The Master said: ‘Olives and onions
must suffice to provide a relish for bread for two meals’.
It was most common to use these as garnishes on bread. But
onions present their own problem:
Is it, however, permitted to
prepare all erub from onions? . . . For it was taught: ‘If a man ate an onion
and [was found] dead early [on the following morning] there is no need to ask
what was the cause of his death’
Oops. Maybe they’re more to those onion rings than bad
breath!
I mean, it can get really bad:
Our Rabbis taught: No one should
eat onion on account of the poisonous fluid it contains; and it once happened
that R. Hanina ate half an onion and half of its poisonous fluid and became so
ill that he was on the point of dying. His colleagues, however, begged for
heavenly mercy, and he recovered because his contemporaries needed him.
Umm, I’ll pass – thanks.
Samuel stated: This was taught in
respect of the leaves only but against [the eating of] the bulbs there call be
no objection;
and even regarding the leaves this
has been said only where the onion has not grown [to the length of] a span but
where it has grown to that length there can be no objection.
Whew! Bring ‘em on. But wait, it gets better:
R. Papa said: This has been said
only where one drank no beer [with them] but where one did drink some beer
there can be no danger.
In fact, beer’s a meal:
it is usual for people to drink one
cup in the morning and another in the evening and to rely upon these [as their
meals].
Breakfast of champions! And dinner, too.
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