Horayot

Our Rabbis taught: Five things make one forget one's studies: Eating  something from which a mouse or a cat has eaten, eating  the heart of a beast, frequent consumption  of olives, drinking  the remains of water that was used for washing, and washing  one's feet one above the other. Others say: He also who puts his clothes under his head [forgets his studies]. Five things restore one's learning:  Wheaten bread and much more so wheat  itself, eating  a roasted  egg without salt, frequent consumption  of olive oil, frequent indulgence in wine and spices, and the drinking  of water that has remained from kneading. Others say: Dipping one's finger in salt and eating is also included. 'Frequent consumption of olive-oil'. This corroborates the view of R. Johanan who said: As the olive causes one to forget seventy years of study, so does olive oil restore seventy years of study. 'Frequent indulgence in wine and spices'. This corroborates the view of Raba who said: Wine and spices have made me wise. 'Dipping one's finger in salt' — Said Resh Lakish: One only. This is a matter of dispute between Tannaim: R. Judah said, one finger but not two; R. Jose said, two but not three. Your mnemonic  is the third finger. Ten things adversely affect one's study: Passing  under the bit of a camel and much more so under the camel itself, passing  between two camels, passing between two women, the passing of a woman  between two men, passing under the offensive odour of a carcass, passing under a bridge under which water has not flowed for forty days, eating bread that was insufficiently baked, eating meat out of a soup-ladle, drinking from a streamlet that runs through a graveyard, and looking into the face of a dead body. Others say: He who reads an inscription upon a grave is also [subject to the same disability]. Our Rabbis taught: When the Nasi13  enters, all the people rise and do not resume their seats until he requests them to sit. When the Ab-beth-din14  enters, one row rises on one side  and another row on the other [and they remain standing] until he has sat down in his place. When the Hakam  enters, every one [whom he passes] rises and sits down [as soon as he passed] until the Sage has sat down in his place. Sons of sages, and scholars may, if the public is in need of their services, tread upon the heads of the people.17  If one [of them] went out in his need to ease himself he may re-enter and sit down in his place.  Sons of a scholar  whose father holds The Master said, 'If he went out in his need to ease himself he may re-enter and sit down in his place.' R. Papa said: This applies only  to the minor [functions of the body] but not to the major [functions], since he should have examined himself before; for Rab Judah said: A man should always make a habit of easing himself early in the morning and late in the evening in order that there be no need for him to go far.  Now,  however, that everybody  is weaker the same rule applies even to the larger functions. 'R. Eleazar son of R. Sadok said: At a festive gathering also they  are treated as attachments [to their father].' Raba said: Only during the lifetime of their father and in the presence of their father. R. Johanan said: That instruction  was issued  in the days of R. Simeon b. Gamaliel [II], when R. Simeon b. Gamaliel was the President, R. Meir the Hakam,  and R. Nathan the Ab-beth-din.  Whenever R. Simeon b. Gamaliel entered all the people stood up for him; when R. Meir and R. Nathan entered all the people stood up for them also. Said R. Simeon b. Gamaliel: Should there be no distinction between my [office] and theirs? And so he issued that ordinance. R. Meir and R. Nathan were not present on that day. Coming on the following day and seeing that the people did not rise for them as usual, they inquired as to what had happened.  On being told that R. Simeon b. Gamaliel had issued that ordinance, R. Meir said to R. Nathan, 'I am the Hinkam and you are the Ab-beth-din, let us retaliate.  Now, how are we to proceed against him? — Let us request him to discourse  upon the tractate of 'Ukzin with which he is unfamiliar,  and as he will be unable to discourse upon it  we shall tell him: Who can express the mighty acts of the Lord; make all His praise to he heard;  for whom is it becoming to express the mighty acts of the Lord? For him who can make all his praise to he heard. We shall then depose him and I shall become Ab-beth-din and you the Nasi.' R. Jacob b. Korshai on hearing this conversation  said, 'The matter might, God forbid, lead to [the Nasi's] disgrace.' So he went and sat down behind R. Simeon b. Gamaliel's study, expounding [the tractate of 'Uksin], and repeating it again and again. He  said, 'What could this mean?  Did anything, God forbid, happen at the college!' He concentrated his attention and familiarized himself with it. On the following day when they said to him, 'Will the Master come and discourse on 'Uksin', he began and discoursed upon it. After he had finished he said to them, 'Had I not familiarized myself with it, you would have disgraced me!' He gave the order and they were removed from the college. Thereupon they wrote down scholastic difficulties on slips of paper which they threw into the college.  That which he  solved was disposed of  and as to those which he did not solve they wrote down the answers and threw them in. Said R. Jose to them:  The Torah is without and we are within! Said R. Simeon b. Gamaliel to them:  We shall re-admit them  but impose upon them this penalty, that no traditional statement shall be reported in their names. [As a result] R. Meir was designated 'others', and R. Nathan 'some say'. In their dreams they received a message to go and pacify  R. Simeon b. Gamaliel. R. Nathan went; R. Meir did not, for he said: Dreams are of no consequence.  When R. Nathan came,  R. Simeon b. Gamaliel remarked to him: The honorable position  of your father has indeed helped you to become Ab-beth-din; shall we therefore make you also Nasi? Rabbi taught his son R. Simeon: Others say that if it  had been an exchanged beast