Avodah Zarah 12

Talmudology Bonus Post: Avodah Zara 12b ~ Abracadabra and Talmudic Demonology

Last week we studied Avodah Zara 12b which included a passage about the dangers of drinking water at night. Here is a bonus post on the topic, in which we learn about the intersection of Abracadabra and talmudic demonology. Enjoy.

עבודה זרה יב, ב

תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: לֹא יִשְׁתֶּה אָדָם מַיִם בַּלַּיְלָה, וְאִם שָׁתָה — דָּמוֹ בְּרֹאשׁוֹ, מִפְּנֵי הַסַּכָּנָה. מַאי סַכָּנָה? סַכָּנַת שַׁבְרִירֵי. וְאִם צָחֵי, מַאי תַּקַּנְתֵּיהּ? אִי אִיכָּא אַחֲרִינָא בַּהֲדֵיהּ — לִיתְרְיֵיהּ וְלֵימָא לֵיהּ: ״צָחֵינָא מַיָּא״, וְאִי לָא — נְקַרְקֵשׁ בְּנִכְתְּמָא אַחַצְבָּא, וְנֵימָא אִיהוּ לְנַפְשֵׁיהּ: ״פְּלָנְיָא בַּר פְּלָנִיתָא, אָמְרָה לָךְ אִימָּךְ אִזְדְּהַר מִשַּׁבְרִירֵי בְּרִירֵי רִירֵי יְרֵי רֵי בְּכָסֵי חִיוָּרֵי״

The Sages taught: A person should not drink water at night. And if he drank, his blood is upon his own head, due to the danger. The Gemara asks: What is this danger? The Gemara answers: The danger of the shavrirei, an evil spirit that rules over water. And if he is thirsty, what is his remedy? If there is another person with him, he should wake him and say to him: I thirst for water, and then he may drink. And if there is no other person with him, he should knock with the lid on the jug and say to himself: So-and-so, son of so-and-so, your mother said to you to beware of the shavrirei verirei rirei yirei rei, found in white cups. This is an incantation against the evil spirit.

Rashi explains that by diminishing the name of the demon responsible for the danger, it is weakened, until it ceases to exist altogether.

רש׳י שם

איזדהר משברירי שברירי ברירי רירי ירי רי בכסי חיורי - לחש הוא ומתמעט והולך משם השד כאשר הוא שומע מיעוט תיבות אות אחר אות עד רי וכן הוא הלחש להבריחו משם

He whispers and reduces the number of letters of the name of the demon. When the demon hears his name losing letter after letter, until all that is left are the letters “rei” [he vanishes] and the whispering expels him from there . . .

Medieval amulet to protect mother and child against attack from the demon Lilith during childbirth. From Sefer Raziel, Amsterdam 1701.

Medieval amulet to protect mother and child against attack from the demon Lilith during childbirth. From Sefer Raziel, Amsterdam 1701.

abracadabra against malaria

The belief in the power of amulets is a powerful one. Some of the beliefs of the rabbis might feel strange to our modern minds, but they reflected what everyone believed back then. Galen, the second century Roman physician wrote that assertion that a peony root hung about the neck was effective against epilepsy and that stones of green jasper worn over the stomach cured stomach complaints. And here, as another example, is an amulet against the disease we call malaria, written in the third century by Quintus Serenus Sammonicus (d. 212 CE) who was the physician to the Roman emperor Caracalla.

Abracadabra image.png

Inscribis chartae, quod dicitur Abracadabra, Saepius: et subter repetas, sed detrahe summae, Et magis atque magis desint elementa figuris Singula, quae semper rapies et coetera figes, Donec in angustam redigatur litera conum. His lino nexis collum redimire memento.

Write several times on a piece of paper the word ‘Abracadabra,’ and repeat the word in the lines below, but take away letters from the complete word and let the letters fall away one at a time in each succeeding line. Take these away ever, but keep the rest until the writing is reduced to a narrow cone. Remember to tie these papers with flax and bind them round the neck.

After wearing the talisman for nine days, it was to be thrown over the shoulder into an eastward-running stream. Should this treatment fail, Sammonicus recommended the application of lion’s fat, or the wearing of cat’s skin tied with yellow coral and green emeralds around the neck.

