Midrash for Bava Metzia 58:24

וא"ר יוחנן מי שהניח לו אביו מעות הרבה ורוצה לאבדן ילבש בגדי פשתן וישתמש בכלי זכוכית וישכור פועלים ואל ישב עמהן ילבש בכלי פשתן בכתנא רומיתא וישתמש בכלי זכוכית בזוגיתא חיורתא וישכור פועלים ואל ישב עמהן תרגומא

BUT HE MUST NOT STUDY [A SUBJECT] THEREIN FOR THE FIRST TIME, NOR MAY ANOTHER PERSON READ WITH HIM. But the following contradicts it. He may not read a section therein and revise it, nor read a section therein and translate it.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Into the vernacular, which, in the case of Palestinian Jewry, was probably Aramaic; v. J.E. VI, 308. ');">¹⁸</span> He may also not have more than three columns open [simultaneously], nor may three read out of the same volume. Hence two may read! — Said Abaye: There is no difficulty: here the reference is to one subject; there, to two.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Rashi: two people may not read the same subject, because each pulls the Scroll to himself; but they may read two different subjects (in different columns), as each concentrates on his own; Maim. reverses it. ');">¹⁹</span> IF ONE FINDS A CLOTH, HE MUST GIVE IT A SHAKING EVERY THIRTY DAYS: Are we to say that a shaking benefits it? But R. Johanan said, He who has a skilled weaver in his house<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Regularly engaged in weaving. ');">²⁰</span> has to shake his garment every day!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Because of the fluff caused by the weaver. This shews that one shakes his garment only when he must. ');">²¹</span> — I will tell you: [shaking] every day is injurious, once in thirty days is beneficial thereto. Alternatively, there is no difficulty: this [our Mishnah] refers to [shaking] by one person; the other [R. Johanan's dictum], by two persons.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In which case each pulls it and strains the material. ');">²²</span> Another alternative: this [the Mishnah] refers to [a shaking, i.e., beating] by hand; the other, with a stick.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' That is harmful. ');">²³</span> Or again, one refers to wool, the other to flax.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Rashi: a beating harms woollen garments, as it stretches them, but not linen garments. — But the order of the Gemara would seem to reverse it, 'the one&nbsp;… the other' referring to the Mishnah and R. Johanan respectively, and Maim. and others do in fact reverse it. Possibly linen garments or cloths were more delicately made in those days, or were otherwise weaker than woolens. ');">²⁴</span> R. Johanan said: A cupful of witchcraft, but not a cupful of tepid water.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' One had better drink the former than the latter. ');">²⁵</span> Yet that applies only to a metal utensil, but there is no objection to an earthenware one. And even of a metal utensil, this holds good only if it [the water] is unboiled; but if it is boiled, it does not matter. Moreover, that is only if he throws no spice wood therein; but if he does, there is no objection. R. Johanan said: If one is left a fortune<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'much money.' ');">²⁶</span> by his parents, and wishes to lose it, let him wear linen garments, use glassware, and engage workers and not be with them. 'Let him wear linen garments' — this refers to Roman linen;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [I.e., manufactured, not grown, in Rome; v. Krauss, op. cit. I, 537.] ');">²⁷</span> 'use glassware' — Viz., white glass;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Which was rare and costly. [On the difficulty of the process for producing colourless glass among the ancients, v. Krauss, op. cit. II, 286.] ');">²⁸</span> 'and engage workers and not be with them' — refer this

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