Avodah Zarah 28a — the Talmud in English

And some say:

there are those who say,

Rabba bar bar Ḥana said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said

as follows:

Every ![](pamud.bmp "

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wound of the body cavity,

which is found within the body cavity,

one may not be healed by them.

But an external wound that is not within the body cavity, one may be healed by them.

The Gemara asks:

What difference is there between them,

what practical difference is there between these two formulations in Rabbi Yoḥanan’s statement, seeing that in both cases they speak of the same matter, for every wound of the body cavity one violates Shabbat on its account?

There is a difference between them

with regard to a wound that is on the

back of the hand and the back of the foot.

For Rav Adda bar Mattana said that Rav said: The back of the hand and the back of the foot are like

the law of

a wound of the body cavity, and one violates Shabbat on their account!

And the methods are divided in this matter. According to the first formulation of Rabbi Yoḥanan’s statement, one may not be healed by them, since with regard to this wound one violates Shabbat.

However, according to the second formulation of Rabbi Yoḥanan’s statement, one may be healed by them. For the entire comparison between a wound on the back of the foot or hand and a wound of the body cavity is only with regard to Shabbat; but with regard to healing by a gentile, there is no need to refrain. Since the wound is external, and if the gentile causes harm through his treatment, they will notice it immediately and administer a drug and treatment to remove the damage caused by the gentile’s negligence.

And since the laws of healing a wound on Shabbat were mentioned, the Gemara brings additional laws concerning the same matter:

Rav Zutra bar Tuvia said that Rav said: Every wound

that is severe and dangerous to the extent

that it requires an assessment

whether he will live or not—

one violates Shabbat on its account

in order to treat him.

Rav Shaman bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

And this ishta tzemirta

a condition of high fever that passes through the body

is considered like a wound of the body cavity,

and one violates Shabbat on its account.

And now the Gemara discusses:

From where,

from what place does the body cavity begin, with regard to considering

a wound

in that place as

a wound of the body cavity?

Rabbi Ami explained:

When the pain is

from the lip

[the lips]

and inward,

toward the body cavity.

Rabbi Eliezer raised a dilemma

and was uncertain:

Rabbi Eliezer:

One who feels pain in his

molars,

gums,

and teeth,

teeth,

what

is the law of this pain?

Is it

since they are hard,

the teeth and gums being hard,

they are considered like an external wound

external

[and] are considered,

and not like internal organs?

Or perhaps, since they are situated inward,

since they are found from the lip and inward,

they are considered like a wound of the body cavity?

Abיי said: Ta shma

there is a proof from what is stated in the Mishna, as we learned:

One who feels pain in his teeth

on Shabbat—

may not rinse them with vinegar,

which is a remedy for toothache. And the Sages prohibited taking medicine on Shabbat [where there is no danger], as a decree because of grinding ingredients.

And the Gemara deduces: Only when he

feels pain

in his teeth,

he,

in this case it is stated

that he may not

rinse with vinegar.

But this

however, if

it hurts him greatly,

the pain is strong,

is properly permitted

he is permitted to rinse. And it is proven that even this illness of tooth pain is one on whose account one violates Shabbat.

And the Gemara rejects this: This cannot be proven, for

perhaps the tanna, in a case where it hurts him greatly,

it is possible that even where the pain is great,

also calls him “one who feels pain.”

The tanna calls this also “one who feels pain.” And if so, there is no proof that great pain differs from mere discomfort; in both cases it is possible that it is prohibited.

And the Gemara brings another proof:

Ta shma—

Rabbi Yoḥanan suffered from tzafdina,

an illness that exists in the teeth.

He went to that noblewoman,

he went to a distinguished gentile woman, an expert in medicines,

she prepared five

she made a remedy for him to take on Thursday,

and on the eve of Shabbat

on Friday.

He said to her

Rabbi Yoḥanan: If I should require this remedy even on Shabbat,

tomorrow, what [shall I do]?

What shall I do, for I cannot come to you, since I must lecture before the students!?

She said to him

that woman:

You will not need it.

You will no longer need this medicine on Shabbat.

