Avodah Zarah 37

A few days ago, the Talmud presented a mishnah that listed items of a non-Jew that are forbidden to consume and provided one significant caveat:

Milk that was milked by a gentile and a Jew did not see him performing this action, and their bread and oil (are forbidden). But Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and his court permitted the oil.

Initially, the mishnah testifies, non-Jewish milk, bread and oil were all prohibited for consumption. However, by the time the Mishnah was codified, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi had reversed that final prohibition, as we explored yesterday, because most people were not adhering to it anyway.

On today’s daf, the rabbis continue to wrestle with this turn of events:

Rabbi Yehuda Nesia was traveling while leaning upon the shoulder of Rabbi Simlai, his attendant.

Rabbi Yehuda Nesia said to him: Simlai, you were not in the study hall last night when we permitted the oil of gentiles.

Rabbi Simlai said to him: In our day, you will permit bread of gentiles as well.

Rabbi Yehuda Nesia said to him: If so, people will call us a permissive court, as we learned in a mishnah: Rabbi Yosei ben Yo’ezer of Tzereida testified with regard to the eil kamtza (a type of locust) that it is kosher, and with regard to the liquids of the slaughterhouse in the Temple that they are ritually pure, and with regard to one who touches a corpse that he is impure. As a result, they called him: Yosef the Permissive.

First, it’s worth noting a confusion in the Talmud. While the mishnah a few pages ago stated that it was the court of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi that permitted non-Jewish oil, in this story it is his grandson, Rabbi Yehuda Nesia, who presided over the decision. Some commentators, like Rashi, suggest that the mishnah contains an error. Other commentators, like the Ramban and the Ran, reconcile the difference by suggesting that perhaps Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi permitted non-Jewish oil and the permission did not “take” — then his grandson successfully permitted it.

In any case, the Gemara relates that Rabbi Simlai, on hearing the ruling, brightly suggests that permitting non-Jewish bread is surely the next step. (As we know from early talmudic commentators, the prohibition on non-Jewish bread indeed did not catch on everywhere.) In response, Rabbi Yehuda Nesia worries that he will be perceived as too lenient, citing an example of another scholar who suffered that dubious fate after declaring a variety of locusts kosher and making other lenient decisions.

Perhaps to comfort his colleague, Rabbi Simlai points out a seeming distinction between Rabbi Yehuda Nesia’s court and the one of Rabbi Yosei ben Yo’ezer,so-called Yosef the Permissive:

Rabbi Simlai said to him: There, Yosei ben Yo’ezer permitted three matters, but the Master (i.e., you) permitted only one. And even if the Master permits one other matter, these will still constitute only two permissive rulings. 

One leniency is incidental, two perhaps a coincidence and three the magic number at which point a court is deemed too permissive. Rather than take comfort, Rabbi Yehuda Nesia responds, with angst:

I have already permitted another matter. 

The Talmud then explains other lenient decisions of his court.

This narrative, casually relayed, represents one of the most direct explorations of a theme that pervades this chapter: the rabbis’ anxiety about maintaining their own authority. On the one hand, they worry that later generations will question their more stringent decisions, and possibly reverse them. On the other hand, they don’t want to be so permissive that they’re perceived as undermining the very basis of rabbinic law. In either direction, rabbinic authority is jeopardized, and charting the right course for the halakhah must therefore be not only an exercise in understanding God’s will, but also in bolstering the people that are authorized to interpret it.

Read all of Avodah Zarah 37 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 25, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.