Bava Metzia 84A

כי האי מעשה לידיה. פגע ביה אליהו,

Elijah the prophet encountered him

אמר ליה: עד מתי אתה מוסר עמו של אלהינו להריגה? אמר ליה: מאי אעביד? הרמנא דמלכא הוא! אמר ליה: אבוך ערק לאסיא, את ערוק ללודקיא.

and said to him: Until when will you inform on the nation of our God to be sentenced to execution? R' Yishmael, son of R' Yosei, said to Elijah: What should I do? It is the king’s edict that I must obey. Elijah said to him: Faced with this choice, your father fled to Asia. You should flee to Laodicea rather than accept this appointment.

כי הוו מקלעי רבי ישמעאל ברבי יוסי ורבי אלעזר ברבי שמעון בהדי הדדי, הוה עייל בקרא דתורי בינייהו ולא הוה נגעה בהו.

§ With regard to these rabbis, the Talmud adds: When R' Yishmael, son of R' Yosei, and R' Elazar, son of R' Shimon, would meet each other, it was possible for a pair of oxen to enter and fit between them, under their bellies, without touching them, due to their excessive obesity.

אמרה להו ההיא מטרוניתא: בניכם אינם שלכם. אמרו לה: שלהן גדול משלנו. כל שכן. איכא דאמרי, הכי אמרו לה: ״כי כאיש גבורתו״. איכא דאמרי הכי, אמרו לה: ״אהבה דוחקת את הבשר״.

A certain Roman noblewoman [matronita] once said to them: Your children are not really your own, as due to your obesity it is impossible that you had sex with your wives. They said to her: Theirs, i.e., our wives’ bellies, are larger than ours. She said to them: All the more so you could not have had sex. There are those who say that this is what they said to her: “For as the man is, so is his strength” (Judges 8:21), i.e., our sexual organs are proportionate to our bellies. There are those who say that this is what they said to her: Love compresses the flesh.

ולמה להו לאהדורי לה? והא כתיב: ״אל תען כסיל כאולתו״! שלא להוציא לעז על בניהם.

The Talmud asks: And why did they respond to her audacious and foolish question? After all, it is written: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him” (Proverbs 26:4). The Talmud answers: They answered her in order not to cast aspersions on the lineage of their children.