SATURDAY PRAYER: YESOD-YESHIVAT HAVERIM יְשִׁיבָה חברים – BABYLONIAN TALMUD p121

READING: BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN OF SATURDAY

The rabbis taught: “Any piece of textile fabric or any trifle of an ornament is subject to
defilement.” But how is it with an article which is half texture and half ornament? It is also
subject to defilement. As for an ornament which is carried in a bag, the bag being of woven
material becomes defiled and with it the ornament, but if the ornament was carried in a piece of
cloth, the cloth remains undefiled. Is a piece of cloth not a textile fabric? Yea, but by that is
meant that the bag, even if not made of textile fabric, becomes defiled, because it is attached to
the garment. What is a bag used for? Said R. Johanan: Poor people use them for the purpose of
putting some trifles in them and then hang them on the necks of their daughters.
It is written “And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host” [Numb. xxxi. 14]. Said R.
Na’hman in the name of Rabba b. Abuhu: “Thus said Moses unto Israel: ‘Have ye then returned
to your first sin (that ye have let the females live)?'” They answered him [ibid. 49]: “Thy
servants have taken the sum of the men of war who have been under our command, and there
lacketh not one man of us” (implying that none had sinned). Said Moses again: “If such be the
case, why need ye atonement?” They answered: “Though we have strengthened ourselves to
keep aloof from sin, we could not put it out of our minds. We have therefore [ibid. 50] brought
an oblation unto the Lord.” On this the school of R. Ishmael taught: Why did the Israelites of
that generation require forgiveness? Because they had feasted their eyes on strange women.
MISHNA V.: A woman may go out with plaits of hair, be they made of her own hair or of
another woman or of an animal; with Totaphoth or Sarbitin if fastened. 1 With a hood or with a
wig in her yard (private ground); with cotton wadding in her ear or in her shoe; or with cotton
wadding prepared for her menstruation; with a grain of pepper or of salt, or with whatever else
she may be accustomed to keep in her mouth, provided she does not put it in her mouth on the
Sabbath to commence with; if it fell out of her mouth she must not replace it. As for a metal or golden
tooth, Rabbi permits a woman to go out with it, but the sages prohibit it.