He said to her:

If I do need it,

if in any event I need it,

what,

what shall I do?

She said

the woman:

Swear to me that you will not reveal it.

Swear to me that you will not reveal what the remedy is, and I will tell you.

He swore to her,

Rabbi Yoḥanan swore to her in these words:

“To the God of Israel I will not reveal it”

[that is, I will not reveal it to the God of Israel].

She revealed it to him,

she revealed to him what remedy he should take.

The next day,

on Shabbat,

he went out

Rabbi Yoḥanan went out,

he lectured at the public lecture,

he said in his lecture before everyone the remedy that the gentile woman had revealed to him.

And this is astonishing:

But,

yet

he had sworn to her,

Rabbi Yoḥanan had sworn to her that he would not reveal it!?

And the Gemara answers: He did not swear that he would not reveal it to the public, for the wording of his oath was

“To the God of Israel I will not reveal it,”

and it follows that he swore only that he would not reveal it to the God of Israel.

But to His people,

to His people,

Israel, I will reveal it,

I will indeed reveal it!

But it is still difficult:

But there is

for here there is the matter of

desecration of the Name,

for she thought that he had sworn that he would not reveal it at all, and now she sees that he revealed it!

And the Gemara answers:

He revealed it to her at the outset.

Already when she revealed to him the secret of the remedy, he said to her: Know that I did not swear that I would not reveal it at all, for I did not say, “By the God of Israel I will not reveal it”—wording that means an oath by God that I would not reveal it at all. Rather, I said, “To the God of Israel I will not reveal it.” And the meaning of this wording is only that I will not reveal it to God. But I did not swear in His name that I would not reveal it at all. Consequently, this is not an oath that I would not reveal it at all.

And from this incident involving Rabbi Yoḥanan the Gemara proves, and resolves the doubt above:

Thus,

it is proven that the illness of the teeth

is like a wound of the body cavity.

And for this reason Rabbi Yoḥanan wished to use this remedy on Shabbat.

And the Gemara rejects this:

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: I differ

I distinguish

with regard to tzafdina

[the dental illness from which Rabbi Yoḥanan suffered], which is permitted to be treated on Shabbat

since

this illness

begins in the mouth and ends in the intestines.

And for this reason it is permitted to treat it on Shabbat. But ordinary pain that is only in the teeth is prohibited.

And the Gemara clarifies:

What is its sign,

what are the signs by which we know that the pain results from this illness?—

He places something between the molars,

he puts something into his mouth between the gums,

and blood comes out from between the rows of teeth,

and blood emerges from between the rows of teeth.

From what does it arise,

from what does this illness come?

From three things:

a.

From very cold wheat products.

Food made of wheat that he eats on one of the cold winter days, when the food is very cold.

b.

And

likewise

from very hot barley products,

very hot food made of barley.

c.

And from the remnants of the fisherman’s dish.

From eating the remnants of fried fish in the fat that emerges from it and in flour.

Above it was brought that the gentile woman prepared a remedy for Rabbi Yoḥanan, who suffered from this illness.

What did she prepare for him,

what remedy did she prepare for him?

Rav Aḥa, son of Rava, said: Leaven-water,

water in which leaven was soaked,

and olive oil and salt.

And Mar bar Rav Ashi said: Goose fat,

goose fat that melted through heat, and the woman smeared it on Rabbi Yoḥanan’s teeth from the outside,

with a goose wing,

by means of one of the goose’s wings.

Abaye said: I did all of them,

I performed all these remedies,

and I was not healed

and I was not healed of this illness,

until that Arab said to me

until that Ishmaelite said to me:

Bring olive pits,

bring olive pits

that have not reached a third,

whose growth has not yet reached one-third of the fruit’s growth,

and roast them on a new pestle,

and roast them upon a new pestle,

and stick them onto the rows of teeth,

and afterward stick the roasted pits onto the rows of the teeth, from within.

I did so, and I was healed,

I did so, and I was healed.

And the Gemara discusses:

But Rabbi Yoḥanan—how did he do this,

how did he do so and become healed by the gentile woman?

Yet Rabba bar bar Ḥana said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Every wound on whose account one violates Shabbat, one may not be healed by them.

