About this episode
There were rabbis who would follow their teachers into the bathroom or hide under their beds to learn from their rabbis how to act in the bathroom or when having sex. Some were critical of this behavior to which they retorted, "It is Torah and I need to learn it!" People were sacred of demons in the outhouses. What did they do to protect themselves? One needs to be act modestly in the bathroom also. It is told of King Saul that acted modestly in the bathroom and that is why David didn't kill him when he came upon him in the cave. The gemara extrapolates other verses in that story and from there gets to the story of when David did a census by counting the people and not by using money (as commanded in the Torah) and explains why David made a mistake why when God brought the plague, he stopped it soon after. What is forbidden to do on the Temple Mount? What from that list can be done in a synogogue? Why is there a difference? Instead of saying amen in the Temple, they would say the verse "baruch shem kevod..."