- Incident regarding healing a snake bite
The Gemara on 109b taught that one bitten by a snake should obtain an embryo of a white donkey, tear it open and place it on the bite. This works provided that the donkey was not a tereifah.
On this daf, an incident is brought of a Jewish officer of the king that was bitten by a snake, and thirteen white donkeys were brought to heal him, but they were all found to be tereifos. There was a fourteenth donkey that they found, and while they were bringing it to him it was eaten by a lion. Abaye suggested that perhaps a “snake of the Rabbis bit him”, for which there is no cure, as it says in the passuk, ופורץ גדר ישכנו נחש – and he who breaches the fence (of the words of the Sages) will be bitten by a snake. Meaning, that maybe he transgressed something that the Sages said, and due to that he did not merit to find a cure .
Abaye was told that in fact this officer violated Rav Yitchak bar Bisna’s decree which forbade, for one year after the death of Rav, bringing myrtle branches and palm branches together with bells, to weddings, which bring joy to the choson and kallah.
- How to flee from a snake
The Gemara presents several solutions to situations when a man or woman is threatened by a snake. If one, for example, is being pursued by a snake, one should run in sand.
Rashi explains that snakes cannot move swiftly in sand and therefore it will eventually turn back.
- Curing jaundice with an elixir that causes sterility
After bringing numerous remedies for a zavah, the Gemara lists several cures for one suffering from jaundice (ירקון). It questions the validity of a certain elixir for jaundice since it will result in sterility and the Torah explicitly forbids castration. The Gemara answers that the prohibition only applies when one intends to damage the reproductive organs directly. In drinking the elixir, the sterilization occurs indirectly.
To support this assertion, the Gemara brings a teaching from Rebbe Yochanan that one who wants to castrate a rooster should remove its crest, and it becomes castrated on its own accord.
The Gemara deflects this proof based on Rav Ashi, who taught that a rooster’s pride is its crest. Rashi explains that when the crest is removed, the rooster mourns its loss and refrains from copulation, but is not actually castrated.
