יִשָּׂשכָ֖ר חֲמֹ֣ר גָּ֑רֶם רֹבֵ֖ץ בֵּ֥ין הַֽמִּשְׁפְּתָֽיִם׃
Issachar est un âne musculeux qui se couche entre les collines.
Tractate Kallah Rabbati
BARAITHA. One who enters the bath-house should not exercise himself,79Have massage. In V this clause is attached to the next Baraitha but is more appropriate here. or scrape himself on the marble [slab], or have his limbs broken.80A form of massage; cf. DER X, p. 560f. All these forms of exercise should not be undertaken in the public bath-house out of modesty.
GEMARA. What is the meaning of ‘exercise himself’? For example, pressing his head between his knees. ‘Or scrape himself’: but it is not so! For [we are informed that] the servant of Raba scraped him! It speaks of scraping with the hand. ‘Or have his limbs broken’; Rabban Gamaliel said: Whoever has his limbs broken on the marble is the companion of an ass.81Rabban Gamaliel must have had in mind the phrase a large-boned [garem] ass (Gen. 49, 14) and homiletically read the word as גרום, ‘with bones broken’. Hence the association of ‘the breaking of the bones’ with the ass.
GEMARA. What is the meaning of ‘exercise himself’? For example, pressing his head between his knees. ‘Or scrape himself’: but it is not so! For [we are informed that] the servant of Raba scraped him! It speaks of scraping with the hand. ‘Or have his limbs broken’; Rabban Gamaliel said: Whoever has his limbs broken on the marble is the companion of an ass.81Rabban Gamaliel must have had in mind the phrase a large-boned [garem] ass (Gen. 49, 14) and homiletically read the word as גרום, ‘with bones broken’. Hence the association of ‘the breaking of the bones’ with the ass.