Saturday 20 February 2016

Gittin 69: Medical Conditions and Their Remedies

All of today's daf tells us about the remedies that heal different diagnoses.  Sometime these are relatively benign, like drinking wine mixed with water.  Often, they are frighteningly bizarre, like hanging a mixture of items from one's breasts or one's penis.

I am not going to list the remedies here, but I highly recommend taking the time to read today's daf.  To imagine our ancestors trusting such complicated, unappealing remedies is illuminating.  I think about the remedies that we use today with 'proof' of their efficacy: going to the gym and using machines to exercise, taking high doses of manufactured vitamins, even putting chemotherapy into our bodies to kill everything in their paths.  My point is not that we shouldn't take vitamins or use chemotherapy, but that one day our very best remedies will be seen as quaint, disturbing or even damaging.  Again, Talmud is teaching us that we are part of a long line of seekers; damaged people longing for relief and truth.

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