Red

With regard to Rabbi Yoḥanan’s physical features, the Gemara adds that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: I alone remain of the beautiful people of Jerusalem. The Gemara continues: One who wishes to see something resembling the beauty of Rabbi Yoḥanan should bring a new, shiny silver goblet from the smithy and fill it with red pomegranate seeds [partzidaya] and place a diadem of red roses upon the lip of the goblet, and position it between the sunlight and shade. That luster is a semblance of Rabbi Yoḥanan’s beauty.

The Gemara relates that the tanna who recited mishnayot and baraitot in the study hall taught a baraita before Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak: Anyone who humiliates another in public, it is as though he were spilling blood. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said to him: You have spoken well, as we see that after the humiliated person blushes, the red leaves his face and pallor comes in its place, which is tantamount to spilling his blood. Abaye said to Rav Dimi: In the West, i.e., Eretz Yisrael, with regard to what mitzva are they particularly vigilant? Rav Dimi said to him: They are vigilant in refraining from humiliating others, as Rabbi Ḥanina says: Everyone descends to Gehenna except for three.

The first one emerged red, like a hairy mantle all over; so they named him Esau.

and ῾Esav said to Ya῾aqov, Give me to swallow, I pray thee, of that red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom (red).

This is the ritual law that the LORD has commanded: Instruct the Israelite people to bring you a red cow without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which no yoke has been laid.

Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as wool.

One [i.e., a Jew] should not follow the customs of non-Jews (nor should one try to resemble them). One should not wear clothing that is particular to them [i.e., their culture]; one should not grow forelocks on one’s head like the forelocks on their heads; one should not shave the sides [of one’s head] and grow one’s hair in the middle of one’s head [like they do]; one should not shave the hair in front of one’s face from ear to ear and let one’s hair grow [in the back] [like they do]; one should not build places [i.e., buildings]—like the non-Jews’ temples—so that large groups of people will enter them, like [non-Jews] do. RAMA: Rather, one [i.e., a Jew] should be distinct from them [i.e., non-Jews] in one’s manner of dress and in all of one’s actions. But all of this [i.e., these restrictions] apply only to things that non-Jews do for the sake of licentiousness. For example, they are accustomed to wearing red clothing, which is official/princely clothing, and other clothing that is similarly immodest. [These restrictions also apply] to things that they are accustomed to doing because of a custom or rule that does not have a[ny underlying] reason, out of concern that [a Jew who does such things will follow the] “ways of the Amorites,” and that it has the blemish of [i.e., is tainted by] idol worship inherited from their ancestors. But things that they are accustomed to doing for a useful purpose—such as their custom for expert doctors to wear particular clothing so that the doctors will be recognized as specialists—one is permitted to wear [such clothing]. Similarly, things that are done out of respect or another reason, it is permitted [for one to do such things]. And therefore they said one may burn [the items of deceased] kings, and there is not in this “the ways of the Amorites.”

R. Isaac said: "What does the passage (Ib. 23, 31) Do not look for wine when it looketh red, mean? You shall not look for wine which makes the faces of the wicked in this world red, and makes them pale (puts them to shame) in the world to come." Raba said: "You shall not look for wine because its end is bloodshed."