Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Dangerous "health remedies" from the Talmud



The Talmud is very complicated, not every statement is a law, sometimes it is a commentary or the opinion of a certain Rabbi, sometimes a stipulation or refutation, however the quotes below should give you a good idea about Talmudic reasoning on certain issues.

The Jewish sages who wrote the Talmud carried several superstitious and even dangerous ideas about human health.  Many of their health remedies include inserting animal excrement into one’s rectum, ingesting dust from outside public toilets, and even engaging in strange rituals such as tying lice to other men’s penises and obtaining threads from prostitutes.

FOR SUN STOKE, PLACE A PLUCKED CHICKEN ON YOUR HEAD UNTIL IT STICKS THERE

Abaye said: My mother told me that for a sun-stroke [fever] the remedy is on the first day to take a jug of water, [if it lasts] two days to let blood, [if] three days to take red meat broiled on the coals and highly diluted wine. For a chronic heat stroke, he should bring a black hen and tear it lengthwise and crosswise and shave the middle of his head and put the bird on it and leave it there till it sticks fast, and then he should go down [to the river] and stand in water up to his neck till he is quite faint, and then he should swim out and sit down.(Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 67b)

TO CLOSE THE FLESH OF A WOUND, MIX DUST FROM THE SHADOW OF A PUBLIC TOILET WITH HONEY AND EAT IT

To make the flesh close he should bring dust from the shadow of a privy and knead it with honey and eat. (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 69a)

FOR ANAL WORMS, INSERT DOVE EXCREMENT INTO THE RECTUM

For anal worms he should take acacia and aloe juice and white-lead and silver dross12  and an amulet-full of phyllon13  and the excrement of doves and tie it all up in linen rags in the summer or in cotton rags in the winter. (Bablyonian Talmud, Gittin 69b)

TO ELIMINATE BLADDER STONES, POOR A CONCOCTION OF LEEK JUICE, TAR AND WINE ON A MAN’S PENIS OR A WOMEN’S CLITORIS…   OR HANG THE EAR OF A BOTTLE ON A MAN’S PENIS OR A WOMEN’S BREASTS…  OR TAKE A PURPLE THREAD WOVEN BY A PROSTITUTE AND HANG IT ON A MAN’S PENIS OR WOMEN’S BREAST… OR HANG A LOUSE FROM A MAN’S PENIS OR A WOMEN’S CLITORIS… KEEP THE BLADDER STONE WHEN IT PASSES BECAUSE IT IS GOOD FOR FEVERS…

For stone in the bladder let him take three drops of tar and three drops of leek juice and three drops of clear wine and pour it on the membrum (penis) of a man or on the corresponding place in a woman — Alternatively he can take the ear of a bottle and hang it on the membrum of a man or on the breasts of a woman. Or again he can take a purple thread which has been spun by a woman of ill repute or the daughter of a woman of ill repute and hang it on the membrum of a man or the breasts of a woman. Or again he can take a louse from a man and a woman and hang it on the membrum of a man and the corresponding place in a woman; and when he makes water he should do so on dry thorns near the socket of the door, and he should preserve the stone that issues, as it is good for all fevers. (Bablyonian Talmud, Gittin 69b)

GARLIC AND OIL MIXED IN DOE CAN CAUSE LEPROSY

For toothache Rabbah b. R. Huna says that he should take the top of a garlic with one stalk only and grind it with oil and salt and put it on his thumb nail on the side where the tooth aches and put a rim of dough round it, taking care that it does not touch his flesh, as it may cause leprosy. (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 69a

HAVING SEX RIGHT AFTER USING THE BATHROOM WILL GIVEN OFFSPRING EPILEPSY… HAVING SEX STANDING UP WILL GIVE ONE CONVULSIONS… HAVING SEX SITTING DOWN WILL GIVE ONE SPASMS… IF THE WIFE IS ON TOP THE MAN WILL GET DIARRHEA 

The Rabbis taught: On coming from a privy a man should not have sexual intercourse till he has waited long enough to walk half a mil, because the demon of the privy is with him for that time; if he does, his children will be epileptic. The Rabbis taught: If a man has sexual intercourse standing, he will be liable to convulsions; if sitting, to spasms;  if she is above and he below, he will be subject to delaria [diarrhoea]. What is delaria! (Bablylonian Talmud, Gittin 70a)

DOING THE FOLLOWING, BUT ONLY IN ORDER WILL KILL A PERSON (A TALE IS GIVEN OF ONE WHO MURDERED THEIR SLAVE IN THIS MANNER) 

If one does the following six things [together], he will die immediately: if he comes weary from a journey, lets blood and has a bath and drinks himself drunk and lies down to sleep on the floor and has marital intercourse. R. Johanan said: That is, if he does them in this order; Abaye said: If he does them in this order he will die; if not in this order he will fall ill. Is that so? Did not [a certain] Me’orath do three of these things to her slave and he died? — He was a weakling. (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 70a)

ADULT WOMEN WHO USE BIRTH CONTROL WILL DEFORM THEIR FETUS INTO THE SHAPE OF A FLAT-FISH AND ABORT 

R. Bebai recited before R. Nahman: Three [categories of] women may  use an absorbent9  in their marital intercourse:  A minor, a pregnant woman and a nursing woman. The minor,  because [otherwise] she might become pregnant, and as a result  might die. A pregnant woman,  because [otherwise]. she might  cause her foetus to degenerate into a sandal. [13] (Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth 12b) 

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