ANSWERS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS
prepared by Rabbi Eliezer Chrysler
Kollel Iyun Hadaf, Jerusalem
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Gitin 69
GITIN 68 & 69 - Sponsored by Rabbi Dr. Eli Turkel and his wife, Jeri Turkel.
May Hashem bless them with many years of Simcha, health and fulfillment, and
may they see all of their children and grandchildren follow them in the ways
of Torah and Yir'as Shamayim!
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Questions
1)
(a) The cure for Beruksi (eye's web) requires an old scorpion of seven
colors. After drying it anywhere but in the sun - one grinds two parts blue
eye-paint to one part of it and fills three Mikcheli (of a bird's feather or
small but wide wooden spoon) to paint each eye.
(b) If one uses more than three of these tiny containers of it for each
eye - the eye will drop out.
2)
(a) For night-blindness one takes a rope made of animals' hair, and ties one
end to the stricken man's foot and the other end to the foot of a dog.
Before one recites the first incantation - the children rattle pieces of
clay behind him.
(b)
1. ... The seven neighbors place the seven pieces of meat that they have
given him - in the door-post, and ...
2. ... he eats them - by one of the town's trash-heaps.
(c) Before reciting the final incantation - he should remember to untie the
rope from his foot.
3)
(a) For day-blindness, one takes seven spleens of meat from the inside of a
wild animal and roasts them - on an earthenware receptacle used by
blood-letters to receive the blood.
(b) After he asks his friend for the pieces, he eats them and chants the
necessary incantation. *He* is sitting inside and his friend, outside.
(c) When he has finished eating, he must be careful to break the earthenware
receptacle, to prevent the blindness from returning.
4)
(a) For excessive nose-bleeding, the sufferer must find a Kohen whose name
is Levi - which he must write backwards.
(b) Alternatively, he finds any man and writes an alternative incantation,
or the root of a lucerne plant, ropes from an old bed, paper made of fluff
and the reddish part of a Lulav. Alternatively, he finds any man and writes
an alternative incantation, or the root of a lucerne plant, ropes from an
old bed, paper made of fluff and the reddish part of a Lulav - which he
burns altogether.
(c) Then he takes the shearing of wool that he has spun into two threads and
soaked in vinegar - rolls them in the ashes and places them in his nostril.
(d) Two alternatives remain. Either he straddles a stream that flows from
east to west and takes mud in both of his hands in which he rolls two
threads of wool soaked in vinegar and places them in his nostril, or he
recites an incantation whilst standing under a drainpipe. He takes the mud -
with his right hand from under his left leg, and with his left hand from
under his right leg. Whilst he is standing with it under the drainpipe, they
let water pour from the drainpipe on to him, and he says 'The blood should
stop flowing from my nose, just as the water stops flowing from the
drainpipe.
5)
(a) Bleeding from the mouth needs to be examined with a straw - which
determines whether the bleeding comes from the lungs (if the blood sticks to
the straw) in which case it can be treated, or from the liver (if it is
smooth), in which case it cannot.
(b) When Rav Ashi asks from a Mishnah in Chulin, where we have learned the
opposite - he is referring to the Mishnah which declares the liver T'reifah
only if it has melted completely, but the lung, even if it just has a hole.
(c) We reconcile our Sugya with the Mishnah in Chulin - by pointing out
that, since the blood came out via the mouth, is appears that the liver
melted completely, and was drawn up to the lung via the shaft of the liver
from the shaft of the lung.
6)
(a) The cure for blood from the lungs comprises seven fistfuls of sliced
beets, seven fistfuls of leek, five fistfuls of a herb called Madirishra,
three fistfuls of lentils, one fistful of cumin, one fistful of Chavli and
twenty-four fistfuls of entrails of an animal that is the firstborn of its
mother - which he cooks and eats, washing it down with strong beer.
