Vows can be confounding. A wife might say that the benefit of bathing is konam for me forever if I bathe. This would mean that her husband could nullify her vow, for if she bathes, she cannot bathe again, and if she does not bathe, she is considered to be 'disfigured'. Rabbi Yosei continues to believe that temporary disfigurement caused by not bathing is not considered to be an affliction, for it might be just one day of not bathing.
What if a woman was speaking about bathing in flax water? This very foul smelling water was used to make linen threads - the outer layer of flax reeds would rot over an extended period of soaking. Similarly, what if a wife makes a vow regarding adorning herself with naphtha/neft, crude and unrefined oil? If she makes herself 'repulsive', is she afflicted? Is she damaging her marital relationship?
The rabbis consider different circumstances in which not bathing might be thought of as an affliction. For example, one does not bathe on Yom Kippur but one does afflict his/her soul on that day.
The daf ends with a contradictory statement said by Rabbi Yosei. A baraita stated that if the residents of a city own a spring and it provides for their lives and the lives of others outside of the town, the residents lives should take precedence over the lives of those others. Similarly, if both groups need that water for their animals, their own animals should take precedence. And if both groups need that water for their laundry, their own laundry takes precedence. but if the other group needs the water for their lives and their own group needs the water for their laundry, the lives of others take precedence.
Rabbi Yosei argues that in fact their own need for water still takes precedence, for going without laundering creates pain and affliction. Specifically, grime on one's head leads to blindness, on one's clothes leads to madness, on one's body leads to boils and sores. Dirty laundry creates greater affliction than a dirty body!
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