The following three sugyot in the Babylonian Talmud afford paticularly convincing evidence of how the material, halakhic as well as aggadic, has been structured by the editors so as to provide a strong element of dramatic effect.

Menahot 37a–b

The sugya opens with a problem Pelemo presented to Rabbi Judah the Prince (called generally simply ‘Rabbi’): On which head does a two-headed man put on the tefillin? Rabbi replied: ‘Either go in exile [as a penance] or be subjected to the ban’, i.e. Rabbi suspected Pelemo was mocking him by presenting a nonsensical problem since there are no two-headed men. At that moment (addehakhi) a man came along and said: ‘An infant with two heads has been born to me. How many shekalim am I obliged to give to the priest for the redemption of the first-born?’ That is to say, five shekalim is the usual amount for the redemption of the first-born (Numbers 18:16) and here, since the infant has two heads, perhaps ten shekalim are required, one for each head. An old man (ha-hu sava) taught that he must give the priest ten shekalim. Is that so? asks the Talmud. Did not Rami b. Hama teach: ‘Since the verse says: The first-bom of man thou shalt surely redeem (Numbers 18:15), I might have concluded that this applies even when the first-born became a terefah.