Rav Ami and Rav Asi were with Rabbi Yitzchak the smith. One of them said to him, “Could the master please tell us a matter of Jewish law?” and the other said to him, “Could the rabbi please share a homiletic teaching?”

He began to tell a homily, and the first student wouldn’t let him continue, so he began to talk about a matter of Jewish law, but the other man stopped him. So he said, “Let me tell you an analogy. What is this like? It’s like a man who has two wives, one old and one young. The young one plucks his gray hairs so that he looks young; the old one plucks his black hairs so that he looks old—and in the end he’s left bald from here and from there!”