Yet with regard to this wound one violates Shabbat, as we learned above. If so, how was Rabbi Yoḥanan healed by the gentile woman?

The Gemara answers: Rabbi Yoḥanan

was an important person,

and therefore—

it is different.

His law is different, and it was permitted for him to be healed by them, since the gentiles were afraid to kill him.

The Gemara asks:

But

yet

Rabbi Abbahu,

who also

was an important person, and Jacob the heretic applied to him

and that heretic Jacob placed on him

a drug and made him drink it,

a drug on his thigh in order to heal him,

and if not

and had it not been for

Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi, who licked his thigh,

who licked and sucked his thigh in order to remove from it the harmful drug that the heretic had placed there to poison him,

he would have had his thigh cut off,

they would have needed to amputate his thigh!

If so, we see that they are not afraid even of an important person, and they are capable of harming and killing him; how, then, was Rabbi Yoḥanan healed by the gentile woman?

And the Gemara answers: The gentile physician

of Rabbi Yoḥanan was an expert physician.

And for this reason there is no concern lest she harm him, as is explained above in the Gemara [27a], that if the physician is an expert known to the public, it is permitted to be healed by him, since he does not wish to damage his good name.

But it is still difficult: Surely the heretic physician

of Rabbi Abbahu also

also

was an expert physician.

And nevertheless, although it is the way of expert physicians to protect their good name, this does not prevent them from harming Jews?

And the Gemara answers:

It is different

the physician who treated

Rabbi Abbahu,

because he was a heretic,

for heretics fulfill in themselves

the words of the verse [Judges 16:30]

“Let my soul die with the Philistines.”

And they are even prepared to harm themselves, provided that they harm the Sages of Israel!

And the Gemara continues to discuss matters of illnesses and remedies on Shabbat:

Shmuel said: This peda’ata,

a wound from a sword blow,

is dangerous,

dangerous

it is,

and one violates Shabbat on its account.

What is the remedy for stopping the blood; what treatment is effective for stopping the blood?

The remedy is as follows:

a. In order to stop the flow of blood, one should give him to drink

cress in vinegar,

cress in vinegar,

b. In order

to raise,

to raise flesh and revive the place of the wound, one should take

scrapings of yivla,

roots scraped from the plant whose name is “yivla,”

and scrapings of asna,

and likewise roots scraped from the sנה bush. And one should make a bandage from them and place it upon the wound.

Or,

that he should place there

worms from the refuse heap,

worms that the chickens peck from the refuse heap.

Rav Safra said: This inavta,

those pustules resembling a grape,

is the parvanka of the angel of death,

they are the agents of the angel of death. That is, they are dangerous and liable to cause death.

What is the remedy,

what is the remedy for these pustules?

To take a plant called

“Tigena,”

to grind it and mix it

with honey

[in honey].

Or celery

mixed celery

with tilaya,

a type of wine that is very strong.

In the meantime

while he has still not managed to obtain and prepare these remedies—what should he do with these dangerous pustules?

Let him bring

bring

an inavta of the same kind,

a grape of the same kind resembling the pustule: if the pustule was large, let him bring a grape as large as it; and if the pustule was small, let him bring a grape as small as it.

And let him roll it over it,

let him roll the grape over the pustule.

A white one for a white one,

let him give a white grape to a white pustule,

and a black one for a black one,

a black grape for a black pustule.

Rava said: This sima,

the swelling of an abscess,

is the parvanka of fever.

It is a sign of the illness of fever [ague].

What is the remedy,

what is the remedy for this abscess?

Strike it sixty times,

let him strike sixty times with his finger on the place of the swelling,

and

afterward

let him cut it lengthwise and crosswise,

let him cut the swelling along its length and its width.

And this applies

this should be done only where

its head has not whitened,

where the head of the swelling is still not white, and the pus is not about to come out. Therefore, the only possibility for healing the matter is in this manner.

But,

if

its head has whitened,

the head of the swelling is white—

we have no concern with it.

There is no further need to treat the matter, because the concentration of the white pus at the head of the swelling indicates its spontaneous healing.