Talmud - Gittin 70a גיטין ע׳ א׳

grapes grown by trellising the vine on a palm tree soaked in water.

As a remedy for lichen planus [ḥazazita] on one’s skin, let him bring seven large wheat kernels [arzanayata] and let him roast them over a fire on the blade of a new hoe. And let him extract oil from the wheat and rub it into his skin. It is told: Rav Shimi bar Ashi used this remedy for a certain gentile who had something else, i.e., leprosy, and he was healed.

Shmuel said: One who is struck with Persian spears [alunkei] will not live long afterward, as he will certainly die from this wound. In the meantime, they should force-feed him fatty meat that was roasted over coals, and undiluted wine. If they do this, it is possible that he will live for a little bit longer and have time to instruct his household with regard to what they should do after his death.

Similarly, Rav Idi bar Avin said: One who swallowed a hornet will not live. In the meantime they should give him a quarter-log of sharp [shamzag] vinegar to drink. If they do this, it is possible that he will live for a little bit longer and have time to instruct his household with regard to what they should do after his death.

§ Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says: If one ate ox meat with a turnip, and slept by the light of the moon on the night of the fourteenth or the fifteenth of the month in the season of Tammuz, i.e., summer, he will be afflicted with aḥilu, a severe fever.

A Sage taught: And one who fills his stomach with anything, meaning that he eats too much, will be afflicted with aḥilu. Rav Pappa said: Even if he fills his stomach with dates. The Gemara asks: Isn’t this obvious, as Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi explicitly mentioned if one fills his stomach with anything. The Gemara answers: It might enter your mind to say that since the Master said the following in praise of dates: Dates satisfy the body, warm it up, act as a laxative, strengthen the body, and do not spoil it, one might say that as dates are beneficial, he would not be harmed by eating too many. Nevertheless, it teaches us that they can also cause harm when eaten in excess.

The Gemara asks: What is the affliction aḥilu mentioned here? Rabbi Elazar says: A fire of the bones. The Gemara asks: What is a fire of the bones? Abaye said: This is what is called esh garmei in Aramaic.

What is its remedy? Abaye said: My mother told me that any drink consumed for medicinal purposes should be taken for either three or seven or twelve days, depending on what is necessary for that specific ailment. And if this is taken to treat aḥilu then he must drink it until he is healed.

Any drink consumed for medicinal purposes should be consumed with an empty heart, i.e., without eating first. And for this disease of aḥilu he consumes the medicine after he eats and drinks and enters the bathroom, and exits and washes his hands, and they bring him a fistful of shetita, a type of food made from lentils, and a fistful of aged wine. And let him mix them together and let him eat this mixture. And let him wrap himself with his sheet and sleep. And let there be no one who will awaken him until he awakens on his own. And when he awakens let him remove the sheet from himself. And if he does not do this then the illness will return to him.

§ Elijah the prophet said to Rabbi Natan: Eat a third of your fill, and drink a third of your fill, and leave a third of your fill, so that when you become angry you will become full. If you do this, there will be room, as it were, for the anger. If you become angry when your stomach is full you will be harmed.

Rabbi Ḥiyya teaches: One who does not want to come to a situation whereby he contracts intestinal disease should become accustomed to dipping his food in wine or vinegar, both in the summer and in the winter. He also teaches: You should remove your hand, i.e., stop eating, from a meal that you enjoy so that you do not overeat. And do not delay yourself at the time when it is necessary to relieve yourself.

Mar Ukva said: This one who drinks inferior white wine [tilya] will be afflicted with weakness [vitak]. Rav Ḥisda said: There are sixty types of wine. The best of them all is red, fragrant wine. The worst of them all is inferior white wine.

Rav Yehuda said: This one who sits near the fire during the mornings in the month of Nisan and rubs himself with oil and then goes out and sits in the sun will be afflicted with weakness.

The Sages taught: One who let blood and afterward engaged in sexual intercourse has weak children conceived from those acts of intercourse. If both of them, husband and wife, let blood and engaged in sexual intercourse they will have children afflicted with a disease known as ra’atan. Rav Pappa said: We said this only if he did not taste anything after letting blood. But if he tasted something then we have no problem with it.

Rabba bar Rav Huna says: One who came back from traveling on the road and engaged in sexual intercourse immediately has weak children conceived from those acts of intercourse. The Sages taught: With regard to one who comes in from the bathroom, he should not engage in sexual intercourse until he waits the measure of time it takes to walk half a mil because the demon of the bathroom accompanies him. And if he engaged in sexual intercourse without waiting this measure of time, he has children who are epileptic.

The Sages taught: One who engages in sexual intercourse while standing will be afflicted by spasms. One who engages in sexual intercourse while sitting will be afflicted with dalarya. If she, the woman, is above and he, the husband, is below during sexual intercourse, then he will be afflicted with dalarya.

The Gemara asks: What is dalarya? Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: The remedy for dalarya is dardara. The Gemara asks: What is dardara? Abaye said: Saffron of thorns. Rav Pappa would chew [aleis] and swallow this remedy. Rav Pappi would chew and spit it out.

Abaye says: As a remedy for one who is not an expert, i.e., does not have strength, in the way of the world, i.e., in sexual intercourse, let him bring three vessels [kefizei], each containing three-quarters of a log of safflower thorns. And let him grind them, and boil them in wine, and drink the mixture. Rabbi Yoḥanan says: These are the remedies that return me to my youth with regard to sexual intercourse.

§ Three things diminish a person’s strength, and they are: Fear, traveling on the road, and sin. The Gemara explains: Fear, as it is written: “My heart flutters, my strength fails me” (Psalms 38:11). Traveling on the road, as it is written: “He has weakened my strength on the road” (Psalms 102:24). Sin, as it is written: “My strength fails because of my sin” (Psalms 31:11).

Three things break a person’s body, and they are: If he ate while standing, if he drank while standing, and if he engaged in sexual intercourse while standing.

There are five actions that bring one closer to death than to life, and they are: If he ate and stood up immediately, if he drank and stood up immediately, if he let blood and stood up immediately, if he slept and stood up immediately, and if he engaged in sexual intercourse and stood up immediately.

With regard to one who performs the following acts, if he performs the six of them consecutively he dies immediately, and they are: If one came back from a journey on the road and was exhausted, let blood, and entered the bathhouse, and drank and became intoxicated, and slept on the ground, and engaged in sexual intercourse, then he will die. Rabbi Yoḥanan says: But he will die for certain only in the case where he performs them in this order.

Abaye said: If he performs these actions in this order he will die. But if he performs them out of order he will become weak. The Gemara asks: Is that so? But didn’t a woman named Me’oret make her slave perform three of these actions and he died as a result? The Gemara answers: That slave was weak, which is why he died. But an ordinary individual would die only upon performing all of these acts in the previously mentioned order.

Eight actions are difficult for the body and the soul to handle in large amounts and are beneficial in small amounts, and they are: Traveling on the road, engaging in the way of the world, i.e., engaging in sexual intercourse, having wealth, work, drinking wine, sleep, hot water, and bloodletting.

Eight actions or illnesses decrease the semen, and they are: Salt, hunger, a skin disease called netek, crying, sleeping on the ground, the melilot plant, and dodder eaten not in its time, i.e., before it is ripe. And bloodletting performed below, on the lower portion of the body, causes twice as much harm as the other actions mentioned.

The Sage taught: Just as bloodletting below causes twice as much harm, so too, bloodletting above, on the upper portion of the body, is twice as effective. Rav Pappa said:

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

Gittin 70a details Talmudic folk remedies for skin ailments and dangerous wounds, plus warnings about fevers caused by overeating certain foods.