(b) The cure for a toothache (of the inner teeth), says Raba bar Rav Huna,
is one takes a single garlic, which must be ground with oil and salt - which
he places on the nail of the thumb of whichever side hurts him.
(c) The border of dough that he makes round it is - to prevent it from
touching the skin, because it causes skin to become leprous.
(d) The cure for quinsy (septic blisters in the throat), says Rebbi
Yochanan, comprises the leaves of a herb called pyrethrum (which is as
effective as a herb called Mamru), though the roots are even better. To
contain the illness, one takes - the equivalent volume of a nut.
7)
(a) To induce the pus to accumulate, one requires the thick bran that
remains in the sieve when sifting coarse flour, lentils with their own dust,
fenugreek and the flowers of hops. He then takes (internally) - the
equivalent volume of a nut.
(b) In order to get the blisters to burst, his friend takes white
mustard-seeds - which he blows into his mouth (onto the blisters) by means
of a straw.
(c) To restore the sore spot to its former state after the blisters have
burst, he takes dust from the shade of stones that were built into a
makeshift bathroom in a field. Before taking it - he mixes it with honey,
and eats it.
(d) The cure for catarrh comprises the size of an acorn of sal-amoniac, the
size of a nut of sweet galbanum, a spoonful of white honey and a quarter of
a Lug of good, white wine - which he takes as a medicine. He will know when
the mixture is ready - by keeping his eye on the sal-amoniac, which is hard
and takes a long time to boil?
69b---------------------------------------69b
Questions
8)
(a) If the above cure for catarrh is not possible, he sprinkles a Revi'is of
goat's milk on to three cabbage-leaves - which he then stirs with a stick of
Marmehin wood, cooks (and eats).
(b) A third possible cure comprises the excrement of a white dog, mixed with
balsam. One is advised however - not to eat any of the dog's excrement,
since this results in sharp pains.
9)
(a) The cure for an illness called Giyra (sharp pains) is Giyra de'Lilis -
arrow-like icicles that fall with hail.
(b) Before pouring water on it and drinking it - he turns it upside-down
(the point pointing upwards and the handle, downwards).
(c) Alternatively, he takes water from which a dog has drunk at night-time -
taking care that, until he drinks it, it remains in a location where there
are no snakes.
(d) The cure for having drunk water that was left in the open is 'Anpaka' of
undiluted wine. 'Anpaka' refers both to the vessel in which the wine is
placed, and to the amount of a Revi'is (which is the volume that the cup
holds).
10)
(a) The cure for boils is an Anpaka of wine with a kind of red soap, and for
fits of fainting, (we initially think) three barley-loaves soaked in a
preserve made of sour milk - which should be not more than forty days old.
(b) After taking it - one drinks weak wine.
(c) Rav Acha mi'Difti objected to this cure for that particular illness -
because it tends to weaken a person, and what this particular illness needs
is something that makes him stronger, not weaker.
(d) Ravina therefore prescribed it for someone who was hyperactive. For
someone who suffers fainting fits, he prescribed - three wheat-loaves soaked
in honey, washed down with strong wine.
11)
(a) The cure for heart-ache is three egg-volumes of mint, one of cumin and
one of sunflower-seeds; for stomach-ache, three hundred long peppers - which
one takes with wine.
(b) Ravin from Neresh did this for Rav Ashi's daughter - using a hundred and
fifty local peppers (which presumably, were twice the size of those referred
to in the Sugya), and she became cured.
(c) The cure for worms in the stomach consists of an Anpaka of wine and the
leaves of a laurel-tree, for white worms, the seed of a rocket-plant, which
he soaks in water and drinks. Before soaking the seed, he ties it - with a
piece of a woolen garment.
(d) When drinking the water, he should take great care - not to swallow the
seed, because it is liable to puncture his stomach.
12)
(a) The cure for diarrhea is wet pennyroyal plant in water. The cure for
constipation is - dry pennyroyal plant in water.
(b) The Si'man 'Itza Retiva de'Sachar Maya' means - that to remember which
is which, we should bear in mind that it is a wet 'Itza'-plant that one uses
to dam the water (similarly, it is the wet pennyroyal that one uses to stop
diarrhea.
(c) The cure for a swollen spleen is seven leeches. One ...
1. ... prepares them - by drying them in the shade.
2. ... takes them - two or three a day together with wine (either this
illness is life-threatening or he only frinks the wine in which the leeches
have been placed, but not eat the leeches themselves).
(d) Alternatively, one takes the spleen of a she-goat that has not given
birth. one ...
1. ... dries it in the oven (assuming that he has one), and stands in front
of it, whilst reciting the incantation.
2. ... dries it between the rows of bricks of his house (assuming that he
does not have an oven).
3. ... says - 'Just as this spleen dried up, so should mine' whilst doing
it.
4. ... finds the corpse of the person who died on Shabbos (which he uses as
an alternative cure, if, for some reason, even that is not possible). Then -
he places the dead man's hand on his spleen, and says 'Just as this hand
contracted, so too, should my spleen.
5. ... takes the fish that he uses as another alternative - and fries it in
the water that is lying in front of a blacksmith.
6. ... might also open a fresh barrel of wine (as a final alternative to
cure his swollen spleen) - especially for the purpose of healing his swollen
spleen (meaning that he should constantly drink lots of good wine).
13)
(a) When they Shechted that goat that used to drink the water from in front
of the blacksmith - they discovered that it had disintegrated.
(b) Rav Acha B'rei de'Rava told Rav Ashi that, if he had a barrel of wine -
he would not need to come to him for any cure for any sickness (because
wine, together with bread for breakfast, is the best cure for all ailments).
(c) The cure for piles is Akukya and aloe-plant, raw silver, litharge (a
by-product of silver, which brings-up steam when it is poured), a little bag
of silver or gold (that women wear round their necks) containing Pilon-spice
and the manure of doves or of chickens. All of these - he wraps ...
1. ... in the summer - in worn-out linen cloths.
2. ... in the winter - in worn-out woolen cloths.
(d) Failing that, he drinks weak beer.
14)
(a) The cure for Shigruna (an ailment of the thigh) is a container full of
fish-juice - which he waves sixty times round each thigh.
(b) The cure for stones in the Gid (which prevents one from urinating)
comprises paraffin, leek-oil, and clear wine - three drops of each.
(c) The drops are placed on the tip of the Gid of a man or on the same spot
on a woman's body (should she suffer from the same illness).
15)
(a) Alternatively, one takes the handle of a leather flask, a red thread or
two lice. The red thread must have been spun by a woman who is suspected of
immorality, the daughter of a woman who is also suspected.
(b) All of these, are suspended - from the Gid of the man or the breast of
the woman.
(c) He should subsequently urinate - on to a dry bush.
(d) He should take care to retain the stone when it emerges - because it is
the ideal cure for all forms of fever.
16)
(a) The cure for an external fever is three Sa'ah (= four hundred and thirty
two egg-volumes) of date-stones and three Sa'ah of leaves of an Adra tree -
which he boils separately, whilst he sits between the two pots.
(b) After placing the two lots into two bowls - he puts them on a table, and
standing in one of them, he jumps from one to the other, until he is
perspiring profusely, after which, he bathes in each of them.
(c) After bathing in the two bowls, he ...
1. ... drinks from the water in which the Adra-leaves were boiled - because
it is healthy to drink a little of the water in which one has bathed.
2. ... does not drink from the water in which the date-stones were boiled -
because it will make him barren.
17)
(a) The cure for an internal fever is seven spinach leaves from seven
different rows of spinach which should be cooked in their dust, and which
one eats together with leaves from an Adar tree - which are taken with beer.
(b) The alternative is to eat grapes from a vine which is supported - by a
date-palm.
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