The Exilarch’s Sinning Servants

The exilarch said to R. Sheshet [who was blind], “Why do you not dine with us?” He said to him, “Because [your] servants are suspected of [transgressing the prohibition of eating] a limb from a live animal.” [The exilarch] asked, “Who says [that]?” [R. Sheshet] replied, “Now let me show you.” [R. Sheshet] said to his servant, “Go steal [from the exilarch’s servants] and bring me the leg of an animal.” He brought it to him. He said to [the exilarch’s servant], “Dismember the limbs of the animal for me.” [The servant] brought him three legs and placed them before him. He said to them, “Did it only have three legs?” [The servant] cut off [the leg of an animal] from elsewhere and brought it to him and placed it before him. He said to his [own] servant, “Now bring yours as well!” He brought it. He said to [the exilarch’s servant], “This must have been a five legged [animal]!” [The exilarch] said to him, “If so, then let them prepare [the food] before you and you will eat.” He said, “Very well.” They brought a platter before him and brought him meat and put before him a piece that would choke a mother-in-law. [R. Sheshet] felt it, took it, and wrapped it in his scarf. After they ate, they said, “A silver cup has been stolen!” As they were searching for it, they found the meat wrapped in his scarf and said, “See, master, that he is not eating; he only desires to torment us!” [R. Sheshet] said to them, “I certainly ate, but it had the taste of leprosy.” They said to him, “We did not prepare an animal with leprosy today!” He said to them, “Check it, for R. Ḥisda said that a black [spot] on white skin and a white [spot] on black is a defect.” They checked and found that it was so.

When [R. Sheshet] was leaving, they dug a pit and threw a mat over it. They said to him, “Come and rest.” R. Ḥisda snorted at them from behind. [R. Sheshet] said to a youth, “Read me a biblical verse.” [The youth] said: Turn aside to the right or the left (2 Samuel 2:21). He asked his servant, “What do you see?” He replied, “A mat is lying [there].” He said to him, “Go around it.” After [R. Sheshet] went out, R. Ḥisda asked him, “How did you know [to avoid the mat]?” He replied, “First, you snorted at me, and furthermore the verse the youth recited, and furthermore, the servants [of the exilarch] are not to be trusted.”

Translated by Matthew Goldstone.