Gittin Daf 69 - Refuos
Summary
- This shiur on Gittin 68b presents a long series of traditional Talmudic remedies for diverse ailments, framed by the categories of conventional medicine, *segula*, and *lachash*, and emphasizes, following Rabbeinu Avraham ben haRambam, that one must use contemporary medicine today. It interweaves halachic and lomdus notes from Rishonim and Acharonim on issues such as mum kavua, mayim megulim, issurei hana’ah from a corpse, leeches as issurei achilah, and tumat met for a Kohen, while recording the Gemara’s practical regimens and incantations. It records sponsor dedications, notes about extra learning due to the nature of the material, and a reported view of Rav Schechter regarding a siyum in the Nine Days, and concludes with the value of good wine and a strong breakfast.
- The shiur states that today’s daf is Gittin 68b and is dedicated by Dr. David Lander and by Chani and JJ Hornblass and family in memory of their relatives. The shiur states that for the next forty minutes some hold one is not yotzei the mitzvah of Talmud Torah and recommends extra learning afterward, and records that Rav Schechter holds one may make a siyum and eat meat during the Nine Days if one skips this daf, though not all agree. The shiur states that it will present only *refuot* for various illnesses.
- The shiur states that there are three types of *refuot* in Shas: conventional medicine, *segula* (without a naturalistic explanation), and *lachash* (incantation). The shiur states that most material here is conventional and that Chazal used the best medicine of their time. Rabbeinu Avraham ben haRambam states that one who relies on Talmudic *refuot* today has “damo b’rosho,” and that we must use up‑to‑date medicine as Chazal did in their time.
- The shiur states that for a severe head-blood condition one boils specific woods and herbs and pours 300 cups on each side of the head, or alternatively slow-cooks a one-sided white rose and applies 60 cups per side. The shiur states that for a half-head headache one slaughters a wild bird (דוכיפת) with a silver coin so the blood flows on the painful side, avoids the eyes, and hangs the bird on the doorway to brush against when entering and exiting.
- The shiur states that for ברוקתא one dries a seven-colored scorpion in the shade, grinds two parts of kohl with one part of scorpion, and applies three strokes to each eye but no more lest the eye dislodge. Tosafot states that although Bechorot 38 counts this as a מום קבוע, a difficult or non-spontaneously healing remedy can still be a מום קבוע, and that these *refuot* help only early; the Rashash states that the Gemara’s remedies refer to people while the mum status concerns animals.
- The shiur states that for night blindness one ties a rope of horse and cow tail hair from his leg to a dog, has children bang pottery, and they say “אסא כלבא אחסא תרנגולא,” then collects seven meats from seven homes, places them at door pivots, eats them by city dumpsters, unties the rope, and declares that the condition leave so‑and‑so and transfer to the dog’s eye.
- The shiur states that for day blindness one roasts seven animal spleens on a bloodletter’s shard, the blind person sits inside and a sighted person outside, they perform a call‑and‑response (“אעבירא הב לי... היך פתיחא... סב אכול”), and after eating they break the earthenware so the blindness does not return.
- The shiur states that for nosebleeds one finds a כהן named לוי and writes “לוי” backwards, or writes “אנה פפי שילא בר סומקי” backwards, or writes “תמדי בי מי כסף תמדי בי מי פגם.” The shiur states alternative regimens involving burning herbs with saffron and lulav-red, vinegar-soaked wool wicks dusted with ash, or straddling an east–west water channel to collect mud from under each foot with the opposite hand and inserting mudded wicks in the nostrils. The shiur states that one may also sit under a waterspout while reciting “כי היכי דפסקי הני מיא ליפסוק דמיה דפלניא בר פלניתא.”
- The shiur states that blood tested with a wheat straw that adheres indicates the lungs and is curable, while non-adherence indicates the liver and is incurable. Rav Ami cites a difficulty from treifot in Chullin that the liver requires total removal while a lung is treif even with a small puncture, and Rav Ashi answers that because the blood emerges from the mouth, liver-origin bleeding indicates complete disintegration of the liver. The shiur states that for lung-origin bleeding one cooks beets, leeks, פרידא, lentils, cumin, greens with equivalent innards fat of a firstborn and then drinks sharp beer.