Abracadabra written as an amulet remained popular for more than 1,500 years after it was mentioned by Sammonicus. In fact it was widely used during the outbreaks of bubonic plague in London in the seventeenth century, as Daniel Defoe recorded in his book Journal of a Plague Year.

But there was still another madness beyond all this, which may serve to give an idea of the distracted humour of the poor people at that time: and this was their following a worse sort of deceivers than any of these; for these petty thieves only deluded them to pick their pockets and get their money, in which their wickedness, whatever it was, lay chiefly on the side of the deceivers, not upon the deceived. But in this part I am going to mention, it lay chiefly in the people deceived, or equally in both; and this was in wearing charms, philtres, exorcisms, amulets, and I know not what preparations, to fortify the body with them against the plague; as if the plague was not the hand of God, but a kind of possession of an evil spirit, and that it was to be kept off with crossings, signs of the zodiac, papers tied up with so many knots, and certain words or figures written on them, as particularly the word Abracadabra, formed in triangle or pyramid, thus:—

ABRACADABRA

ABRACADABR

ABRACADAB

ABRACADA

ABRACAD

ABRACA

ABRAC

ABRA

ABR

AB

A

I might spend a great deal of time in my exclamations against the follies, and indeed the wickedness, of those things, in a time of such danger, in a matter of such consequences as this, of a national infection. But my memorandums of these things relate rather to take notice only of the fact, and mention only that it was so. How the poor people found the insufficiency of those things, and how many of them were afterwards carried away in the dead-carts and thrown into the common graves of every parish with these hellish charms and trumpery hanging about their necks, remains to be spoken of as we go along.

Talmudic demonology might make some uncomfortable- why on earth did the rabbis of the Talmud believe in such things? But they believed what everyone believed- that demons were real and that they can be controlled with magic incantations Just ask Daniel Defoe.

(Want more on amulets? See the post here.)

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Avodah Zarah 12b ~ Vinegar, Leeches and Rav Huna

עבודה זרה יב ,ב

ת"ר לא ישתה אדם מים לא מן הנהרות ולא מן האגמים לא בפיו ולא בידו אחת ואם שתה דמו בראשו מפני הסכנה מאי סכנה סכנת עלוקה

The Sages taught: A person should not drink water from rivers or from ponds either by drinking from the water directly with his mouth, or by collecting the water with one hand alone. And if he drank in this manner, his blood is upon his own head, due to the danger. What is this danger? It is the danger of swallowing a leech.

There are about 680 identified species of leeches (so far). Most are found in freshwater, and are found on every continent except Antarctica. You should stay away from them.

In western developed countries, our drinking supplies are safe to drink (mostly). But around the world leeches are still found in water that is used for human (and animal) consumption.  Today's page of Talmud reminds us of the danger that leeches once imposed. That danger is still very much present.

The Nile Leech. And others

The Koren Talmud notes that one species of leech, the Nile leech (Limnatis nilotica) can still be found in bodies of water in Israel.  Indeed, leeches are found across the Middle East. Ten years ago, a case report was published in the Turkish Journal of Parasitology which described what happened when Limnatis nilotica  got into the nose of a poor five year-old girl in Turkey.

The doctor who was trying to aspirate the blood in the patient’s mouth noticed the bloody formation moving slightly. This formation was removed by an otolaryngologist under local anesthesia and was brought to the parasitology laboratory and identified as a leech.
— Agin, H. et al. Türkiye Parazitoloji Dergisi, 32 (3): 247 - 248, 2008

The girl had nose bleeds and had vomited blood over three days.  She required an urgent blood transfusion, and while trying to remove blood from the girl's nose the doctor "noticed the bloody formation moving slightly." The bloody moving formation was carefully removed and sent to the pathology laboratory where it was identified. It was a leech. Here is a picture of the villain:

Leech obtained from the case. From Agin, H. et al. Severe Anemia Due to the Pharyngeal Leech Limnatis nilotica in a Child. Türkiye Parazitoloji Dergisi, 32 (3): 247 - 248, 2008

Leech obtained from the case. From Agin, H. et al. Severe Anemia Due to the Pharyngeal Leech Limnatis nilotica in a Child. Türkiye Parazitoloji Dergisi, 32 (3): 247 - 248, 2008

This is certainly not an isolated incident.  In fact, there are so many reports of leeches in the medical literature, that an Iranian group published a meta-analysis of leeches "as a live foreign body." 

