1)

(a)If someone is held in the grip of a python - he should enter water and hold a basket by the head of the python, which he then gently lowers to its side, encouraging it to enter the basket. Then one throws the basket into the water and runs.

(b)If a snake is chasing someone - it is his footsteps that it smells and is following. Consequently - carrying him in the air or crossing a river, will cause the snake to lose his trail.

(c)At night-time - he should place his bed high on top of four barrels, to prevent the snake from reaching him easily, and should sleep in the open air, so that it cannot drop on top of him via the ceiling. Then, he ties four cats to the four corners of his bed, and scatters objects that make a noise around the bed, to ensure that the cats hear the snake and pounces on it.

(d)The Gemara also advises someone who is being chased by a snake to run in the sand - because snakes have difficulty in moving in the sand.

2)

(a)A woman can ascertain whether a snake in her vicinity has a desire for her or not - by throwing her clothes in front of it; if it curls inside them, then she knows that it does.

(b)To foil its plans - she should be intimate with her husband in its presence. This will disgust the snake and cause it to leave her alone.

(c)Others however, argue that this will only increase the snake's desire for her. So what she must do is - cut some of her hair and nails, throw them at the snake and declare that she is Tamei.

(d)If a (very small) snake enters a woman's womb - one takes her and seats her on two barrels (so as to open her womb wide). One then creates a potent smell by burning juicy meat on coals and by mixing wine together with cress - all between the two barrels.

(e)When the snake, attracted by the smell, emerges - one picks it up with tongs, and throws it in the fire.

3)

(a)When our Mishnah says that all foods are permitted on Shabbos, it comes to include the spleen, which is good for the teeth, and oats (according to some it is leek) - which are good for the stomach.

(b)Spleen may be good for the teeth, but it is bad for the stomach. Similarly, oats (or leek), may be good for the stomach, but it is bad for the teeth.

(c)Had our Mishnah not taught us otherwise, we would have thought that people will not eat spleen and oats, unless they need it as a cure - because the former is bad for the stomach, and the latter for the teeth.

(d)The Mishnah also states that all drinks are permitted' which comes to include a liquid made from the caper-bush mixed with vinegar - which is commonly used as a cure (and which we might therefore have thought is forbidden).

(e)When Ravina asked Rava whether one may take urine as a cure on Shabbos - he cited our Mishnah, which permits all beverages, and urine is not a beverage.

4)

(a)Our Mishnah prohibits drinking Mei Dekalim on Shabbos. 'Mei Dekalim', which, according Rabah bar B'runa is - a spring of water that flows between two specific Ta'li (a species of date-palms) somewhere in Eretz Yisrael.

(b)Drinking one cup of this water loosens the bowels; two cups, causes diarrhea, whereas three results in the liquid emerging just as liquid as it went in (it cleans out the stomach).

(c)It is also known as 'Mei Dekarim' ('water that pierces') - because it pierces the gall.

(d)Ula claimed - that he drank Babylonian beer and found it to be even more effective than Mei Dekalim for clearing the stomach, provided one had not drunk it for forty days.

5)

(a)According to Rav Yosef, Mei Dekarim is Zeisum ha'Mitzri, which consists of a third, barley, a third, saffron and a third, salt - Rav Papa replace barley with wheat ...

(b)... and it is called 'Mei Dekarim' - because it pierces the illness.

(c)The Siman 'Sisni' (a receptacle into which one places dates) helps us to remember - that Rav Yosef (whose name contains a 'Samech') is the one who said a third, barley (since 'Se'orim' contains a 'Sin' [which has the same sound as a 'Samech']).

(d)One drinks it between Pesach and Shavu'os - and it causes a constipated stomach to start running again, and the bowels of someone who has diarrhea to close.

6)

(a)Our Mishnah also prohibits drinking Kos Ikrin on Shabbos. According to Rebbi Yochanan, this consists of Alexandrian sap, a Zuz (weight) of alum and a Zuz of garden saffron, all ground together. The difference between a Zavah, who drinks three cups of the potion with wine, and a jaundice patient, who drinks only two cups with beer is - that former does not become sterile, whereas the latter does.

(b)Alternative cures for the former include a container with three Lugin of large onions boiled in wine; sitting by the crossroads and holding a cup of wine in her hand, while someone comes up from behind her and gives her a shock; a fistful of cumin, a fistful of saffron and a fistful of fenugreek plant boiled in wine and drunk, and soaking sixty barrel-lids in water. In all these cases (as well as in the various cures that follow), one says to the patient - 'Kum mi'Zovech! (Take leave of your Zivus)'.

7)

(a)Another cure for Zivus is to burn some Charnuga (a herb) that grows beside a Rumis bush, and to carry the ashes - 'be'Shachki de'Kisna be'Kaita, u've'Shachki de'Amar Gufna be'Sisva' - which means wrapped in worn out cotton clothes in the summer, and worn out woolen clothes in the winter.

