Permitted Food

Aramaic

[One may eat any kind of food as medicine, and drink any beverage, etc.]

Any kind of food—what does it serve to include? It serves to include spleen for the teeth and leeks [karshinin] for the intestines.

Any beverage—what does it serve to include? It serves to include caper juice [tselafin] in vinegar.

Ravina said to Rava: May one drink urine on the Sabbath? [Rava] answered: We have learned [in a mishnah] one may drink any beverage. But people [usually] do not drink urine. [ . . . ]

Except for mei deqalim [sap of palm trees].

It was taught [in the Tosefta]: Except for mei deqarim. The one who states mei deqarim [means] that it pierces the gall bladder. And the one who says mei deqalim [means] that it issues from [between] two palm trees.

What is “sap of palm trees”? Rabbah bar Beruna said: There are two date palms in the west, and a spring of water goes out from between them. The first cup—it loosens [the bowels]. The next one—it causes diarrhea. And the next one—it comes out as it has entered.

Ulla said: I myself drank Babylonian beer, and it was better [than mei deqalim]—but only if one had not become used to it over forty days.

R. Joseph said: [The mei deqalim/mei deqarim, this is] Egyptian beer: one third barley, one third qurtemei [possibly, saffron or safflower], and one third salt. R. Papa said: one third wheat, one third qurtemei, and one third salt. And your mnemonic is: sisanei.¹ And one drinks it between Passover and Shavuot. When [one’s bowels are] constricted, it loosens, and when [one has] loose [bowels], it constricts them.