Berakhot

R. Isaac b. Abdimi said in the name of our Master:  Over eggs and over all kinds of meat the blessing said before partaking is 'by whose word etc.', and after partaking 'who createst many living creatures etc.', vegetables, however, require no blessing [after]. R. Isaac, however, says that even vegetables also require a blessing [after], but not water. R. Papa says: Water also. Mar Zutra acted as prescribed by R. Isaac b. Abdimi and R. Shimi b. Ashi as prescribed by R. Isaac. (To remember which is which think of one  acting as two and two as one.)  R. Ashi said: When I think of it, I do as prescribed by all of them. We have learnt: Whatever requires a blessing to be said after it requires a blessing before it, but some things require a blessing before but not after.  Now this is right on the view of R. Isaac b. Abdimi, since it is to exclude vegetables, and on the view of R. Isaac to exclude water; but on the view of R. Papa, what does it exclude? — It is to exclude the performance of religious duties.  And according to the Palestinians  who after removing their tefillin say 'Blessed be Thou … who hast sanctified us with Thy commandments and commanded us to observe Thy statutes' — what does it exclude? — It excludes scents. R. Jannai said in the name of Rabbi: An egg is superior [in food value] to the same quantity of any other kind of food. When Rabin came [from Palestine] he said: A lightly roasted egg is superior to six kaysi  of fine flour. When R. Dimi came, he said: A lightly roasted egg is better than six [kaysi]; a hard baked egg than four;  and a [boiled] egg is better than the same quantity of any other kind of boiled food except meat. R. AKIBA SAYS: EVEN IF ONE ATE BOILED VEGETABLES etc. Is there any kind of boiled vegetable of which one can make a meal? — R. Ashi replied: The rule applies to the stalk of cabbage. Our Rabbis taught: Milt is good for the teeth but bad for the bowels; horse-beans are bad for the teeth but good for the bowels. All raw vegetables make the complexion pale and all things not fully grown retard growth. Living beings  restore vitality  and that which is near the vital organs  restores vitality. Cabbage for sustenance and beet for healing. Woe to the house  through which vegetables are always passing! The Master has said, 'Milt is good for the teeth and bad for the bowels.' What is the remedy? — To chew it well and then spit it out. 'Horse-beans are bad for the teeth but good for the bowels'. What is the remedy? — To boil them well and swallow them. 'All raw vegetables make the complexion pale'. R. Isaac said: That is, in the first meal taken after blood-letting. R. Isaac also said: If one eats vegetables before the fourth hour [of the day],  it is forbidden to talk with him. What is the reason? Because his breath smells. R. Isaac also said: It is forbidden to a man to eat raw vegetables before the fourth hour. Amemar and Mar Zutra and R. Ashi were once sitting together when raw vegetables were set before them before the fourth hour. Amemar and R. Ashi ate, but Mar Zutra would not eat. They said to him: What is your reason? Because R. Isaac said that if one eats vegetables before the fourth hour it is forbidden to converse with him because his breath smells? See, we have been eating, and you have been conversing with us? He replied: I hold with that other saying of R. Isaac, where he said that it is forbidden to a man to eat raw vegetables before the fourth hour.  'Things not fully grown retard growth'. R. Hisda said: Even a kid worth a zuz.  This, however, is the case only with that which has not attained a fourth of its full size; but if it has attained a fourth, there is no objection. 'Living being restore vitality'. R. Papa said: Even tiny fishes from the pools. 'That which is near the vital organs restores vitality'. R. Aha b. Jacob said: Such as the neck.  Raba said to his attendant: When you buy a piece of meat for me, see that you get it from a place near where the benediction is said.  'Cabbage for sustenance and beet for healing'. Is cabbage then good only for sustenance and not for healing? Has it not been taught: Six things heal a sick person of his disease with a permanent cure, namely, cabbage, beet, a decoction of dry  poley, the maw, the womb, and the large lobe of the liver'? — What you must say is that the cabbage is good for sustenance also. 'Woe to the house through which vegetables are always passing'. Is that so? Did not Raba say to his attendant: If you see vegetables in the market, do not stop to ask me, What will you put round your bread.  — Abaye said: [It means, when they are cooked] without meat;  Raba said: [It means, when they are taken] without wine. It has been stated: Rab says, without meat, Samuel says, without wood,  and R. Johanan says, without wine. Said Raba to R. Papa the brewer:  We neutralize  it with meat and wine; you who have not much wine, how you neutralize it? — He replied: With chips [of wood]. R. Papa's wife when she cooked vegetables neutralized their evil effects by using eighty Persian twigs. Our Rabbis taught: A small salted fish is sometimes deadly, namely on the seventh, the seventeenth and the twenty-seventh day of its salting. Some say, on the twenty-third. This is the case only if it is imperfectly roasted; but if it is well roasted, there is no harm in it. And even if it is not well roasted there is no harm in it unless one neglects to drink beer after it; but if one drinks beer after it, there is no harm. IF ONE QUENCHES HIS THIRST WITH WATER etc. What does this exclude? — R. Idi b. Abin said: It excludes one