Asparagus

The Sages taught: Asparagus is agreeable for the heart and beneficial for the eyes, and all the more so for the intestines. And one who is accustomed to it, it is agreeable for his entire body. One who gets drunk from it, it is harmful for his entire body.

The Sages taught: Six things were said with regard to asparagus: One only drinks it undiluted and from a full cup; he receives it from the attendant in his right hand and drinks it with his left hand; one should not converse after drinking it and one does not stop while drinking it, but should drink it all at once; one only returns it to the one who gave it to him; and he spits after drinking it; and one may only supplement it with its own kind.

It was taught: One may only accompany it with bread.

One teaching: It is beneficial for L-E-T, heart, eyes, and spleen, and harmful for R-M-T, head, intestines, and hemorrhoids.

It was taught the opposite: It is beneficial for R-M-T, head, intestines, and hemorrhoids, and harmful for L-E-T, heart, eyes, and spleen.

One teaching: if he spit after drinking asparagus, he suffers an illness.

And it was taught the opposite: if he did not spit after drinking asparagus, he suffers an illness.

Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha said: "Suriel, the ministering angel of the Divine Presence, told me three things: 'Do not take your cloak in the morning from the hand of your servant and wear it; do not ritually wash your hands from one who has not ritually washed his own hands; and only return a cup of asparagus to the one who gave it to you, because a band of demons - and some say a band of angels of destruction - wait for a person and say: "When will a person encounter one of these circumstances and be captured?"'"

Rav Naḥman said to him: "Let the Master drink a cup [anbaga] of wine."

Rav Yehudah said to him: "Is the term asparagus, as the Sages called it, or anpak, as common people say, distasteful to you?"

Rav Ḥinnana, son of Rav Yehoshua, said: "Asparagus combines for the good and does not combine for the bad."

Rav Ashi said: "Now that you said that if he did not spit after drinking it he suffers an illness, its water, the saliva in his mouth after drinking asparagus, may be expelled even when standing before the king, as failure to do so will endanger him."