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After a long period of technicalities with very few treasures, we have a huge number of treasures all at once, around daf 80/81.
I'm not going to do the whole toilet discussion cos I always think those are funny and it's getting a bit predictable - suffice it to say that they go on at length. We'll join the discussion where we ask whether you can use a piece of broken pottery for toilet paper. More obvious reasons aside, they suggest that perhaps it's a bad idea on account of witchcraft - pottery is a relatively common vehicle for curses. A real-life example: one of those feisty Roman women is getting onto a boat with Rav Hisda and Raba b. Rav Huna, and she wants to sit next to them. They don't want her sitting with them (the Roman women in these stories are usually inappropriately randy), and, piqued, she casts a spell to stop the boat moving. They cast a spell right back, and off the boat goes. Damn it, she says, I can't even curse you, cos you don't use pottery shards for toilet paper.
What was Raba b. Rav Huna doing hanging out with Rav Hisda? Raba didn't like going round Rav Hisda's place, because whenever he went round there Rav Hisda would talk about irrelevant things. What sort of things? asks Rav Huna of his son. He always talks about toilet habits, says Raba. But, my son, toilet habits are very important, says Rav Huna. You must go round his place and learn these important things! And it seems they ended up taking boat trips together.
We also discuss plaster made with lime. What do we use lime for? As a depilatory, of course. Apparently it's very unfashionable to have pubic hair before you're twelve, so little girls use lime. And bigger girls use it all over. Rav Bibi limed his daughter all over, bit by bit, and this resulted in her getting a huge present from her bridegroom because she was so beautiful. A local girl observed this, and thought she'd do the same thing - she limed herself all over all at once, and died horribly. Rav Nachman said that Rav Bibi drank lots of beer, so his daughter was hairy and needed more liming than other girls.
I'm not going to do the whole toilet discussion cos I always think those are funny and it's getting a bit predictable - suffice it to say that they go on at length. We'll join the discussion where we ask whether you can use a piece of broken pottery for toilet paper. More obvious reasons aside, they suggest that perhaps it's a bad idea on account of witchcraft - pottery is a relatively common vehicle for curses. A real-life example: one of those feisty Roman women is getting onto a boat with Rav Hisda and Raba b. Rav Huna, and she wants to sit next to them. They don't want her sitting with them (the Roman women in these stories are usually inappropriately randy), and, piqued, she casts a spell to stop the boat moving. They cast a spell right back, and off the boat goes. Damn it, she says, I can't even curse you, cos you don't use pottery shards for toilet paper.
What was Raba b. Rav Huna doing hanging out with Rav Hisda? Raba didn't like going round Rav Hisda's place, because whenever he went round there Rav Hisda would talk about irrelevant things. What sort of things? asks Rav Huna of his son. He always talks about toilet habits, says Raba. But, my son, toilet habits are very important, says Rav Huna. You must go round his place and learn these important things! And it seems they ended up taking boat trips together.
We also discuss plaster made with lime. What do we use lime for? As a depilatory, of course. Apparently it's very unfashionable to have pubic hair before you're twelve, so little girls use lime. And bigger girls use it all over. Rav Bibi limed his daughter all over, bit by bit, and this resulted in her getting a huge present from her bridegroom because she was so beautiful. A local girl observed this, and thought she'd do the same thing - she limed herself all over all at once, and died horribly. Rav Nachman said that Rav Bibi drank lots of beer, so his daughter was hairy and needed more liming than other girls.
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