King Menashe Appears to Rav Ashi in a Dream
After Rav Ashi calls the wicked kings "our friends," King Menashe appears in his dream, stumps him on where to cut the bread, and explains his idolatry.
The first Mishnah in the last perek of Sanhedrin says that three kings have no share in the World to Come— Yeravam, Achav, and Menashe. Rav Ashi was finishing a lecture on this perek and stated, “Tomorrow we will start by discussing our friends” (Sanhedrin 102b). The “friends” referred to were the very same kings just listed. King Menashe appeared to Rav Ashi in a dream and challenged him: “Your knowledge of Torah is half-baked and you’re calling me your dough-boy?” (A dramatized version of: “You call us your friends and the friends of your fathers?”) Menashe then tested him with the following question: “From where are you supposed to start cutting the bread when you make ha’motzi?”
Rav Ashi didn’t know. Menashe said, “You don’t even know where to start cutting the bread and you’re calling me your friend?” Rav Ashi asked Menashe to teach him the halachah, saying that he would teach it during the next day’s lecture, in the name of Menashe. Menashe acquiesced and taught that you should start cutting the bread from where it begins to bake in the oven.