Selection of published literature on leech infestations. From Saki, N. et al. Meta Analysis of the Leech as a Live Foreign Body: Detection, Precaution and Treatment. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 2009: 12 (24); 1556-1563

Selection of published literature on leech infestations. From Saki, N. et al. Meta Analysis of the Leech as a Live Foreign Body: Detection, Precaution and Treatment. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 2009: 12 (24); 1556-1563

The more you read, the more the meta-analysis gets scary. Here is another table, detailing the 28 patients the Iranians had seen at their hospital in Ahwaz, Iran. (Fun fact about Ahwaz: in 2011 the World Health Organization declared it to be the most air-polluted city in the world. Ahwaz: If our leeches don't kill you, our air will.)

Detail of 28 leech infested patients seen over a ten year period at Ahwaz Jondishapour Universtiy of Medical Science, Ahwaz, Iran. From Saki, N. et al. Meta Analysis of the Leech as a Live Foreign Body: Detection, Precaution and Treatment. Pakistan …

Detail of 28 leech infested patients seen over a ten year period at Ahwaz Jondishapour University of Medical Science, Ahwaz, Iran. From Saki, N. et al. Meta Analysis of the Leech as a Live Foreign Body: Detection, Precaution and Treatment. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 2009: 12 (24); 1556-1563

The longest leech they found was a whopping 10 cm (over 4 inches) that had taken up residence in the back of the mouth. Why didn't the patient feel that massive creature? Well, leeches are crafty; they secrete an analgesic so the victim doesn't feel the bite. At most, you might feel a little wiggling.  

Vinegar. Really?

Today's page of Talmud not only cautions us to be careful when drinking from a spring or river. It also suggests a treatment for leech attachment: 

אמר רבי חנינא הבולע נימא של מים מותר להחם לו חמין בשבת ומעשה באחד שבלע נימא של מים והתיר רבי נחמיה להחם לו חמין בשבת אדהכי והכי אמר רב הונא בריה דרב יהושע ליגמע חלא

 Rabbi Hanina says: In the case of one who swallows a water leech [nima], it is permitted to perform labor on Shabbat and heat water for him to drink on Shabbat, as his life is in danger. And in fact there was an incident involving one who swallowed a water leech, and Rabbi Neḥemya permitted them to heat water for him on Shabbat. In the meantime, until the water is ready, what should he do? Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, said: He should swallow vinegar.

As it turns out, Rav Huna's advice to drink vinegar can be found in today's medical literature. The Ahwaz team offers this suggestion:

If the leech is in the nares or upper pharynx, it be detached by applying 30% cocaine, 1:10,000 adrenalin or dimethyl phthalate to it. Another method is irrigation with strong saline, vinegar, turpentine or alcohol.

Rav Huna's treatment with vinegar seems to be supported in the medical literature. So next time you travel to Ahwaz, take some along with you.    

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Avodah Zarah 12b ~ Vinegar, Leeches and Rav Huna

עבודה זרה יב ,ב

ת"ר לא ישתה אדם מים לא מן הנהרות ולא מן האגמים לא בפיו ולא בידו אחת ואם שתה דמו בראשו מפני הסכנה מאי סכנה סכנת עלוקה

The Sages taught: A person should not drink water from rivers or from ponds either by drinking from the water directly with his mouth, or by collecting the water with one hand alone. And if he drank in this manner, his blood is upon his own head, due to the danger. What is this danger? It is the danger of swallowing a leech.

There are about 680 identified species of leeches (so far). Most are found in freshwater, and are found on every continent except Antarctica. You should stay away from them.

In western developed countries, our drinking supplies are safe to drink (mostly). But around the world leeches are still found in water that is used for human (and animal) consumption.  Today's page of Talmud reminds us of the danger that leeches once imposed. That danger is still very much present.

The Nile Leech. And others

The Koren Talmud notes that one species of leech, the Nile leech (Limnatis nilotica) can still be found in bodies of water in Israel.  Indeed leeches are found across the Middle East. Ten years ago, a case report was published in the Turkish Journal of Parasitology which described what happened when Limnatis nilotica  got into the nose of a poor five year-old girl in Turkey.

