daf bit: Gittin 69

[cellio]

The mishna teaches that if a man is seized with delerium his instruction to write a get is disregarded. The gemara asks what delerium is. From this begins a discussion (several pages in length) of various medical conditions and their cures. Some examples from today's daf:

• For cataracts, take a scorpion with seven colors of stripe, dry, mix with stibium, and drop in the eyes. (Careful not to use too much!)
• For night-blindness there is a complex ritual involving tying one's leg to a dog, processing through the streets with children calling out, and feeding the dog from different houses.
• For toothache, crush garlic, put it on the thumbnail (on the side corresponding to the tooth), and wrap it in dough, but do not let it touch his flesh lest it cause leprosy.
• For stomach pain, drink 100 grains of long pepper in wine daily for three days.

(67b mishna, 69a-b gemara)

(I suggest that this last one will at least alter your stomach-ache. :-) As for the scorpion... err, what?)

Comments

[ticklethepear.livejournal.com]

I'm just curious - in Jewish tradition is there a concept of "the spirit of the law vs. the letter of the law"? For example Mormons have the Word of Wisdom which forbids "hot drinks" not caffeine, so soda is a gray area. Mormons who drink Coke (including myself) say that it is the addictive quality (the spirit of the law) that is forbidden rather than the actual drink itself (the letter of the law) since Coke is not a "hot drink."

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

I might need to convince laid to try the dog thing. He has a lot of trouble driving at night. If nothing else, it sounds very amusing for the rest of us.

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

I don't follow. You indicate that the spirit forbids "addictive qualities." Wouldn't that still preclude caffeine?

[ticklethepear.livejournal.com]

The revelation specifies "hot drinks" which at the time (1833) meant coffee and tea, and not caffeine per se as an individual ingredient. So in theory foods and drinks that include caffeine, like Coke and chocolate, are acceptable as long as one is not addicted to them.

[ticklethepear.livejournal.com]

This explains it a lot better than I can!
http://www.fairlds.org/Misc/Word_of_Wisdom_Caffeine_and_Hypocrisy.html

[astroprisoner.livejournal.com]

Never mind the scorpion...I'm still trying to figure out how they came up with that night blindness cure!

"Well, it started out one night when I couldn't see, and I thought I was putting on my shoes...turns out I'd attached the dog to my leg by mistake..."

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

"...as long as one is not addicted to them."

This is a slippery slope that ends with, "But I can quit at any time!"

Thanks for the clarifications below. Very instructive.

[ticklethepear.livejournal.com]

Ah, human nature!

[geekosaur]

I'm imagining a bunch of drunk rabbis sitting around shooting the breeze, trying to come up with the most ridiculous "cure" for various incurable conditions.

[ellipticcurve.livejournal.com]

Think of it this way: if you are applying scorpion venom to your eyes, you will not care about the cataracts anymore.

[cellio]

He might want to read it first:

For night blindness he should take a string made of white hair and with it tie one of his own legs to the leg of a dog, and children should rattle potsherds behind him saying ‘Old dog, stupid cock’. He should also take seven pieces of raw meat from seven houses and put them on the doorpost and [let the dog] eat them on the ashpit of the town. After that he should untie the string and they should say, ‘Blindness of A, son of the woman B, leave A, son of the woman B,’ and they should blow into the dog's eye.

You're right; it could be amusing for everyone else. :-)

The editorial "let the dog" (eat) caught my attention. Presumably this is inferred from the meat being raw.

[cellio]

There is quite the collection of odd remedies here, but nothing that I've seen so far suggests that they aren't serious. I presume none of them had personal experience with this -- either that, or the world behaved very differently for those who kept the torah 1800 years ago.

Long pepper

[nobble.livejournal.com]

OMG, I think it would turn stomach ache into pure fluid. Talk about taking the extreme way out. This daf is not Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book!

Re: Long pepper

[cellio]

Well, it does say (at least in the English; I'm not up to the Aramaic) "grains", not "peppercorns", which to me implies that it's the result of grinding. How fine? I don't know.

Re: Long pepper

[laid.livejournal.com]

If they're talking about weight, it'd be 6.5 grams, give or take. Go check out the Aramaic and see if they're talking about weight there.

[cellio]

I'm just curious - in Jewish tradition is there a concept of "the spirit of the law vs. the letter of the law"?

They both matter. For example, the reason we put those little scroll cases on our doorposts is that the torah says "write these words on your doorpost", and the scroll contains those words. But, we don't actually write on the doorpost directly; there's some rabbinic interpretation going on. Similarly, the torah says "don't place a stumbling-block before the blind", which is understood to not just be about those with vision problems.

Sometimes the "letter" is not clear and the rabbis had to interpret. For example, "keep Shabbat" -- ok, fine, but exactly what does that mean?

And sometimes the "spirit" isn't so clear either, but we do it anyway. I'm not really sure what God has against wool-linen blends, but ok.

[ticklethepear.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness chocolate isn't on the blacklist!