📖 SATURDAY PRAYER: KETER-YESHIVAT HAVERIM יְשִׁיבָה חברים – BABYLONIAN TALMUD p144

READING: BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN OF SATURDAY

There is a Boraitha that the prescribed quantity for the extract of wine is the size of an olive. So
said R. Nathan. And R. Joseph said that R. Jehudah agrees with him in a Mishna, Tract Nidah
(which will be translated there).
The rabbis taught: The prescribed quantity for animal milk is the equivalent of a mouthful; for
human milk and the white of an egg, as much as is used for the preparation of a salve for a sore
eye; when mixed with water, the prescribed quantity is as much as is used to bathe both eyes
with.
“Honey sufficient to cover a wound with.” A Boraitha states: “Sufficient to cover the mouth of a
wound with.”
Said R. Jehudah in the name of Rabh: The Holy One, blessed be He, has created nothing useless
in the world. He created the snail as a remedy for a sore, the fly for the sting of a wasp, the
mosquito for the bite of a serpent, the serpent for the mange, and the lizard for the bite of a
scorpion.
The rabbis taught: There are five terrors through which the strong succumb to the weak. The
Maphgia terrorizes the lion, 1 the mosquito the elephant, the lizard the scorpion, the swallow the
eagle, and the kilbith (a small fish) the whale. Said R. Jehudah in the name of Rabh: Is any
similarity to be found in the Scripture? [Amos, v. 9] That causeth wasting to prevail against the
strong.”
R. Zera once met R. Jehudah standing at the door of his (R. Jehudah’s) father-in-law in a very
cheerful mood, and disposed to answer a whole world full of questions. He asked
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him: “What is the reason that (in a flock) the she-goats generally go ahead of the sheep?” And
he answered: “In accordance with the Creation: At first darkness, then light” (she-goats are
generally dark and lambs [or sheep] white). “Why are she-goats not covered with a tail?” asked
the former again. And he answered: “Those who cover us are (in turn) covered, and those that
do not cover us are not covered.” (Because sheep provide us with wool, they are also provided
with cover.) “Why has a camel a short tail?” “Because it feeds on thorns (in order that the thorns
may not catch in its tail).”