Study Berakhot folio 44A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Mishnah: If they brought salted food before him to eat first and bread with it, he recites a blessing over the salted food and thereby exempts the bread, because the salted food is primary while the bread is secondary to it. This is the principle: Any food that is primary and a secondary food is wi
Talmud: The Talmud asks: And is there a circumstance where salted food is primary and bread is secondary? Generally, no meal has a salted food item as its primary component. Rav Aḥa, son of Rav Avira, said that Rav Ashi said: This halakha was taught with regard to those who eat fruits of Genosar,
On a related note, the Talmud employs hyperbole in praising the fruits of Genosar. Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: When we would go after R' Yoḥanan to eat fruits of Genosar, when we were 100 people together, each and every one of us would bring him 10 fruits, and when we were 10 people together, each and
The Talmud continues to wax hyperbolic: R' Abbahu ate fruits of Genosar until the sweet, lush fruits made his skin so slippery that a fly would slip from his forehead. And Rav Ami and Rav Asi would eat them until their hair fell out. R' Shimon ben Lakish would eat them until he became confused. And
On a similar note, the Talmud relates: When Rav Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia he said: King Yannai had a city on the King’s Mountain, from which they would take 600,000 bowls of sardines for those cutting figs off the trees during the course of the week from Friday to Friday. There were