Gemara Clarity

Gittin 69a

גיטין ס״ט ע״א

Learn Gittin 69a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Gittin 69a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Folk remedies in the גמרא: eyes, nosebleeds, blood from the mouth, teeth, gums and ברסם

Overview

This amud continues the גמרא's long list of folk remedies. Each one names an illness and then gives the steps to treat it. It starts with cures for eye disease, night blindness and day blindness, several of them rituals with spoken words. Next comes a long chain of backup cures for a nosebleed, each introduced by וְאִי לָא ('and if not'). For blood from the mouth, the גמרא gives a straw test: lung bleeding can be treated, liver bleeding cannot. רב אמי challenges this from a משנה about טריפות, and רב אשי answers that liver blood from the mouth means the liver has dissolved. The גמרא then gives the cure for lung bleeding, a garlic cure for toothache, and a three-stage treatment for gum sores. The amud ends with a remedy for ברסם, a chest illness, whose backup recipe continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

לִבְרוּקְתִּי –

For eye disease,

לַיְתֵי עַקְרַבָּא דְּשַׁב חוּמְרֵי,

let him bring a scorpion of seven colors,

וּנְיַיבְּשֵׁיהּ בְּטוּלָּא;

and dry it in the shade;

וְנִישְׁחוֹק תַּרְתֵּי מְנָתָא כּוּחְלָא,

and grind two portions of eye paint

The steps (21)

  1. StatementA scorpion eye paint for eye disease
  2. StatementNight blindness: the dog, the children, and the seven pieces of meat
  3. StatementFinishing the night-blindness ritual: untying the rope and the words to say
  4. StatementDay blindness: roasted spleens and the 'blind man / seeing man' exchange
  5. StatementNosebleed: writing a name backward
  6. StatementA second written formula for a nosebleed
  7. StatementWool wicks dipped in vinegar and special ash
  8. StatementWool wicks dipped in clay from an east-to-west stream
  9. StatementSitting under a gutter while water is poured
  10. StatementTesting blood from the mouth with a wheat straw
  11. ChallengeA משנה seems to say the opposite about lung and liver
  12. ResolutionBlood from the mouth means the liver has dissolved
  13. QuestionWhat is the remedy for lung bleeding?
  14. ResponseThe cooked remedy for lung bleeding
  15. StatementA garlic cure for toothache
  16. StatementChamomile to calm gum disease
  17. StatementA cure to bring gum sores to a head
  18. StatementHow to open the gum sores
  19. StatementHow to heal the gum sores
  20. StatementA boiled remedy for a chest illness
  21. StatementA backup remedy with white goat's milk