Raba asked Rafram son of Papa, "Friend, tell me, what good works did R. Huna perform?"

He replied, "I do not remember him in his youth, but I remember him in his old age. Whenever a storm raged through the town he had himself carried in a golden chair through the streets and examined every wall in the town. When he found one weak, he ordered it to be taken down, for he feared lest the walls should fall in through the high wind and cause damage. If the wall belonged to a rich man, the owner had to rebuild it at his own cost, but if it belonged to a poor man who could not afford to have it rebuilt, R. Huna had it rebuilt at his own expense. Every Friday he sent his servant into the market place and bought all the vegetables which the market gardeners were not able to sell, and had them thrown into the water."

The question is raised in the Talmud, "Why did he not distribute them among the Jewish poor?" The answer is that if he had given them to the poor, they would have relied upon it and would never have bought vegetables for the Sabbath. A time might have come when the gardeners would have sold out all their fruit and vegetables, and the poor, relying on R. Huna, would not have been able to get any, and would have had nothing to eat, thus failing to do honor to the Sabbath. Why, then, did he not give them to the animals to eat? I t would certainly have been preferable to having them thrown into the water. The reason was because he did not think it right to give to animals food fit for human beings, for it would have seemed as if he denied the blessing which God had vouchsafed to him. Therefore he threw them into the water, so that those who saw them floating in the water could draw them out and eat them. But why did he buy them at all? The reason was because he wanted the gardeners to come eagerly on Friday and bring their vegetables to the market. But if they had failed to sell all their vegetables, they might have refrained from bringing them on Friday and the people would have had nothing to eat, the Sabbath would not have been properly honored and the fault would have been his.

R. Huna furthermore used to hang up a jar with water in front of his gate, so that people should wash their hands in the morning, for there is always evil air resting on the hands, and it is a great danger to touch anything with unwashed hands. It is also dangerous to eat with hands unwashed.

When he sat down to his meals, he would open his door wide and say, "Whoever wishes to join me in my meal is welcome."

When Raba heard this, he said', "I should like very much to imitate these good deeds, except in the matter of the meal. I could not say, 'whoever wishes to join me is welcome,' for there are very many poor people in my town, and if they all came down and joined me in my meal, they would soon eat me out of house and home. I could not therefore invite them."