- The shiur states that for tooth pain one grinds a single clove of garlic with oil and salt and applies it to the thumbnail of the hurting side, with a dough barrier to shield the skin. Rabbi Yochanan states that leaves and the root of חומסי, superior to ממרו, are placed by the mouth for tonsillitis. The shiur states that to draw moisture into a boil one uses sieve-top flour dust, lentil dirt, תילתן, and hop blossom placed in the mouth the size of a walnut; to open abscesses a friend blows white cress into the throat through a reed; to restore flesh one eats dirt from the shade of בית הכסא stones mixed with honey.
- The shiur states that for ברסם one cooks together כיפיסתקא, נישתר, sweet חלבנה, white honey, and a quarter-measure of clear wine until the נישתר is cooked. The shiur states an alternative of white goat milk dripped on three cabbage stalks and cooked with a מרמחן stick until the stick itself is cooked, and a last resort of white dog excrement mixed with spice, though it is best to avoid it because it causes limb deterioration.
- The shiur states that for a certain heart problem one pours water over an arrow-shaped stone and drinks it, or uses water a dog drank from at night while avoiding exposed liquids due to גילוי. Shulchan Aruch YD 116 rules that revealed beverages were forbidden due to snake venom but are permitted nowadays, while the Shelah and the Gra urge continued caution. The shiur states that for poisoning by גילוי one drinks a quarter of undiluted wine, for a boil one drinks mixed wine with אהלות, and for a heavy heart one eats three barley loaves soaked in fresh kutach followed by diluted wine, while for a fluttering heart one eats three wheat loaves soaked in honey followed by undiluted wine; for heart ache one eats measured amounts of ניניא, cumin, and sesame.
- The shiur states that for stomach pain one drinks daily wine infused with one hundred of three hundred long peppercorns, and records that Ravin of Neresh cured Rav Ashi’s daughter with one hundred fifty local ones. The shiur states that for worms one drinks a quarter of wine with willow leaf, for white worms one soaks גילגילא seed in cotton and drinks the water without swallowing the seed lest it perforate the stomach, for diarrhea one eats wet סיסין with water, and for laxative effect one eats dry סיסין.
- The shiur states that consuming water leeches is an issur de’oraita but is patur from lashes when done shelo k’derech achilah. The Rambam rules patur aval asur min haTorah, while the Mishneh LaMelech holds that shelo k’derech hana’ato is only derabanan and thus permitted for a choleh she’ein bo sakana; the shiur applies this leniency to the medical context.
- The shiur states that for spleen swelling one roasts the spleen of a goat that never gave birth and recites “כי היכי דייבש האי טחלא ניבש טחלא דפלני בר פלוניתא,” or dries it in a new wall with the same declaration, or places the hand of a corpse on the spleen and recites “כי היכי דייבש האי ידא ניבש טחליה דפלני בר פלוניתא.” The shiur raises the problem of מת אסור בהנאה and cites Ba’er Moshe that this is not derech hana’ato, and quotes an Eshel Avraham who limits it to a non‑Jewish corpse though the Rashba and Mishneh LaMelech dispute that; regarding a Kohen, the Chasam Sofer is machri’a that if he is already tamei that day one may combine shittot to permit. The shiur states an alternative of roasting a fish on a blacksmith’s coals, soaking it in the blacksmith’s quench water, and drinking that water, and reports a goat that drank such water and was later found without a spleen. The shiur states another alternative of opening a wine barrel and drinking generous good wine, and concludes with the maxim that a rich man with good wine needs no doctor, and that a good breakfast benefits the whole body, as Bava Metzia teaches regarding “פת שחרית.”
- The shiur states that for רושחתא one employs refined mining byproducts, a small philon vial, and dove droppings wrapped in worn flax in summer or wool in winter, or drinks diluted beer. The shiur states that for שגרונא one uses small‑fish brine and rolls sixty times over the stomach and limbs.
- The shiur states that for צמירתא one applies a mixture of drops of *itra* of pitch, leek extract, and clear wine to the organ (for a man on the *amah*, for a woman in otah makom), or hangs a flask handle on the organ or on the breasts, or hangs a red string spun by a “זונה בת זונה” likewise. The shiur states another option to hang lice taken from a man and from a woman, to urinate on a dry thornbush at the door pivot, and to keep the expelled stone because it is therapeutic for many fevers.
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