Shabbat 66b (סו:) — the Talmud in English

And Rava

said: There is no proof from this beraita, because

there

with regard to the staff of the elderly,

it was made to resolve the discussion,

as the staff is not made for him to lean upon, but only to straighten his posture and adjust his steps.

Here,

the leg of an amputee is

made for him to lean upon

with his entire body,

and he leans upon it .

We learned in the Mishna: A chair and its supports

are susceptible to midras impurity, but one may not go out with them on Shabbat, nor may one enter the Temple courtyard with them.

A tanna taught before Rabbi Yohanan: One may enter the Temple courtyard with them,

because they are not a shoe.

He said to him,

Rabbi Yohanan:

I teach: A woman performs halitza with it,

which indicates that it is a shoe;

and you say that one may enter

the Temple courtyard with it?! But it is prohibited to enter wearing a shoe.

Rather,

teach: One may not enter the Temple courtyard with them.

We learned in the Mishna:

Lוקטמין are pure.

And we explain:

What are loketmin?

Rabbi Abbahu said: A donkey carried on the shoulders,

a figure of a donkey carried on the shoulders, which jesters make, appearing as though someone is riding upon it.

Rava bar Pappa said: The loketmin mentioned in the Mishna are

wooden stilts,

kashiri,

tall pieces of wood with a place for the sole of the foot, upon which one walks through mud. One may not go out with them on Shabbat because this is not the usual manner of wearing clothing, and they are pure from impurity imparted through contact because they are simple wooden utensils, which have no receptacle .

Rava bar Rav Huna said: The loketmin mentioned in the Mishna are

masks,

something resembling a face [a mask] placed over the face to frighten children. This is not the usual manner of wearing clothing, and therefore one may not go out with them on Shabbat; nor are they an ornament or a utensil of use, and therefore they are pure.

Mishna:

The sons may go out with kesherim.

A son who has an excessive attachment to his father: His father takes a strap from his right shoe and ties it to his son's left shoe, and he takes the strap from his left shoe and ties it to his son's right shoe. This is a segula so that he will not yearn excessively for his father.

And they permitted going out with this on Shabbat because it is a remedy for the son.

And the sons of kings

may go out

with bells,

golden bells attached to their garments for adornment. When they are attached to the garment, there was no concern that they might come to remove them .

And

also

everyone

may go out with these bells, even a poor person in Israel,

but the Sages spoke of the usual case,

as it is customary for the sons of kings to go out with them.

Gemara:

And we explain:

What are the kesherim

mentioned in the Mishna with which it is permitted to go out?

Adda Mari,

that was his name,

said that Rav Nahman bar Barukh said that Rav Ashi bar Avin said that Rav Yehuda said: The knots of pu'a,

a type of plant, which are tied around the neck as a remedy.

Abaye said: My mother said to me

Three

knots have the segula of

establishing

the sick person, and if

five

knots are made, their segula is more effective, as they

heal

him. And if

seven

knots are made, their segula is more effective, as

even against witchcraft they prevail,

enabling one to be saved from it.

Rav Aha bar Yaakov said:

The segula of the knots is effective

provided that it does not see

the pu'a plant tied as a remedy

the sun and the moon,

the sun and the moon,

and it does not see rain,

and likewise it must not see rain,

and it does not hear

the plant

the sound of iron, the sound of a rooster, or the sound of footsteps,

it must not hear the sound of footsteps.

Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak said:

If the segula of the knots is effective only in this manner—

the remedy has fallen

into a pit,

all their remedies have fallen into a pit, since no person can be careful about all these conditions .

And we raise an objection: If the kesherim mentioned in the Mishna are those made as a medicinal segula, then

why specifically sons,

only?

Even daughters

should also go out with these knots.

And there is another difficulty:

why specifically minors,

as the term “sons” implies specifically minors;

even adults as well

should go out with this remedy?

Rather, what are the kesherim

mentioned in the Mishna?

As in this statement that Avin bar Huna said that Rabbi Hama bar Gurya said: A son who has an excessive attachment to his father—the father takes

the father

a strap from his right shoe

belonging to him

and ties it for him on his left

side, that is, on his son's left foot.

Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak said: And your mnemonic

is like

tefillin,

as the right hand ties them onto the left arm.

And the reverse

if he ties the father's left strap to the son's right foot,

it is dangerous,

as the son's excessive yearning will intensify.

The Gemara cites from Avin bar Huna several laws concerning remedies.

Avin bar Huna said that Rav Hama bar Gurya said: Inverting a cup over the navel on Shabbat is well and good.

One who feels pain in his intestines may place over his navel a cup from which hot water was poured out. The cup grasps the flesh and draws the intestines toward it, returning them to their proper place .

And Avin bar Huna said that Rav Hama bar Gurya said: It is permitted to smear oil and salt

on the palms of one's hands and the soles of one's feet

on Shabbat,

as this is what they would do for drunkards to sober them from their drunkenness, and there is no decree prohibiting medical treatment on Shabbat .

As in the case of Rav Huna,

when he would come

from the study hall, and

likewise

Rav,

who would come

from the study hall of Rabbi Hiyya, and

likewise

Rabbi Hiyya,

who would come

from the study hall of Rabbi,

and they would return from the homes of their teachers

when they became drunk,

when they were intoxicated, as wine had been given to the students, and because they were important people, they would do something for them to dispel the wine.

They would bring oil [

oil]

and salt [

salt] and mix them,

and rub them on the inside of their hands and the inside of their feet,

the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet.

