As Tefillin, So Shoes
From Come and Hear: What I Saw in My Seven-and-a-half-year Journey through the Talmud by Adam Kirsch:
This week's Daf Yomi reading offered a kind of reductio ad absurdum [...] when the rabbis laid down the law about which shoe you are supposed to put on first in the morning.
Naturally, there are various opinions on the subject. According to Rabbi Yochanan, "As tefillin, so shoes": Just as tefillin are worn on the left arm, so you should put on the left shoe first. But there is also a baraita that holds the opposite: "When a person puts on his shoes, he puts on his right shoe and after this he puts on his left shoe." Given the conflict, the law is that either procedure is acceptable. But, Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak insists, "One who fears Heaven can fulfill both directives." How? By following the example of Mar son of Rabana: "He would put on his right shoe, but not tie it; and then he would put on his left shoe and tie it; and then he would tie his right shoe." Thus Mar could say that, in a way, each shoe was put on before the other.