Study Yevamot folio 15B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
anyone watching would say that he did it to increase the water flow, and he did not intend to change the halakha. Rather, they would think that he widened the water trough only because there was not enough water flow.
§ The Talmud cites another relevant source. Come and hear, as R' Elazar bar Tzadok said: When I studied Torah with R' Yoḥanan the Ḥorani, who was a disciple of Beit Shammai, I saw that he would eat dry bread in salt in years of drought. I went and informed my father of his meager meal, and he said
R' Elazar bar Tzadok continued his account. I went and informed my father. He said to me: Go and say to him that the jug containing the olives was perforated, but it was clogged by sediments in the oil and therefore some moisture remained inside. However, due to the presence of the hole, the olives
And Beit Hillel say that it does need to be perforated, as they maintain that the juice of olives is considered oil and it therefore renders the olives susceptible to ritual impurity. And Beit Hillel concede that if the jug was perforated and subsequently clogged by sediments it is ritually pure,
The baraita adds: And although R' Yoḥanan the Ḥorani was a disciple of Shammai, he always acted only in accordance with the statements of Beit Hillel. The Talmud infers: Granted, if you say that Beit Shammai acted in accordance with their opinions, this is R' Yoḥanan the Ḥorani’s greatness, i.e.,