Whispering and Anointing

y. Shabbat 14:3, 14c

220–400

Hebrew

Simeon bar Ba [said] in the name of R. Ḥanina: One who “whispers” [i.e., recites an incantation] may apply oil on someone’s head and “whisper,” but only if he will not apply it with the hand or with a vessel. R. Jacob bar Idi [and] R. Yoḥanan [said] in the name of R. Yannai: One may apply [the oil] either with the hand or with a vessel.

What [difference exists] between these [two opinions]?—disgust [for the direct application]. For one who says that one may apply with the hand or with a utensil, this is disgusting. For one who says to apply it [directly] on the head, this is not disgusting. [ . . . ]

One may “whisper” [recite an incantation] for the eye, the intestines, snakes, and scorpions, and one may pass [a healing item] over the eye on the Sabbath. It happened to R. Akiva that the eye seized him, and they passed vessels over him on the Sabbath.

Translated by Markham J. Geller and Lennart Lehmhaus.

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Credits

y. Shabbat 14:3, 14c, trans. Markham J. Geller and Lennart Lehmhaus, publication forthcoming. Copyright Markham J. Geller and Lennart Lehmhaus. Used with permission of the translators.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.