Hyssop for Healing
Aramaic
R. Joseph said: The hyssop [mentioned in the Bible] is ’avrata bar hamag; the Greek hyssop [mentioned in the Mishnah] is ’avrata bar hyng. [By contrast,] Ulla said: It is white marva’.
Ulla visited the house of R. Samuel bar Judah. They brought white marva’ before him. He said: This is the hyssop that is mentioned in the Torah.
R. Pappi said: [Biblical hyssop is] shumshuk.
R. Jeremiah from Difti said: The opinion of R. Pappi is compelling, since it has been taught in a mishnah: The rule for hyssop [required for a ritual in the Torah]—three stems [of the plant] and in [the stems] are three calyxes. And shumshuk is [a plant] to be found like that. What is it eaten for? For [treating] kukya’ne [worms].1 With what is it eaten? With seven black dates. What does [the condition] come from? From barley flour which has passed more than forty days.
Notes
[These specific worms are also mentioned in connection with barley flour in b. Berakhot 36a.—Trans.]
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