And they would say: Just as this oil becomes clear,

just as this oil gradually becomes clear when it is on a person because of the heat of the flesh, so

may the wine of so-and-so son of so-and-so become clear,

so may the drinker become clear of that wine.

And if not,

if they still did not sober up from their drunkenness,

they would bring the stopper of a barrel,

they would bring the stopper with which the mouth of the barrel is covered,

and soak it in water, and say: Just as this stopper becomes clear,

as the stopper becomes increasingly clear while it is in the water,

so may the wine of so-and-so son of so-and-so become clear.

And Avin bar Huna said that Rav Hama bar Gurya said: It is permitted to suspend oneself on Shabbat.

If a vertebra of one's neck has become dislocated and is pressing into his throat, they suspend him by his head so that his neck will be stretched out, resembling strangulation.

And Avin bar Huna said that Rav Hama bar Gurya said: Wrapping an infant on Shabbat is well and good,

it is permitted to wrap in clothing an infant whose limbs became dislocated through the birth process, and this does not constitute the labor of repairing .

Rav Pappa cites the reading “sons.” And Rav Zevid cites the reading

“son.”

Rav Pappa says that both statements above dealing with minors are the words of Avin bar Huna in the name of Rav Hama bar Gurya. Rav Zevid disagrees with him and maintains that only one statement dealing with minors is the statement of Avin bar Huna, as will be explained below.

Rav Pappa cites the reading “sons,” and both

the two statements above—the law of excessive yearning for one's father and the law of wrapping an infant—

he cites in the name of

the same

Avin bar Huna.

Rav Zevid cites the reading “son,”

as he maintains that only one statement is the statement of Avin bar Huna.

The first,

the law of excessive yearning,

he cites in the name of Avin bar Huna.

But this,

the law of wrapping an infant,

he cites in the name of

the same

Rabba bar bar Hanna.

As Rabba bar bar Hanna said: Wrapping an infant on Shabbat is well and good.

Abaye said: My mother said to me: All incantations,

all the whispered formulas performed as a segula, [and they are called minyanei because they are repeated three times and more], mention the person's name for whom they are whispered

in the name of the mother.

And she further said:

And all knot-formulas

all the segulot performed through knots

on the left.

And Abaye said: My mother said to me: All incantations whose number is specified

segulot performed through whispering, which are repeated a number of times,

according to the specified number,

as it is explicitly written how many times they are to be recited,

and

those incantations

whose number is not specified,

for which it is not specified how many times they are to be recited, should be recited

forty-one times.

The Sages taught: One may go out with an evenstone on Shabbat,

as it is a segula for safeguarding a pregnancy.

In the name of Rabbi Meir they said:

One may go out

even with a weight

that was weighed against

an evenstone,

as this too is a proven segula .

And

the permission to go out with an evenstone is

not

specifically for a woman

who

has already

miscarried—

rather,

even a woman who has not miscarried may go out with it, in order to prevent the concern

lest she miscarry.

And

likewise

not

specifically a woman

who has conceived

may go out with it;

rather,

a woman who does not yet know that she is pregnant may also do so, because there is concern

lest she become pregnant and miscarry.

Rav Yemar bar Shelamya said in the name of Abaye:

The fact that one may go out even with another object weighed against an evenstone does not apply to every object weighed against it. Rather—

and this is when it was precisely balanced and found equal.

When it was placed on the other side of the balance from the evenstone, it had exactly the same weight, and it was not necessary to add to it or remove from it in order for its weight to equal that of the evenstone.

Abaye raised a dilemma: The weight of a weight,

where one weighed an object against an object that had been weighed against an evenstone—

what

is the ruling? May one go out with it?

And we conclude:

teiku.

And Abaye said: My mother told me: For

a fever

of a single day

each day—

take a new silver zuz

and go to the salt pans,

and weigh it

, pools in which water is evaporated to produce salt.

And weigh out salt equal to its weight,

and take salt corresponding in weight to that zuz,

and wrap it

and place the bundle

in the hollow of the neck,

under his throat, suspended

from a tuft of hair

in his hair.

And if he cannot do this,

he should

sit

at a crossroads,

and when he sees a large ant carrying

something large

that carries

something

at all,

anything,

he should take it and place it

—he should take the ant and put it

in a copper tube,

in a copper tube,

and seal it with lead,

and seal it with lead,

and seal it with sixty seals,

and seal it with sixty seals.

Rashi wrote that this does not mean specifically sixty; rather, he should seal it with many seals of every kind—wax, pitch, lead, and clay—one atop the other.

And shake it,

shaking the ant inside the copper tube,

and carry it,

and carry it,

and say to it

—to the ant:

“Your burden is upon me,”

the burden that you were carrying, I shall carry,

and my burden is upon you,

and what I am carrying—that is, my illness—shall henceforth be carried by you. Through this, the fever will leave him.

Rav Aḥa, son of Rav Huna, said to Rav

Ashi: But perhaps

one must be concerned that perhaps

another person

has

already found it

—this ant—

and imposed it upon it,

having transferred his illness to it in this manner, so that now he is taking upon himself that person’s illness and burden!?

Rather, let him say to it

as follows:

“My burden and your burden—

upon you.”

Let my burden be upon you in addition to your own burden.

And if not—

let him take a new small earthenware vessel

a new small earthenware vessel

and go to the river, and say to it

to the river:

“River, river, lend me

lend me

a vesselful of water for the traveler

for the traveler [the fever

that has happened to me.”

And let him circle it seven times over his head,

circling the vessel with the water seven times over his head,

and throw it

throwing the water into the river

behind him.

And let him say to it: “River, river, take the water that you gave me,

since

this traveler that happened upon me came in its day and departed in its day.”