(b)In yet another cure, one burns branches of young vines - following which one places a cup of wine in the Zavah's hand - and sits her on each of seven pits that were specifically dug for this purpose; and by each one says 'Kum mi'Zovech'!

(c)In yet another cure, one takes the flour - and smears the lower half of the Zavah's body with it.

8)

(a)

1. 'Liftach Lah Chavita de'Chamra li'Sh'mah' - literally means that they should open a fresh barrel of wine especially for the Zavah, meaning that they should constantly make her drink a lot of wine.

2. 'Linkot Sa'ara de'Mishtakcha be'Fuma de'Kudna Chivra' - means that she should hold a kernel of barley that is found inside the mouth of a white mule.

(b)If the Zavah holds it for one day - she will be cured of her Zivus for two, if she holds it for two days, she will be cured for three, whereas if she holds it for three days, she will be completely cured.

9)

(a)We learned earlier, that a jaundice patient drinks only two cups of beer and becomes barren. An alternative cure for jaundice involves 'Reisha de'Shivuta de'Milcha' - meaning the head of a salted Shivuta fish, which the patient boils in beer, and drinks.

(b)Alternatively, one takes locust- juice or that of Nekiri to the bath-house - and smears it on him, in order to keep the patient warm.

(c)If there is no bathhouse in the vicinity, then one does this between the oven and the wall.

(d)Rebbi Yochanan suggests that, in order to keep a person with jaundice, warm, and thereby cure him - one cleans him with his sheet (which is very hot from his fever).

(e)When Rav Kahana did this to Rav Acha bar Yosef - he was cured.

10)

(a)For yet another cure for jaundice, one takes three vessels containing nine Lugin of Persian dates and three of bees-wax that have overflowed from the honey-comb, and three of red Ohala - boils them together, and gives the patient the potion to drink.

(b)One can also ...

1. ... take a young donkey, shave the middle of the patient's head, and let blood from the donkey's forehead on to the shaven patch.

2. ... boil a pickled head of a ram in beer - and feed it to the patient.

3. ... tear open a spotted pig, and place it on the patient's heart.

4. ... take the leek from the middle row, and feed it to the patient.

(c)In the case of the young donkey, one should take care - not to let any of the blood get into the patient's eyes, as this will cause him to go blind.

11)

(a)The jaundiced Arab asked a gardener - to take his (the Arab's) coat and to supply him with a row of leek wrapped in it.

(b)Before going to sleep however, the wily Arab asked the gardener to lend him his (the gardener's) coat.

(c)During the night (following his consumption of the row of leeks), the fever poured out of his body together with his perspiration, and the coat disintegrated.

12)

(a)To reconcile permitting a jaundice patient to take the 'Kos shel Ikrin' with the Beraisa, which (based on the Pasuk "u've'Artzechem Lo Sa'asu") forbids the sterilization of men (but not women) as well as animals, which the Torah specifically forbids), we initially suggest - that sterilization is only forbidden if one does it intentionally, but not if one does it for a different motive (like in our case, when one's intention, is [not to sterilize, but] to cure the jaundice).

(b)We reject the proof for this from Rebbi Yochanan, who permits the removal of a rooster's comb, despite the fact that this causes the rooster to become sterile however, based on a statement by Rav Ashi, who points out - that removing a rooster's comb does not really cause sterilization at all. It is the rooster's vanity, that in its self-pity, refuses to mate.

(c)We cannot establish our Mishnah ...

1. ... by a man who is a Saris and cannot have children anyway - since Rebbi Chiya bar Aba Amar Rebbi Yochanan nevertheless forbids castration even under such circumstances (as we shall see shortly).

2. ... by a man who is anyway too old to have children - because there is no such thing. A man of any age who takes the necessary potions can still have children, as Rebbi Yochanan testified about himself as an old man.

(d)We finally establish our Mishnah (which permits a jaundice patient to take a Kos Ikrin, despite the fact that it will make him sterile) ...

1. ... by a woman - who is not obligated to have children (according to the Chachamim) and is therefore permitted to become sterilized.

2. ... by an old woman or one who is already sterile - according to Rebbi Yochanan ben Berokah, in whose opinion a woman is included in the Mitzvah of "P'ru u'Revu", since even he agrees that there is no intrinsic prohibition of a woman undergoing sterilization.

13)

(a)Rebbi Chiya bar Aba Amar Rebbi Yochanan learns from ...

1. ... the combination of the two Pesukim (in connection with a Korban Minchah) "Lo Se'afeh Chametz" and "Lo Se'aseh Chametz" - that it is forbidden to continue to bake a Minchah as Chametz even if it has already become Chametz.

2. ... the Pasuk (in connection with the prohibition of castrating an animsl) "u'Ma'uch, ve'Chasus, ve'Nasuk, ve'Charus ... " - that one is forbidden to sterilize an animal or a man even if it/he is already sterilized (the source of our Kashya on the cure for jaundice).

(b)He learns the latter ruling - from the fact the Torah finds it necessary to insert "Nasuk" (detaching) after "Harus" (partial detaching), which is otherwise obvious.