Nedarim

BUT IS PERMITTED [TO PARTAKE] OF A DISH SOLIDLY PREPARED. Our Mishnah does not agree with the Babylonians, for R. Zera said: The Babylonians are fools, eating bread with bread.  R. Hisda said: There is none  to make enquiries of the epicureans  of Huzal  how porridge is best eaten, whether a wheat porridge with wheaten bread, and a barley porridge with barley bread, or perhaps [they are best reversed,] wheat with barley, and barley with wheat. Raba ate it with stunted [parched] grains. Rabbah son of R. Huna found R. Huna eating porridge with his fingers. So he said to him, 'Why do you eat with your hands?' He replied, Thus did Rah say, [To eat] porridge with [one] finger is well: how much more so with two or three! Rab said to his son Hiyya, and R. Huna said the same to his son Rabbah, 'If you are invited to eat porridge, [you may even go] a parasang  for it; to eat beef, even three parasangs. Rab said to his son Hiyya, and R. Huna said likewise to his son Rabbah: You must never expectorate before your teacher, save [after eating] a pumpkin or porridge, because they are like lead pellets:  expectorate this even in the presence of King Shapur. R. Jose and R. Judah, — one ate porridge with his fingers, and one with a prick.  He who was eating with the prick said to him who was eating with the fingers, 'How long will you make me eat your filth?'  The other replied, 'How long will you feed me with your saliva?' Lesbian figs  were placed before R. Judah and R. Simeon. R. Judah ate; R. Simeon did not. [Whereupon] R. Judah asked him, 'Why are [you], Sir not eating?' He replied. 'These never pass out at all from the stomach.' But R. Judah retorted, 'All the more [reason or eating them], as they will sustain us tomorrow.'  R. Judah was sitting before R. Tarfon, who remarked to him, 'Your face shines to-day.' He replied. 'Your servants went out to the fields yesterday and brought us beets, which we ate unsalted, had we salted them, my face would have shone even more. A certain matron  said to R. Judah, 'A teacher and drunkard!'  He replied, You may well believe me that  I taste [no wine] but that of Kiddush and Habdalah  and the four cups of Passover,  on account of which I have to bind my temples from Passover until Pentecost;  but a man's wisdom maketh his face shine.  A min  said to R. Judah. 'Your face is like that of a moneylender or pig breeder.'  He replied, 'Both of these are forbidden to Jews; but there are twenty-four conveniences between my house and the School, and every hour I visit one of them.' When R. Judah went to the Beth ha-Midrash,  he used to take a pitcher on his shoulders [to sit on], saying. 'Great is labour, for it honours the worker.'  R. Simeon used to carry a basket upon his shoulders, saying likewise, 'Great is labour, for it honours the worker.' R. Judah's wife went out, brought wool, and made an embroidered cloak. On going to market she used to put it on, whilst when R. Judah went [to synagogue] to pray he used to wear it. When he donned it, he uttered the benediction, Blessed be He who hath robed me with a robe.  Now, it happened once that R. Simeon b. Gamaliel proclaimed a fast,  but R. Judah did not attend the fast-service.  Being informed that he had nothing to wear, he [R. Simeon b. Gamaliel] sent him a robe, which he did not accept.