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8) WHAT IS INCLUDED IN A VOW?

(a) (Mishnah): Reuven vowed not to eat cooked food - he is permitted to eat roasted or half-cooked (Ran; Rosh - overcooked) food;
(b) 'I will not taste a cooked dish' - he may not eat a soft dish cooked in a pot, but he may eat thick cooked foods, Tormuta (super-boiled) eggs, and Remutzah gourds;
(c) One who vows not to eat things made in a pot is only forbidden on things boiled in a pot;
(d) 'I will not taste anything that entered a pot' - he is forbidden on anything cooked in a pot.
(e) (Gemara - Beraisa - R. Yoshiyah): One who vowed not to eat cooked food may not eat roasted food;

1. A hint for this - "They cooked the Pesach sacrifice by fire, as is its law (it must be roasted)".

(f) Suggestion: R. Yoshiyah holds that vows are interpreted according to the language of the Torah; the Tana of our Mishnah holds that vows are interpreted according to the language of people.
(g) Rejection: No, all agree that vows go according to the language of people.

1. In the region of our Tana, 'roasted' and 'cooked' are not interchanged;
2. In the region of R. Yoshiyah, 'cooked' is also used to refer to roasted.

(h) Objection: But R. Yoshiyah brought a verse to support himself!
(i) Answer: The verse was a mere hint, it was not the source of his law.

(a) (Mishnah): 'I will not taste a cooked dish ...'
(b) Question: He vowed not to have a cooked dish (Ran - why is he permitted thick dishes?; Rosh - why is he forbidden to have soft dishes?)!
(c) Answer (Abaye): This Tana calls anything eaten with bread a cooked dish.

1. (Beraisa): One who vowed not to have a cooked dish is forbidden in all kinds of cooked dishes; he may not have roasted or half (Rosh - over-) cooked food;
2. He may not have soft small gourds, since sick people eat them with bread.

(d) Question: But when R. Yirmiyah was sick, a doctor came to cure him; when he saw a gourd in the house, he left, saying that he is inviting his own death!
(e) Answer #1: Soft gourds help a sick person; hard gourds are bad for him.
(f) Answer #2 (Rabah Bar Ula): The gourd itself is bad; the inside is good for him.

1. (Rav Yehudah): The inside of gourds is good to cook with beets; the inside of flax seeds is good to eat with Kutach (a dip made with milk and bread).

i. One should not say this in front of an ignoramus (lest they mock us for inserting such things in the Talmud).

(g) (Rava): The 'sick people' that eat soft gourds with bread are Chachamim.

1. Also elsewhere, Rava calls Chachamim sick people.

2. (Rava): The fact that we pray for the sick and afflicted shows that we hold as R. Yosi (that man is judged every day).

i. 'Afflicted' cannot also mean sick - it must mean, Chachamim.

(h) (Mishnah): He is permitted thick dishes ...
(i) The Mishnah is not as Babylonians.

1. (R. Zeira): Babylonians are foolish - they eat bread (i.e. thick porridge) with bread.

(j) (Rav Chisda): We should ask the experts of Hutzal - should wheat porridge be eaten with wheat bread and barley porridge with barley bread?

1. Or, should the bread be of the other grain?

(k) Rava would eat his bread with flour of roasted grain.

(a) Rav Huna was eating porridge with his fingers.

1. Rabah Bar Rav Huna: Why are you doing this?
2. Rav Huna: Rav said that it is good to eat it with a finger; it is even better to eat with 2 fingers, even better with 3.

(b) Rav (also Rav Huna) told his son: If you are invited to eat porridge, it is worth travelling up to a Parsah (about 4 kilometers); for ox meat, up to 3 Parsin.
(c) Rav (also Rav Huna) told his son: Do not spit out anything in front of your Rebbi, except for gourds and porridge, for these are as indigestible as lead.
(d) R. Yosi and R. Yehudah were eating porridge from a bowl - one with his hands, one with a utensil.

1. The one using a utensil: You are causing me to eat dirt (from under your nails)!
2. The one using his hands: You are causing me to eat your saliva!

(e) Luspine (a kind of date difficult to digest) was set before R. Yehudah and R. Shimon. R. Yehudah ate, R. Shimon did not.

1. R. Yehudah: Why aren't you eating?
2. R. Shimon: These never leave one's system!
3. R. Yehudah: That is all the more reason to eat them - they will satiate us also tomorrow!

(a) R. Yehudah was in front of R. Tarfon, who asked why his face was glowing.

1. R. Yehudah: Yesterday we ate spinach without salt - had we eaten it with salt, all the more so our faces would be glowing!

(b) A woman saw R. Yehudah, and thought he was drunk: 'One who decides laws is drunk'?!

1. R. Yehudah: The only wine I drink is for Kidush, Havdalah, and the 4 cups on Pesach, and my head hurts from Pesach until Shavuos.

i. A man's Chochmah illuminates his face!

(c) A heretic told R. Yehudah: 'You look as happy as those that lend on interest or raise pigs'!

1. R. Yehudah: A Yisrael may not do either or those!

i. Rather, there are 24 bathrooms between my house and the Beis Midrash, and I regularly make use of all of them.

(d) R. Yehudah would carry a barrel to the Beis Midrash to sit on - labor is great, it honors the laborer!

1. R. Shimon would carry a basket for the same reason.

(e) R. Yehudah's wife bought wool and made a nice garment. She would wear it when she went to the market; R. Yehudah would wear it when he prayed.

1. He would bless Hash-m for it - 'Blessed is he that clothed me with a mantle!'

(f) R. Gamliel once declared a fast; R. Yehudah did not come. They told him that the reason was because he did not have a garment. R. Gamliel sent him a garment, but R. Yehudah did not accept it.