Shabbat 66b — the Talmud in English

And Rava

said: There is no proof from this beraita, because

there

with an old man's staff,

it is made to resolve the sugya,

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

Here,

a peg-leg of an amputee

to lean upon

his entire body

is what it is made for, and he leans upon it.

We learned in the Mishna: A chair and its supports

are impure with midras, and one may not go out with them on Shabbat, and one may not enter with them into the Temple courtyard.

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

because they are not a shoe.

Rabbi Yohanan said to him:

Rabbi Yohanan:

I teach: A woman removes her shoe with it,

because it is a shoe,

and you say that one may enter

with it into the Temple courtyard?! But is it not forbidden to enter with a shoe?

Rather,

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

We learned in the Mishna:

A loketmin is pure.

And we explain:

What are loketmin?

Rabbi Abbahu said: A donkey carried on the shoulders,

the figure of a donkey carried on the shoulders, which jesters make, and it appears as though one is riding upon it.

Rava bar Pappa said:

The loketmin mentioned in the Mishna are

kashiri,

tall pieces of wood with a place for the foot, on which one walks in mud; one may not go out with them on Shabbat, because this is not the manner of clothing, and they are pure from impurity through contact, since they are simple wooden utensils without a receptacle.

Rava bar Rav Huna said:

The loketmin mentioned in the Mishna are

parmei,

something resembling the form of a face [a mask], which they place over the face to frighten children; this is not the manner of clothing, and therefore it is forbidden to go out with them on Shabbat, and it is not an ornament or an implement of use, and therefore they are pure.

Mishna:

Boys may go out with knots.

A son who has longing for his father [an excessive emotional attachment]—the father takes a strap from his right shoe and ties it to his son's left shoe. And he ties the strap of his left shoe to his son's right shoe; this is a remedy so that he will not long 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

go out

with bells,

golden bells that they attach to their garments for adornment; and when they are attached to the garment, they were not concerned that they might come to remove them.

And

also

every person

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

but the Sages spoke of the usual case,

for it is the way of the sons of kings to go out with this.

Gemara:

And we explain:

What are the knots

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

Adda Mari said

that was his name

Rav Naḥman bar Barukh said that Rav Ashi bar Avin said that Rav Yehuda said: Knots of fu'a [מין צמח]

[a type of plant]; these knots are tied around the neck for a remedy.

Abaye said: My mother said to me:

Three

three knots have the property that they

make the sick person stand,

they make the sick person stand; and if they made

five

knots, their property is more effective, for they

heal him; and if they made

him. If one makes

seven

knots, their property is more effective, so that

they enable him to be saved even from sorcery

.

Rav Aḥa bar Yaakov said:

The property of the knots is effective,

provided that it does not see

the fu'a plant that they tie for the remedy

the sun and the moon,

sun and 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, and the sound of a rooster, and the sound of footsteps

it must not hear the sound of footsteps.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said:

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

the remedy has fallen

into a pit,

their entire remedy has fallen into a pit, since a person cannot take care with all these matters.

And we raise an objection: If the knots mentioned in the Mishna are those made as a remedy, then:

why specifically boys,

specifically,

even girls

should likewise go out with these knots.

And there is another difficulty:

why specifically minors,

for “boys” implies specifically minors,

even adults as well

should go out with this remedy?

Rather, what are the knots

mentioned in the Mishna?

Like that which Avin bar Huna said that Rabbi Hama bar Gurya said: A son who has longing for his father—the father takes

the father

a strap from his right shoe

his,

and ties it for him on his left

of his son.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: And your mnemonic is

like

tefillin,

for the right hand ties on the left arm.

And the reverse

if the father's left strap is tied to his son's right foot,

there is danger,

for his longing will intensify.

And the Gemara brings from Avin bar Huna several laws of remedies.

Avin bar Huna said that Rav Hama bar Gurya said: Inverting a cup upon the navel on Shabbat is proper.

One who feels pain in his intestines may invert upon his navel a cup from which hot water was poured; the cup grips the flesh and draws the intestines toward it and sets them in their place.

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

on the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet

on Shabbat,

for this is what they would do to drunkards to sober them from their drunkenness, and there is no decree of healing on Shabbat in this.

Like that concerning Rav Huna,

when he would come

from the house of Rav, and

likewise

Rav

who would come

from the house of Rabbi Hiyya, and

likewise

Rabbi Hiyya

who would come

from the house of Rabbi,

and they would return from the house of their teachers

when they became drunk,

when they were drunk, for they would give the students wine, and because they were important they would do something for them to dispel the wine,

they would bring oil [שמן] [oil]

[oil]

and salt [מלח] [salt]

and mix them

and rub them into the insides of their hands and the insides of their feet

on the palms of their hands and feet,

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

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

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

may the drinker become clear of that wine.

