Shabbat 109: Ingesting Medicines and Non-Medicinal Foods and Drinks

The rabbis wonder which waters in Israel might impart ritual impurity; where one might bathe.  Further, bathing on Shabbat is permitted as long as it is for non-medicinal purposes, even if flax was soaked there, as long as one does not stay in the water.

A new Mishna teaches us that we may not eat eizoveyon, which is not eaten as food but for medicinal purposes.  There are other types of foods that may be ingested for medicinal purposes.  The Gemara speaks about different medicinal plants and how they are eaten.  The rabbis also teaches us what causes illness.  For example, liver worms are cured by eating a vegetable known as potnak together with seven white dates.  These worms are caused by eating raw meat with water, or fatty meat, or ox meat, or nuts, or fenugreek shoots on an empty stomach and drinking water afterward.  

Other bizarre treatments for liver worms are suggested.  Wildly imaginative curatives are listed for expelling venom that has been drunk accidentally.  Drinking urine is suggested as a curative for a hornet sing, a scorpion bite, drinking exposed water, and even witchcraft.  Different amounts of urine are required for each remedy.