Yalta Breaking Wine

The Gemara relates: Ulla happened to come to the house of Rav Naḥman.

He ate bread, recited Grace after Meals, and gave the cup of blessing to Rav Naḥman.

Rav Naḥman said to him: Master, please send the cup of blessing to Yalta, my wife. Ulla responded to him: There is no need, as Rabbi Yoḥanan said as follows: The fruit of a woman’s body is blessed only from the fruit of a man’s body, as it is stated: “And He will love you, and bless you, and make you numerous, and He will bless the fruit of your body” (Deuteronomy 7:13). The Gemara infers: “He will bless the fruit of her body” was not stated. Rather, “He will bless the fruit of your [masculine singular] body.” For his wife to be blessed with children, it is sufficient to give the cup to Rav Naḥman.

The Gemara relates that meanwhile Yalta heard Ulla’s refusal to send her the cup of blessing. Yalta was the daughter of the Exilarch and was accustomed to being treated with deference, so she arose in a rage, entered the wine-storage, and broke four hundred barrels of wine. Afterward, Rav Naḥman said to Ulla: Let the Master send her another cup. Ulla sent Yalta a different cup with a message saying that all of the wine in this barrel is wine of blessing; although you did not drink from the cup of blessing itself, you may at least drink from the barrel from which the cup of blessing was poured.

She sent him a stinging response: From itinerant peddlers, Ulla traveled regularly from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia and back, come meaningless words, and from rags come lice.

By the time he arrived there, Rabbi Ya’akov bar Idi had already passed away. However, when he went up to Eretz Yisrael he found Rabbi Zerika and said to him: What do you say with regard to a chair borne on poles; what is your opinion on this topic?

He said to him: Rabbi Ami said as follows: It is permitted provided that he is not carried on the shoulders, on the chair.

The Gemara asks: What is the meaning of: Provided that he is not carried on the shoulders?

Rav Yosef, son of Rabba, said: It means on poles [alunkei].

The Gemara asks: Is that so? But didn’t Rav Naḥman permit his wife Yalta to go out on a Festival on a chair borne on poles that rested on the shoulders of the bearers? Yalta is different, as she was afraid.

Rather, Rav Pappa bar Shmuel sat before Rav Ḥisda, and he sat and he said: At the time that the animal crouches to give birth, those tending to the animal soak two swatches of wool in oil, and place one on the animal’s forehead and the other on its womb so that it will be warmed. Ḥanunot refers to animals with those swatches.

Rav Naḥman said to him: If so, you turned the animal into Yalta, my wife, who descended from the house of the Exilarch. That is treatment fit for her, not for an animal.

It was related: When the members of the Exilarch’s house would afflict Rav Amram the pious they would make him lie down to sleep all night on the snow. The next day they would say to him: What is preferable for the Master, i.e., Rav Amram, for us to bring him to eat?

Rav Amram said to himself: Anything I say to them, they will do the opposite.

He said to them: Bring me red meat roasted over coals and diluted wine.

They brought him fatty meat roasted over coals and undiluted wine instead, which is what Rav Amram had intended, because this is the remedy for one who suffers from the chills.

Yalta, Rav Naḥman’s wife, heard what the members of the Exilarch’s house did, and that Rav Amram was suffering from the chills. And she brought him to the bathhouse, and placed him in the water of the bathhouse until the water of the bathhouse turned red like blood. And his flesh became covered with spots that looked like coins [peshitei].

§ Yalta said to her husband Rav Naḥman: Now as a rule, for any item that the Merciful One prohibited to us, He permitted to us a similar item. He prohibited to us the consumption of blood, yet He permitted to us the consumption of liver, which is filled with blood and retains the taste of blood. Likewise, God prohibited sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman, but permitted sexual intercourse with one’s wife while she discharges the blood of purity. During a particular period after giving birth, even if she experiences a flow of blood she is not rendered ritually impure and remains permitted to her husband by Torah law.

Furthermore, the Torah prohibits the consumption of the forbidden fat of a domesticated animal, but permitted the fat of an undomesticated animal, which has the same flavor. It is prohibited to eat pork, but one may eat the brain of a shibuta fish, which has a similar taste. One may not eat giruta, a non-kosher fish, but one may eat the tongue of a fish, which tastes similar.

Likewise, the Torah prohibits sexual intercourse with the wife of another man but permitted one to marry a divorced woman in her previous husband’s lifetime. The Torah prohibits sexual intercourse with one’s brother’s wife, and yet it permits one to marry his yevama, i.e., his brother’s widow when the brother dies childless. Finally, the Torah prohibits sexual intercourse with a gentile woman but permitted one to marry a beautiful woman who is a prisoner of war (see Deuteronomy 21:10–14). Yalta concluded: The Torah prohibits the consumption of meat cooked in milk; I wish to eat a dish that tastes like meat cooked in milk.

Upon hearing this, Rav Naḥman said to his cooks: Roast udders on a spit for her.

A certain man who said to another: Go and buy for me four hundred pitchers of wine.

He went and bought them for him. Ultimately, he came before the first man and said to him: I bought four hundred pitchers of wine for you, but they fermented.

The case came before Rava, who said to the second man: If four hundred pitchers of wine had fermented, this matter would generate publicity.

Go and bring proof that initially, when you purchased the pitchers, the wine was good, and you will be exempt.

Rav Yosef, Rava’s son, said to him: In accordance with whose opinion did you issue this ruling?

According to that of Isi ben Yehuda?

Rava said to him: Yes, I ruled in accordance with the ruling of Isi, and we hold in accordance with his opinion.

Four hundred barrels of Rav Huna’s wine fermented.
Rav Yehuda, the brother of Rav Sala the Pious, along with the Sages, and some say Rav Adda bar Ahava, along with the Sages, entered to visit him, and said: The Master should examine his actions.
Rav Huna said to them: Am I suspect in your eyes?
They said to him: Is the Holy One, Blessed be He, suspect that He exacts punishment without justice?