Rabbi Tzadoq testified about a brine of unclean locusts that it is clean and permitted to those who eat teruma. Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Papyas testified on the baker’s sheet that they attached to a joist or a beam or affixed with a nail that it is [susceptible] to impurity, but Rabbi Eliezer deems it not [susceptible] to impurity. If he did not attach it all the way, everyone agrees that it is [susceptible] to impurity. They testified that at first they would say “until Purim.” Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Papyas came and testified that all of Adar is fit for intercalation. Menahem ben Povgi, who was a dyer, testified about the rim of the olive-boiler’s kettle that it is [susceptible] to impurity, but that the one used by dyers is not. At the beginning they would say that the matters were reversed. And when they seated him in the yeshiva, everyone was surprised by him. He said to them, this from that, I am the head of all who come after me.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben B’teira testified about the blood of carrion that it is clean. Rabbi Shimon ben B’teira said, they would stab whole herds to death in the royal court of the king and the pilgrims would sink to their knees and didn’t worry about uncleanness.

Rabbi Yehuda haKohein testified about a bat Yisrael who married a priest, as soon as she is married in the chuppah [she eats the sacred food] even though they have not yet had sex. Rabbi Eliezer says, [not until] they have sex. And thus Rabbi Eliezer said, because [he must] have sex with her, a priest should not marry a woman until she is mature. The court that came after them said that a woman from a suspected family is believed regarding uncleanness and cleanness, for prohibition or permission, for sending away or coming near. But the widow from a suspected family they did not reach. Rabbi Shimon ben Azzai said to them, a ma’aseh in which bones were found in Jerusalem in the woodshed and the Sages wanted to deem the whole of Jerusalem unclean. Rabbi Yehoshua said to them, a shame and a disgrace it would be for us to declare our house unclean. Where are the dead of the [great] flood? Where are the dead of Nevukadnetzer? Where are the dead that died in war up til now? They have said, if it is definite, it is unclean. [If there is] a doubt, it is clean. Rabbi Yehoshua said, I heard that they slaughter even those there are no libations, and they eat the most holy things even though there is no curtain, and they [eat] less holy things and ma’aser sheni even though there is no wall. The consecration in the beginning was for its time and for the future time to come.

The family of the house of Tzarifah was over the Jordan and Ben Tzion kicked it out by force. And there was another [family] there and Ben Tzion brought it close by force. The Sages did not want to reveal them, but they transmit to their children and to their students once in seven [years]. [Families] like these Eliyahu comes to deem unclean and clean, to send away or bring near. Rabbi says, to draw near but not to send away. Rabbi Yehuda says, the matters are reversed. Rabbi Hananya ben Ado says, indeed it says, “There came out among the Israelites a man whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian, and the half-Israelite and another Israelite fought” (Lev 24:10). These matters [produce] a qal v’homer: just as Moses our teacher did not want to reveal the mamzers until they revealed themselves, Elijah—Moses’s student—all the more so would not reveal until they revealed themselves. The one has students, they call him rabbi. When his students were forgotten, they called him rabban. When both of these are forgotten, they call him by his name.