The doctor who was trying to aspirate the blood in the patient’s mouth noticed the bloody formation moving slightly. This formation was removed by an otolaryngologist under local anesthesia and was brought to the parasitology laboratory and identified as a leech.
— Agin, H. et al. Türkiye Parazitoloji Dergisi, 32 (3): 247 - 248, 2008

The girl had nose bleeds and had vomited blood over three days.  She required an urgent blood transfusion, and while trying to remove blood from the girl's nose the doctor "noticed the bloody formation moving slightly." The bloody moving formation was carefully removed and sent to the pathology laboratory where it was identified. It was a leech. Here is a picture of the villain:

Leech obtained from the case. From Agin, H. et al. Severe Anemia Due to the Pharyngeal Leech Limnatis nilotica in a Child. Türkiye Parazitoloji Dergisi, 32 (3): 247 - 248, 2008

Leech obtained from the case. From Agin, H. et al. Severe Anemia Due to the Pharyngeal Leech Limnatis nilotica in a Child. Türkiye Parazitoloji Dergisi, 32 (3): 247 - 248, 2008

This is certainly not an isolated incident.  In fact, there are so many reports of leeches in the medical literature, that an Iranian group published a meta-analysis of leeches "as a live foreign body." 

Selection of published literature on leech infestations. From Saki, N. et al. Meta Analysis of the Leech as a Live Foreign Body: Detection, Precaution and Treatment. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 2009: 12 (24); 1556-1563

Selection of published literature on leech infestations. From Saki, N. et al. Meta Analysis of the Leech as a Live Foreign Body: Detection, Precaution and Treatment. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 2009: 12 (24); 1556-1563

The more you read, the more the meta-analysis gets scary. Here is another table, detailing the 28 patients the Iranians had seen at their hospital in Ahwaz, Iran. (Fun fact about Ahwaz: in 2011 the World Health Organization declared it to be the most air-polluted city in the world. Ahwaz: If our leeches don't kill you, our air will.)

Detail of 28 leech infested patients seen over a ten year period at Ahwaz Jondishapour Universtiy of Medical Science, Ahwaz, Iran. From Saki, N. et al. Meta Analysis of the Leech as a Live Foreign Body: Detection, Precaution and Treatment. Pakistan …

Detail of 28 leech infested patients seen over a ten year period at Ahwaz Jondishapour Universtiy of Medical Science, Ahwaz, Iran. From Saki, N. et al. Meta Analysis of the Leech as a Live Foreign Body: Detection, Precaution and Treatment. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 2009: 12 (24); 1556-1563

The longest leech they found was a whopping 10 cm (over 4 inches) that had taken up residence in the back of the mouth. Why didn't the patient feel that massive creature? Well, leeches are crafty; they secrete an analgesic so the victim doesn't feel the bite. At most, you might feel a little wiggling.  

Vinegar. Really?

Today's page of Talmud not only cautions us to be careful when drinking from a spring or river. It also suggests a treatment for leech attachment: 

אמר רבי חנינא הבולע נימא של מים מותר להחם לו חמין בשבת ומעשה באחד שבלע נימא של מים והתיר רבי נחמיה להחם לו חמין בשבת אדהכי והכי אמר רב הונא בריה דרב יהושע ליגמע חלא

 Rabbi Hanina says: In the case of one who swallows a water leech [nima], it is permitted to perform labor on Shabbat and heat water for him to drink on Shabbat, as his life is in danger. And in fact there was an incident involving one who swallowed a water leech, and Rabbi Neḥemya permitted them to heat water for him on Shabbat. In the meantime, until the water is ready, what should he do? Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, said: He should swallow vinegar.

As it turns out, Rav Huna's advice to drink vinegar can be found in today's medical literature. The Ahwaz team offers this suggestion:

If the leech is in the nares or upper pharynx, it be detached by applying 30% cocaine, 1:10,000 adrenalin or dimethyl phthalate to it. Another method is irrigation with strong saline, vinegar, turpentine or alcohol.

Rav Huna's treatment with vinegar seems to be supported in the medical literature. So next time you travel to Ahwaz, take some along with you.    

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