Taanit 24B

בנזיקין הוה, ואנן קא מתנינן בשיתא סדרין. וכי הוה מטי רב יהודה בעוקצין ״האשה שכובשת ירק בקדירה״, ואמרי לה: ״זיתים שכבשן בטרפיהן טהורין״, אמר: הוייות דרב ושמואל קא חזינא הכא,

was connected to the order of Nezikin, while they were largely unfamiliar with the rest of the Mishnah, and we learn all 6 orders of the Mishnah. And when Rav Yehuda reached tractate Uktzin, which discusses the extent to which various fruits and vegetables are considered an integral part of the produce in terms of becoming ritually impure, which is the basis for the halakha that a woman who pickles a vegetable in a pot, etc. (Teharot 2:1), and some say that when he reached the halakha that olives that are pickled with their leaves are ritually pure, etc., as they are no longer considered part of the fruit (Uktzin 2:1), he would say: Those are the disputes between Rav and Shmuel that we see here. He felt it was an extremely challenging passage, as difficult as the most complex arguments between Rav and Shmuel.

ואנן קא מתנינן בעוקצין תליסר מתיבתא. ואילו רב יהודה, כי הוה שליף חד מסאנא ⁠— אתי מיטרא, ואנן קא צווחינן כולי יומא וליכא דאשגח בן. אי משום עובדא, אי איכא דחזא מידי ⁠— לימא, אבל מה יעשו גדולי הדור שאין דורן דומה יפה.

And we, in contrast, learn tractate Uktzin in 13 yeshivot, while, with regard to miracles, after declaring a fast to pray for a drought to end, when Rav Yehuda would remove one of his shoes as a sign of distress, the rain would immediately come, before he could remove his second shoe. And yet we cry out all day and no one notices us. Rabba continued: If the difference between the generations is due to inappropriate deeds, if there is anyone who has seen me do anything improper, let him say so. I am not at fault, but what can the great leaders of the generation do when their generation is not worthy, and rain is withheld on account of the people’s transgressions?