Rabbi Yehuda that he looked like a usurer or a pig farmer due to his complexion. Rabbi Yehuda said that these jobs were not permitted and that his complexion was due to his bowl movements, evidenced by his visiting each of the twenty-four bathrooms he passed each day from home to the study hall.
Moving away from food, the rabbis comment on other rabbinical stories:
- Rabbi Yehuda carried a pitcher and Rabbi Shimon carried a basket on their shoulders to sit upon. They said that this was because labour is great as it brings honour to the labourer who performs it.
- Rabbi Yehuda's wife collected wool and made a thick cloak that she used at the market and that Rabbi Yehuda used while praying. He would pray, "Blessed is He who wrapped me in a cloak".
- Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel sent Rabbi Yehuda a cloak when told that Rabbi Yehuda would not leave his home because he had no garment to wear outside. Rabbi Yehuda refused the gift. He showed the messengers that the mat upon which he sat was filled with gold dinars. He said, "However, it is not amenable to me to derive benefit from this world".
I adore these stories about the lives of our rabbis. They humanize our ancestors and they teach us about how the rabbis wanted to be remembered.
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