And if not

if they still did not sober from their drunkenness,

they would bring the cover of a barrel

they would bring the stopper with which they cover the mouth of the barrel

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

for the stopper becomes clearer every moment 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 hang by the neck on Shabbat.

One whose vertebra of the neck has become dislocated and falls into his throat is suspended by his head, so that his neck will be stretched; it resembles strangulation.

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

it is permitted to wrap in garments an infant whose limbs have become dislocated through the birth pangs, and this does not involve the labor of repairing.

Rav Pappa teaches “sons.” And Rav Zevid teaches

“son”.

Rav Pappa says that the two teachings above concerning minors are from the words of Avin bar Huna in the name of Rav Hama bar Gurya. And Rav Zevid disagrees with him and holds that only one teaching concerning minors is from Avin bar Huna, as will be explained below.

Rav Pappa teaches “sons,” and both of them

the two teachings above—the law of longing for his father and the law of wrapping an infant,

he teaches them in the name of

the name of

Avin bar Huna.

Rav Zevid teaches “son”,

for he holds that only one teaching is from the words of Avin bar Huna.

The first,

the law of longing,

he teaches in the name of Avin bar Huna.

But this:

the law of wrapping an infant,

he teaches it in the name of

the name of

Rabba bar bar Hana.

For Rabba bar bar Hana said: Wrapping an infant on Shabbat is proper.

Abaye said: My mother said to me: All minyanei

all the whispers performed as a remedy [and they are called minyanei because they repeat them three times and more] mention the name of the person for whom they whisper

in the name of the mother.

And she further said:

And all knots

all remedies performed through knots

[are made] with the left [hand].

And Abaye said: My mother said to me: All minyanei that are specified

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

according to what is specified

as it is explicitly written how many times to say them,

and

those whispers

that are not specified

for which it is not specified how many times to say them, one should say them

forty-one times.

The Sages taught: One may go out with a tequma stone on Shabbat,

for it is a remedy for preserving pregnancy.

They said in the name of Rabbi Meir:

one may go out

even with a weight

that they weighed against

a tequma stone,

for this too is a tested remedy.

And

the permission to go out with a tequma stone is

not

specifically for a woman

who

already

miscarried—

rather

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

that she may miscarry.

And

likewise

not

specifically a woman

who became pregnant

goes out with it,

rather

also a woman who does not yet know that she is pregnant, because there is concern for her

that she may 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 a tequma stone does not apply to every form of weight that they weighed against it, but—

it is when it was exact and balanced.

When they placed it on the other side of the scale from the tequma stone, it was exactly equal to its weight, and they did not need to add to it or subtract from it in order for its weight to equal it.

Abaye asked: The weight of a weight,

where they weighed an object against an object that was weighed against a tequma stone—

what is [the law]?

May one go out with it?

And we conclude:

[teiku].

And Abaye said: Mother told me: For a fever

of the heat

of that day,

every day—

take a new white dinar

of refined silver

and go to the salt marshes,

pools in which water is dried for the production of salt.

And weigh salt corresponding to its weight,

and take salt equal in weight to that dinar,

and wrap it up

and tie up the salt and place the bundle

in the hollow of the neck,

under his throat, while it is suspended

by a hair of the forelock,

by a tuft of his hair.

And if not,

if he cannot do so,

let him sit

and sit

at a crossroads, and when he sees a camel-ant

a large ant

that carries

that is carrying

something,

something,

let him take it and place it

let him take the ant and place 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 “sixty” is not specifically meant; rather, he should seal it with many seals of all types, with wax, pitch, lead, and clay, one atop the other.

And shake it,

and shake the ant that is 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 carry—that is, my illness—shall henceforth be carried by you. And through this the fever will leave him.

Rav Aḥa, son of Rav Huna, said to Rav

Ashi: But perhaps

for one must be concerned lest

another person

someone else

found it

already found this ant

and transferred [his illness] to it,

and transferred his illness to it in this manner, and it turns out that now he is taking upon himself the burden of that other person’s illness?!

Rather, let him say to it

the following:

My burden and your burden—

upon you.

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

And if not—

let him take a new jug

a small new earthenware vessel

and go to the river, and say to it

to the river:

River, river, lend me

lend me

a jug of water for the guest

for the guest [the fever illness

that has befallen me].

And let him circle it seven times around his head,

that he should circle the vessel with the water seven times around his head,

and throw it

and throw the water into the river

behind him.

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

since

the guest that befell me came in its day and departed in its day.