The Medical Handbook
Aramaic
For a [sick] spleen: let one take seaweed [lit., lying (on the water); reading uncertain] and let one dry it in the shade, and let him [the patient] drink it two or three times per day in wine.
If not, let one take the spleen of a virgin kid and smear it on an oven, and let him [the healer] stand near it, and let him say, “Just as this one spleen is dried up, may that spleen of So-and-so1 dry up.”
And if not, let one smear it [the goat spleen] between the brick layers of a new house, and let him say accordingly [as in the previous recipe].
If not, let one search for a corpse of one who expired on the Sabbath, and let him take his hand and put it on his [the corpse’s] spleen and say, “Just like this hand dried up, may the spleen of So-and-so dry up.”
And if not, let one take fish roe and roast it in a forge and let him [the patient] eat it in water of a forge and let him drink from the water of a forge. As for a certain goat that was drinking from the water of a forge, when slaughtered, its spleen was not found.
And if not, let one open a vessel of wine for this purpose. R. Aḥa son of Rava spoke to R. Ashi: If one has a vessel of wine, he does not have to come before a master [i.e., an authority]. But he should be accustomed to morning bread, which is beneficial for the entire body.
Notes
[The generic names are specifically matronymic in the original text.—Trans.]
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
