“I just got back from a pleasure trip. I took my mother-in-law to the airport.” Jokes and stories about how difficult Jewish mothers-in-law can be are legendary. None can hold a candle to today’s Daf. “There once was a certain mother-in-law who despised her daughter-in-law. One day she said to the [younger woman], ‘Go, adorn yourself with balsam oil.’ [The obedient girl] went and so adorned herself. When she came back to her mother-in-law, [the latter] said to her, ‘Go and light the lamp.’ She dutifully went and lit the lamp, whereupon the fire leapt out onto her and consumed her.” I read this story as an intentional outcome on the mother-in-law’s part.

How did we get here? Yesterday, we discussed that balsam cannot be used as kindling for Shabbat lights. Originally, we learned that balsam was unsuitable because the smell was strong and delicious. We may be tempted to use the oil from the light to perfume something else, which would be a forbidden Shabbat labor. Today we learn that balsam should never be used as kindling because it is too dangerous. We then get the story of the murderous, yet clever, mother-in-law.

We get some very technical discussions today about whether and when we can use produce that has not been separated into a tithed portion and kept portion. We get a lot of discussion about what fabrics can be afflicted with the ritual skin disease described in Leviticus 13:47 (“When an eruptive affliction occurs in cloth of wool or linen fabric,”) and how big those cloths have to be to be subject to the affliction.

We also get one of those fascinating looks into ancient economic life. Rabbi Tarfon, who was very rich, believes that Shabbat lights can only be kindled with olive oil, which is very expensive. Rabbi Yochanan Ben Nuri chastises Rabbi Tarfon for being such an elitist and then proceeds to list the types of oil used throughout the ancient Jewish world: Babylonians used sesame oil, Medians (in modern Iran) used nut oil, Alexandrians used radish oil (I did not know there was such a thing), Cappadocians (in modern Turkey) used naptha. We thus get a little glimpse of how Jews lived around the ancient world.