For the source text click/tap here: Avodah Zarah 57
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Our daf is a detailed exploration of who may drink from wine touched by a Gentile and who may use that wine for libations. For each different category of person, the rabbis consider the possible outcomes.
The people mentioned include Gentiles, Gentile minors (those who do not understand idolatry), Gentile infants (those who have not been exposed to idolatry), Jewish slaves, Jewish maidservants, Gentile slaves, Gentile maidservants, the sons of Gentile slaves and the sons of Gentile maidservants.
§ The Gemara relates: There was a certain incident in Meḥoza in which a gentile came and entered the store of a Jew. The gentile said to the owners: Do you have any wine to sell? They said to him: No. There was wine sitting in a bucket. The gentile put his hand in itand stirred the wine around. The gentile said to them: This, is it not wine? The otherperson, i.e., the storeowner, took the bucket and, in his anger, threw its contents into a barrel of wine.
Rav Huna, son of Rav Naḥman, happened to come to Meḥoza. Rava said to his attendant, Rav Elyakim: Close, close the gates, so that people who might disturb us should not come, and we may focus on clarifying the matter.
We explore the city of mechoza its people economy and how it differed halachically from the main centers of learning like Pumpedita.