Parallel
מעילה 17:1
Soncino English Talmud · Berean Standard Bible
— He replied to him: The Divine Law compares them with reference to the prohibition of ‘you shall not make your souls detestable’, but not with regard to standard sizes. MISHNAH. THE BLOOD OF A REPTILE AND THE FLESH [THEREOF] CAN COMBINE WITH ONE ANOTHER. R. JOSHUA LAID DOWN THE GENERAL RULE: ALL THINGS THAT ARE ALIKE BOTH IN RESPECT OF [DURATION OF] UNCLEANNESS AND IN RESPECT OF THEIR STANDARD SIZE CAN COMBINE WITH ONE ANOTHER. THINGS, HOWEVER, THAT ARE ALIKE IN RESPECT [OF DURATION] OF UNCLEANNESS BUT NOT IN RESPECT OF SIZE, IN RESPECT OF SIZE BUT NOT IN RESPECT [OF DURATION] OF UNCLEANNESS, OR [IF THEY ARE ALIKE] NEITHER IN RESPECT [OF DURATION] OF UNCLEANNESS NOR IN RESPECT OF SIZE, CANNOT COMBINE WITH ONE ANOTHER. GEMARA. Said R. Hanin in the name of R. Zeira, and thus said also Rab Judah: Only the blood and the flesh of the same reptile [can combine with one another]. R. Jose son of R. Hanina demurred to this: The expression, they that are unclean, is to teach us that reptiles can combine one with the other: one reptile with another, reptile or [flesh of] reptile with blood, whether they are of one denomination or two denominations! — Said R. Joseph, There is no contradiction. The one ruling refers to a whole creature the other to a part thereof. Wherefrom do you know [to make such distinction]? — From what has been taught: ‘If [the blood] was poured out on a pavement, which was a sloping place, and he overshadowed a portion he remains clean, if he overshadowed the whole thereof he is unclean’. Now, what does ‘a portion’ mean? Shall I say, a portion [of the standard quality of blood]? But did not R. Hanina say in the name of Rabbi: ‘If one stirred the exact quantity of a fourth of a log of blood he remained clean’. You must therefore conclude [that a distinction has to be made in the following manner]: In the one instance the blood came from a whole body, in the other from a portion thereof. This indeed proves it. R. Mathia b. Heresh once asked R. Simeon b. Yohai, in Rome: Wherefrom do we know that the blood of reptiles is unclean? — He replied: Because it is written: And these are they that are unclean. His disciples then said to him: The son of Yohai has grown wise. Said he to them: This is a teaching prepared in the mouth of R. Eleazar son of R. Jose. For the Government had once issued a decree that [Jews] might not keep the Sabbath, circumcise their children, and that they should have intercourse with menstruant women. Thereupon R. Reuben son of Istroboli cut his hair in the Roman fashion, and went and sat among them. He said to them: If a man has an enemy, what does he wish him, to be poor or rich? They said: That he be poor. He said to them: If so, let them do no work on the Sabbath so that they grow poor. They said: ‘He speaketh rightly’, let this decree be annulled. It was indeed annulled. Then he continued: If one has an enemy, what does he wish him, to be weak or healthy? They answered: Weak. He said to them: Then let their children be circumcised at the age of eight days and they will be weak. They said: ‘He speaketh rightly’, and it was annulled. Finally he said to them: If one has an enemy, what does he wish him, to multiply or to decrease? They said to him: That he decreases. If so, let them have no intercourse with menstruant women. They said: ‘He speaketh rightly’, and it was annulled. Later they came to know that he was a Jew, and [the decrees] were re-instituted. [The Jews] then conferred as to who should go [to Rome] to work for the annulment of the decrees.
—