Gittin 70a

גיטין ע׳ ע״א

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Topic

Medical advice in the גמרא: remedies, causes of illness, healthy eating, marital relations, and lists of things that weaken or harm the body

Overview

This amud of גיטין continues a long run of medical advice and folk remedies. It finishes one remedy, gives a cure for the skin disease חזזיתא, and describes two deadly injuries where treatment can only buy the person time to instruct his household. Next comes the illness אחילו: what causes it (even overeating dates), what it is (a 'fire of the bones'), and a detailed treatment routine from אביי's mother. The גמרא then gives general health advice: אליהו's rule to eat a third, drink a third and leave a third empty, רבי חייא's tips for digestion, and warnings about cheap white wine and other causes of weakness. A section follows on times and ways of marital relations that can harm the children or the man himself, with a remedy for דלריא and a strengthening drink that רבי יוחנן praises. The amud ends with numbered lists: things that weaken a person, things that harm the body, things that bring a person close to death or kill him, things good only in small amounts, and things that reduce fertility. It closes as רב פפא begins a statement that continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (47)

1. StatementFinishing the previous remedy: palm-trellised grapes in water
2. StatementA remedy for the skin disease חזזיתא
3. ProofA story showing the wheat-oil remedy works
4. Statementשמואל: keeping a man wounded by Persian spears alive a little longer
5. Statementרב אידי בר אבין: someone who swallowed a hornet
6. StatementWhat brings on the illness אחילו
7. StatementOvereating also brings on אחילו
8. StatementEven overeating dates
9. ChallengeIsn't that obvious?
10. ResolutionDates are healthy, but not in excess
11. QuestionWhat is אחילו?
12. ResponseA fire of the bones
13. QuestionWhat is a fire of the bones?
14. ResponseThe common name: אש גרמי
15. QuestionWhat is the cure?
16. ResponseDrink the medicine until healed
17. ResponseThe medicine for אחילו is taken after a meal
18. ResponseSleeping wrapped in a sheet after the medicine
19. Statementאליהו's advice: eat a third, drink a third, leave a third
20. Statementרבי חייא's three tips for healthy digestion
21. Statementמר עוקבא: cheap white wine causes weakness
22. Statementרב חסדא: the best and worst of sixty wines
23. StatementFire, oil and sun in the mornings of Nisan cause weakness
24. StatementMarital relations after bloodletting harm the children
25. Statementרב פפא limits the warning: eating something removes the danger
26. StatementMarital relations right after a journey lead to weak children
27. StatementWait after using the bathroom before marital relations
28. StatementCertain positions during marital relations harm the man
29. QuestionWhat is the illness דלריא?
30. ResponseThe remedy for דלריא is דרדרא
31. QuestionWhat is דרדרא?
32. Responseדרדרא is saffron of thorns
33. StatementHow רב פפא and רב פפי took the remedy
34. Statementאביי's drink for weakness in relations
35. Statementרבי יוחנן: these restored my youth
36. StatementThree things weaken a person
37. ProofVerses proving each of the three
38. StatementThree things done standing harm the body
39. StatementFive actions that bring a person closer to death
40. StatementSix actions that kill a person immediately
41. Statementרבי יוחנן: only when done in this order
42. Statementאביי: in order means death, out of order means weakness
43. ChallengeChallenge from מעורת's slave who died from three actions
44. ResolutionAnswer: that slave was already weak
45. StatementEight things that are harmful in large amounts and good in small amounts
46. StatementEight things that decrease fertility
47. StatementBloodletting above is twice as beneficial