Study Shabbat folio 114A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
מניין לשנוי בגדים מן התורה, שנאמר: ״ופשט את בגדיו ולבש בגדים אחרים״, ותנא דבי רבי ישמעאל, לימדה תורה דרך ארץ: בגדים שבישל בהן קדירה לרבו — אל ימזוג בהן כוס לרבו.
From where is it derived that changing clothes is a display of honor? As it is stated: “And he will remove his garments and will don other garments, and he will bring the ashes outside of the camp to a pure location” (Leviticus 6:4). The school of R' Yishmael taught: The Torah taught you etiquette. The clothes in which one prepared food for his master, one does not wear to pour his master wine. Since cooking makes one’s clothes dirty, he should wear fresh clothes when serving his master.
אמר רבי חייא בר אבא אמר רבי יוחנן: גנאי הוא לתלמיד חכם שיצא במנעלים המטולאים לשוק. והא רבי אחא בר חנינא נפיק! אמר רבי אחא בריה דרב נחמן: בטלאי על גב טלאי.
R' Ḥiyya bar Abba said that R' Yoḥanan said: It is disgraceful for a Torah scholar to go out to the marketplace in patched shoes. The Talmud asks: Didn’t R' Aḥa bar Ḥanina go out in patched shoes? R' Aḥa, son of Rav Naḥman, said: They only prohibited patched shoes if there is a patch upon a patch.
ואמר רבי חייא בר אבא אמר רבי יוחנן: כל תלמיד חכם שנמצא רבב על בגדו — חייב מיתה, שנאמר: ״כל משנאי אהבו מות״ — אל תקרי ״משנאי״, אלא ״משניאי״. רבינא אמר: רבד איתמר. ולא פליגי: הא בגלימא, הא בלבושא.
And R' Ḥiyya bar Abba said that R' Yoḥanan said: A Torah scholar on whose clothes a fat stain is found is liable to receive the death penalty, as it is stated: “All those who hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:36), and the rabbis said: Do not read: Those who hate me [mesanai]. Rather, read: Those who cause me to be hated [masniai]. Those who cause people to hate the Torah by creating the impression that those who study Torah are unclean deserve the death penalty. Ravina said: A fat stain [revav] was not stated, but rather a bloodstain [revad] was stated (Rabbeinu Ḥananel), which is a greater disgrace. The Talmud adds: They did not disagree over the halakha. Rather, the dispute is whether that which we learned concerning stains on a Torah scholar’s clothes refers to an overgarment that people wear over the rest of their clothes, while that which we learned with regard to a bloodstain refers to an undergarment, where a bloodstain is disgraceful but other types of spots are not.