Shabbat

to the vat,  let it be cut off: [because] the [unwashed] hand leads to blindness, the hand leads to deafness, the hand causes a polypus. It was taught, R. Nathan said: It  is a free agent, and insists [on remaining on the hands] until one washes his hands three times. R. Johanan said: Stibium removes [cures] the Princess,  stops the tears, and promotes the growth of the eye-lashes. It was taught likewise, R. Jose said: Stibium removes the Princess, stops the tears, and promotes the growth of the eye-lashes. Mar 'Ukba also said in Samuel's name: Leaves  have no healing properties.  R. Joseph said: Coriander has no healing properties. R. Shesheth said: Cuscuta has no healing properties. R. Joseph observed: Coriander is injurious even to me.  R. Shesheth observed: Eruca is beneficial even to me. Mar 'Ukba said in Samuel's name: All kinds of cuscuta are permitted, except teruza.  R. Hisda said: To glair roast meat  is permitted; to make hashed eggs  is forbidden. Ze'iri's wife made [it] for Hiyya b. Ashi,  but he did not eat it. Said she, 'I have made this for your teacher [Ze'iri] and he ate, yet do you not eat'!-Ze'iri follows his view. For Ze'iri said: One may pour clear wine and clear water through a strainer on the Sabbath, and he need have no fear.  This proves that since it can be drunk as it is,  he does nothing;  so here too, since it can be eaten as it is,  he does nothing. Mar 'Ukba also said: If one knocks his hand or foot, he may reduce the swelling with wine, and need have no fear. The scholars asked: What about vinegar? Said R. Hillel to R. Ashi, When I attended R. Kahana's academy they said, Not vinegar.  Raba observed: But the people of Mahoza,  since they are delicate, even wine heals them. Rabina visited R. Ashi: He saw that an ass had trodden on his foot, and he was sitting and reducing the swelling in vinegar.  Said he to him, Do you not accept R. Hillel's statement, Not vinegar? [A swelling on] the back of the hand or on the foot is different, he replied.  Others state, He saw him reducing the swelling in wine. Said he to him, Do you not agree with what Raba said, The people of Mahoza, since they are delicate, even wine heals them, and you too are delicate? [A swelling on] the hand or on the foot is different, he replied, for R. Adda b. Mattenah said in Rab's name, [A blow on] the hand or on the foot is like an internal wound, and the Sabbath may be desecrated on its account. Our Rabbis taught: One may bathe in the water of Gerar,  in the water of Hammethan,  in the water of Essa,  and in the water of Tiberias,  but not in the Great Sea [the Mediterranean], or in the water of steeping,  or in the Lake of Sodom. But this contradicts it: One may bathe in the water of Tiberias and in the Great Sea, but not in the water of steeping or in the Lake of Sodom. Thus [the rulings on] the Great Sea are contradictory. — Said R. Johanan, There is no difficulty: one agrees with R. Meir, the other with R. Judah. For we learnt: All seas are like a mikweh,  for it is said, and the gathering of [mikweh] the waters called he Seas:  this is R. Meir's view. R. Judah said: The Great Sea [alone] is like a mikweh, 'seas' being stated only because it contains many kinds of waters.  R. Jose maintained: All seas [including the Great Sea] purify when running,  but they are unfit for zabim, lepers, and to be sanctified as the water of lustration.  R. Nahman b. Isaac demurred: