Berakhot

. It has been taught: Ben 'Azzai says: Lie on anything but not on the ground;  sit on anything but not on a beam. Samuel said: Sleep  at dawn is like a steel edge to iron; evacuation at dawn is like a steel edge to iron. Bar Kappara used to sell sayings for denarii. 'While thou art still hungry, eat; while thou art still thirsty, drink; while thy pot is still hot, empty it out.  When the horn is sounded in [the market of] Rome, do you, O son of the fig-seller, sell thy father's figs'.  Abaye said to the Rabbis: When you go through the lanes of Mahoza to get to the fields, do not look to this side or to that, for perhaps women  are sitting there, and it is not proper to gaze at them. R. Safra entered a privy. R. Abba came and cleared his throat at the entrance.  He said to him: Let the master enter. When he came out, he [R. Abba] said to him: You have not yet been turned into a satyr,  but you have learnt the manners of a satyr.  Have we not learnt as follows: There was a fire there,  and a superior privy. Its superiority lay in this: if one found it locked, he could be sure that someone was in there, but if he found it open, he could be sure that there was no one there. We see therefore, that it is not proper [for two to be in a privy].  He [R. Safra], however, was of opinion that it was dangerous [to keep him waiting], as it has been taught:  R. Simeon b. Gamaliel says: To keep back the fecal discharge causes dropsy; to keep back the urinary discharge causes jaundice. R. Eleazar once entered a privy, and a Persian  came and thrust him away. R. Eleazar got up and went out, and a serpent came and tore out the other's gut.  R. Eleazar applied to him the verse, Therefore will I give a man for thee.  Read not adam [a man] but edom [an Edomite]. And he bade to kill thee, but he spared thee.  'And he bade'! It should be, 'And I bade'!  'And he spared'! It should be, 'And I spared'! R. Eleazar said: David said to Saul: According to the law, you deserve to be slain, since you are a pursuer, and the Torah has said, If one comes to kill your rise and kill him first.  But the modesty which you have shown has caused you to be spared. What is this? As it is written: And he came to the fences  by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in le-hasek [to cover his feet].  It has been taught: There was a fence within a fence, and a cave within a cave. R. Eleazar says: It [the word le-hasek] teaches that he covered himself like a booth [sukkah]. Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily.  R. Jose son of R. Hanina said: Whoever treats garments contemptuously will in the end derive no benefit from them; for it says, Now King David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he could get no heat. If it be the Lord that hath stirred thee up against me, let Him accept an offering.  R. Eleazar said: Said the Holy One blessed be He, to David: Thou callest me a 'stirrer-up'. Behold, I will make thee stumble over a thing which even school-children know, namely, that which is written, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel according to their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul into the Lord… [that there be no plague among them] etc.  Forthwith, Satan stood up against Israel;  and it is further written, He stirred up David against them saying, Go, number Israel.  And when he did number them, he took no ransom from them and it is written, So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed.  What is meant by 'the time appointed'? Samuel the elder, the son-in-law of R. Hanina, answered in the name of R. Hanina: From the time of slaughtering the continual offering until the time of sprinkling the blood. R. Johanan said: Right up precisely to midday. And He said to the Angel that destroyed the people, It is enough  [rab]. R. Eleazar said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the Angel: Take a great man [rab] among them, through whose death many sins can be expiated for them.  At that time there died Abishai son of Zeruiah, who was [singly] equal in worth to the greater part of the Sanhedrin. And as he was about to destroy, the Lord beheld, and He repented Him.  What did He behold? — Rab said: He beheld Jacob our ancestor, as it is written, And Jacob said when he beheld them.  Samuel said: He beheld the ashes of [the ram of] Isaac, as it says, God will see  for Himself the lamb.  R. Isaac Nappaha said: He saw the money of the atonement, as it says, And thou shalt take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and it shall be a memorial  etc. R. Johanan said: He saw the Temple, as it is written, In the mount where the Lord is seen.  R. Jacob b. Iddi and R. Samuel b. Nahmani differed on the matter. One said that He saw the atonement money, the other that He saw the Temple. The more likely view is that of him who says that He saw the Temple, since it is written, As it will be said on that day, in the mount where the Lord is seen. A MAN SHOULD NOT ENTER THE TEMPLE MOUNT WITH HIS STAFF etc. What is the meaning of kappandaria? Raba said: A short cut, as its name implies.  R. Hanah b. Adda said in the name of R. Sama the son of R. Meri: It is as if a man said, instead of going round the blocks [makkifna adari], I will go in here. R. Nahman said in the name of Rabbah: If one enters a synagogue not intending to use it as a short cut, he may use it as a short cut. R. Abbahu said: If there was a path there originally,  it is permitted. R. Helbo said in the name of R. Huna: If one entered a synagogue to pray, he may use it as a short cut, as it says, But when the people of the land shall come before the Lord in the appointed seasons [he that entereth by the north gate shall go forth by the south gate, etc.]. AND SPITTING [ON IT IS FORBIDDEN] A FORTIORI. R. Bibi said in the name of R. Simeon b. Lakish: If one spits in these times  on the Temple mount, it is as if he spat into the pupil of His eye, since it says: And Mine eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.  Raba said: It is permitted to expectorate in the synagogue, this being on the same footing as wearing a shoe. Just as wearing a shoe is forbidden on the Temple mount but permitted in the synagogue, so spitting is forbidden in the Temple mount but permitted in the synagogue. Said R. Papa to Raba — according to others, Rabina said to Raba, while others again report that R. Adda b. Mattena said it to Raba, Instead of learning the rule from the analogy of a shoe, why not learn it from that of a short cut?  — He replied: The Tanna derives it from a shoe, and you want to derive it from a short cut! What is this [reference]? As it has been taught: 'A man should not enter the Temple mount either with his staff in his hand or his shoe on his foot, or with his money tied up in his cloth, or with his money bag slung over his shoulder, and he should not make it a short cut, and spitting [on it is forbidden] a fortiori from the case of the shoe: seeing that regarding a shoe, the wearing of which does not show contempt, the Torah has said, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,  must not the rule all the more apply to spitting, which does show contempt? R. Jose b. Judah said: This reasoning is not necessary. For see, it says, For none might enter within the king's gate clothed in sackcloth.  Now have we not here an argument a fortiori: if such is the case with sackcloth which is not in itself disgusting, and before an earthly king, how much more so with spitting which is in itself disgusting, and before the supreme King of Kings!'  He [R. Papa] replied to him [Raba]: What I mean is this. Let us be stringent in both cases,  and reason thus: