Talmud - Gittin 69b גיטין ס״ט ב׳

and let him drip it on three stalks of cabbage and stir it with a sprig from a marjoram bush. And when the sprig of marjoram is boiled all of it will be boiled. And if he is not able to do that, let him take the feces of a white dog and let him mix it with balm. And as much as possible let him not eat the feces because it causes the separation of the limbs.

With regard to a remedy for a stinging pain [gira], let him bring a stone called an arrow of Lilith, and let him turn it upside down. And let him pour water on it and drink it. And if he is not able to do that, let him bring water from which a dog drank at night, and let him be careful about leaving the water uncovered at night, in case a snake drank from it and left its venom in the water. A remedy for drinking uncovered water is to drink a quarter-log [anpaka] of undiluted wine.

As a remedy for a pus-filled wound, one should drink a quarter-log of wine steeped in red ice plant.

As a remedy for palpitations of the heart, i.e., if his heart is beating too fast, let him bring three loaves of barley, and soak them in kamka from which forty days have not yet passed since being made. And let him eat the loaves and drink diluted wine after consuming them. Rav Aḥa of Difti said to Ravina: All the more so his heart will palpitate from these foods. Ravina said to him: You misheard what I had said; I said this as a remedy for heaviness of the heart.

As a remedy for palpitations of the heart, let him bring three loaves of wheat, soak them in honey, and eat them. And let him drink undiluted wine after them.

As a remedy for heart pain, let him bring three egg-bulks of mint, and an egg-bulk of cumin, and an egg-bulk of sesame seeds, and let him eat them together.

As a remedy for pain of the intestines, let him bring three hundred long peppers, and every day let him drink one hundred of them with wine. It is told: Ravin of the city of Neresh prepared one hundred and fifty of our, i.e., Babylonian, peppers for the daughter of Rav Ashi, who had this illness, and she was healed.

As a remedy for roundworm, he should drink a quarter-log of wine steeped in laurel leaves. As a remedy for white worm, let him bring cress and tie it with a piece of woven cloth. And let him soak it in water and drink it. And let him be careful with the seed, as if he is not careful enough there is a danger that it will grow inside him and puncture his intestines.

The remedy to bind the bowels, i.e., to cure diarrhea, is to consume the chamomile [sisin] plant when it is wet with water. And the remedy to relax the bowels and relieve constipation is to drink dry chamomile soaked in water, which acts as a laxative. And your mnemonic so as not to confuse these remedies is as follows: Wet grass [itza] that is used to dam rivers, and through this he will remember that moist chamomile is used to stop diarrhea.

As a remedy for illness of the spleen, let him bring seven leeches, dry them in the shade, and every day drink two or three of them with wine. And if he is not able to do this, let him bring the spleen of a female goat that has not given birth, and place it in the oven, and stand across from it, and let him say: Just as this spleen is dried, so shall the spleen of so-and-so, son of so-and-so, be dried.

And if he is not able to do this, let him place the goat spleen between the bricks of a new house, and let him say this same statement. And if not, let him search for someone who died on Shabbat and let him take the hand of the deceased, and let him place it on his spleen and say: Just as the hand of so-and-so was dried, so too, the spleen of so-and-so, the son of so-and-so, should be dried.

And if he is not able to do this, let him take a fish and roast it in the house of a blacksmith. And let him eat it with the water from the blacksmith’s house in which the red-hot metal is cooled. And let him drink water from the blacksmith’s house. The Gemara brings corroborative evidence to this remedy: A certain goat drank water from the blacksmith’s house, and when it was slaughtered there was no spleen found inside it.

And if he is not able to do this, let him open a barrel of wine for his sake, i.e., let him drink a large amount of wine. Rav Aḥa, son of Rava, said to Rav Ashi: If he has a barrel of wine he will not come before my Master for a remedy, as the wine will already have healed him. Rather, what should he do to maintain his health? Let him become accustomed to eat bread in the morning, because it benefits his entire body.

As a remedy for hemorrhoids, let him bring acacia [akika], and aloe [ilava], and mercury, and silver dross, and a bundle [ḥumreta] of fragrant herbs [defilon], and feces of pigeons [ḥamimta]. And let him take it in linen bags in the summer, or cotton bags in the winter, and place them on the afflicted area. And if he is not able to do that, let him drink diluted beer.

For rheumatism [shigrona], let him bring a vessel full of brine from small fish [moninei] and roll it sixty times on this thigh and sixty times on that thigh.

As a remedy for a bladder stone [litzmireta], let him bring three drops of tar oil, which is oil that emerges from burning wood, three drops from the squeezing [itzra] of leeks, and three drops of clean wine, and place this mixture, for a man on the penis, and for a woman on that place, i.e., her genital area.

And if he is not able to do this, let him bring the ear, i.e., handle, of a wine sac and suspend it, for a man from his penis, and for a woman from her breasts. And if he is not able to do this, let him bring a crimson string spun by a woman suspected of prostitution who is also the daughter of a suspected woman, and let him suspend it, for a man from his penis and for a woman from her breasts.

And if not, let him bring a louse from a male and a louse from a female, and suspend it, for a man from his penis, and for a woman on that place, i.e., her genital area. And when he urinates let him urinate on a dry branch [sisna] by the door pivot. And let him examine the bladder stone that comes out of him with the urine, as it is effective as a remedy for any illness accompanied by a fever [tzimra] if he grinds it and uses it.

As a remedy for an external fever, let him bring three se’a of date pits [suflei], and three se’a [gerivei] of leaves of an eder tree. Let him cook each one individually and sit between them. And let him place them in two basins, and bring a table and place it over him. And let him stand up from over this basin and sit over this basin, and then let him stand up from over this basin and sit over this basin, until the heat rises on him and he becomes very hot. And let him wash from the water of both basins, and when he drinks, let him drink from the basin containing the eder water. But do not let him drink from the basin containing the date water, because it causes infertility.

As a remedy for an internal fever, let him bring seven handfuls of beet leaves from seven furrows. And let him cook them with their dirt and eat them. And let him drink from eder leaves mixed with beer or

Traduction : The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

Gittin 69b details ancient folk remedies for stinging pain, heart palpitations, and intestinal ailments from the Talmudic medical tradition.