WHAT IS INCLUDED IN A VOW? [line 1]
(Mishnah): If Reuven vowed not to eat Mevushal (anything cooked), he is permitted to eat roasted or half-cooked (Ran; Rosh - overcooked) food;
If he said 'I will not taste a Tavshil (cooked dish)', he may not eat a soft Tavshil cooked in a pot, but he may eat a thick cooked food, a Tormuta (super-boiled) egg, and Remutzah (a certain kind of) gourds;
If one vowed not to eat things made in a pot, only things boiled in a pot are forbidden to him;
If he said 'I will not taste anything that entered a pot', he may not eat anything cooked in a pot.
(Gemara - Beraisa - R. Yoshiyah): If one vowed not to eat cooked food, he may not eat roasted food;
A hint for this - "They cooked the Korban Pesach by fire, like its law (it must be roasted)."
Suggestion: R. Yoshiyah holds that we interpret vows according to how the Torah uses the words. The Tana of our Mishnah holds that we follow the way people speak.
Rejection: No, all agree that vows follow the way people speak;
In the region of our Tana, 'roasted' and 'cooked' are not interchanged;
In the region of R. Yoshiyah, 'cooked' is also used to refer to roasted.
Objection: R. Yoshiyah brought a verse to support himself!
Answer: It was a mere Asmachta. (It is not truly expounded from the verse.)
COOKED DISHES [line 18]
(Mishnah): 'I will not taste a Tavshil...'
Question: He vowed to forbid a Tavshil! (Ran - why are thick dishes permitted? Rosh - why are soft dishes forbidden?)
Answer (Abaye): This Tana calls anything (Rosh; Ran - only something) eaten with bread a cooked dish.
(Beraisa): If one vowed not to eat a Tavshil, all kinds of Tavshilim are forbidden. He may not have roasted, half-cooked (Rosh - over-cooked) or (properly) cooked food;
He may not have soft small gourds, since sick people eat them with bread.
Question: When R. Yirmiyah was sick, a doctor came to cure him. When the doctor saw a gourd in the house, he left and said that R. Yirmiyah invites his own death!
Answer #1: Soft gourds help a sick person; hard gourds are bad for him.
Answer #2 (Rava bar Ula): The gourd itself is bad. The inside is good for him.
(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).
One should not say this in front of an ignoramus (Ran - lest they detach flax seeds for this; Rosh - lest they mock us for teaching things that even women know).
Answer #3 (Rava): The 'sick people' who eat soft gourds with bread are Chachamim;
Also elsewhere, Rava calls Chachamim 'sick' (because Torah saps their strength).
(Rava): We pray for the sick and afflicted. This shows that we hold like R. Yosi (that man is judged every day).
'Afflicted' cannot mean sick (he also taught sick people)! It must refer to Chachamim.
(Mishnah): He is permitted thick Tavshilim.
The Mishnah is not like the Babylonians.
(R. Zeira): Babylonians are foolish. They eat bread (i.e. thick porridge) with bread. (Therefore, thick porridge is considered a Tavshil for them.)
(Rav Chisda): Is there anyone who can ask the experts of Hutzal if wheat porridge should be eaten with wheat bread and barley porridge with barley bread, or if the porridge should not be the same grain as the bread?
Rava would eat his bread with flour of parched grain (Ran; Tosfos - lentils)
EATING HABITS OF CHACHAMIM [line 10]
Rav Huna was eating porridge with his fingers.
Rabah bar Rav Huna: Why are you doing this?
Rav Huna: Rav said that it is tasty to eat it with a finger. It is even better to eat with two fingers, and even better with three.
Rav (also Rav Huna) told his son: If you are invited to eat porridge, it is worth travelling up to a Parsah (about four kilometers). For ox meat, travel up to three Parsa'os.
Rav (also Rav Huna) told his son: Do not spit in front of your Rebbi after eating anything, except for gourds and porridge, for saliva after eating these is as harmful as lead.
R. Yosi and R. Yehudah were eating porridge from a bowl. One was using his hands, and the other was using a utensil.
The one using a utensil - You cause me to eat dirt (from under your nails)!
The one using his hands - You cause me to eat your saliva!
Beluspine (a kind of date difficult to digest) was put in front of R. Yehudah and R. Shimon. R. Yehudah ate, but R. Shimon did not.
R. Yehudah: Why aren't you eating?
R. Shimon: These never leave one's system!
R. Yehudah: That is all the more reason to eat them. They will satiate us also tomorrow!
R. YEHUDAH'S CONDUCT [line 29]
R. Tarfon (to R. Yehudah): Why is your face glowing today?
R. Yehudah: Yesterday we ate spinach without salt. Had we eaten it with salt, all the more so our faces would be glowing!
A woman saw (the radiance of) R. Yehudah, and thought that he was drunk.
The woman: One who decides laws is drunk?!
R. Yehudah: The only wine I drink is for Kidush, Havdalah, and the four cups on Pesach, and then my head hurts from Pesach until Shavuos. Rather, "a man's Chachmah illuminates his face"!
A heretic (to R. Yehudah): 'You look as happy as those who lend on interest or raise pigs'!
R. Yehudah: A Yisrael may not do either of those! Rather, there are 24 latrines between my house and the Beis Medrash, and I regularly make use of all of them.
R. Yehudah would carry a barrel to the Beis Medrash to sit on.
R. Yehudah: Melachah is great. It honors the laborer!
R. Shimon would carry a basket for the same reason.
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.
When he wore it, he blessed 'Blessed is He who clothed me with a mantle!'
R. Shimon ben Gamliel once declared a fast; R. Yehudah did not come. They told R. Gamliel that he did not come because he did not have a garment. R. Gamliel sent to him a garment, but R. Yehudah did not accept it.
R. Yehudah lifted the mattress and showed the Shali'ach great wealth (this was a miracle). He said 'I have money, just I do not want to get physical pleasure in this world.'