{"title":"Sin and Redemption","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781906764982.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781906764982.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses how sin is viewed and how it affects health. The existence of an extrasensory dimension perceptible only to a select few through visions and other mystical experiences was not called into question. The two spheres — the visible and the invisible — were bound up in a tightly woven mesh of interdependencies. Not only did they influence each other in matters including human health, but they were also reflections of each other. The notion of sickness as punishment recurs several times in the Talmud. The causes of ailments were interpreted using a combination of conceptions drawn from various traditions. The motif of punishment was a perennial subject of study in rabbinic Orthodoxy and Hasidism alike. The Jews living in eastern Europe believed that there were seven things which made life shorter: anger and envy, greed and pride, gossip, debauchery, and idleness. Anyone who lived to a ripe old age was considered fortunate and blessed. Those who died prematurely were thought to have to live out the rest of their years in another incarnation. In the popular understanding, the bond between the human soul and body was so strong that even the smallest flaw in the former would immediately manifest in the latter. Sickness presented an opportunity to purify oneself from sins. To the traditional Jewish community, prayer could have a bearing on health primarily as a regular form of fulfilment of divine service. The sin of neglect affected not only the human soul but also the body.","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"139 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122134147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"BIBLICAL AND TALMUDIC TRADITION","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.6","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the treatment of medical matters in the Biblical and Talmudic tradition. It talks about the way in which the holy books, as well as the midrashic, ethical, and kabbalistic literature based on them, influenced curative practices in Jewish society. Among the many customs of Jewish society, there are many examples of instrumental treatment of books. The Bible and Talmud created a system of laws regulating all aspects of a Jew's life, and contained many detailed pronouncements on health-related issues, including physical cleanliness, procedures designed to help maintain physical health, and the correct diet. So many and such varied matters were regulated in various places scattered throughout the extensive treatises and chapters that it seemed impossible to know them all fully. Assistance was at hand in the form of the halakhic codes but the rabbinic authorities of Ashkenaz discouraged study of halakhic matters from sources other than those written in Hebrew as they did not trust translations. The wealth of Bible-related resources grew larger the further one departed from a literal interpretation of words and quotations. The Bible constituted a boundless reservoir of quotes which might be used in conjurations against illnesses or on amulets. These were seen not only as guidance for action, but also as integral elements of sorcery.","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"94 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122881415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In the Family Circle","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781906764982.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781906764982.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the role that family and community played when it came to health and medicine. People were rarely left alone to struggle with physical afflictions. They were surrounded by both immediate and more distant relations as well as neighbours, among whom there was usually no shortage of home-grown specialists or concerned advisers. They had the choice to seek relief from practices based on folk beliefs or those founded upon conventional medicine. Early modern medicine prioritized the decisions taken by the patients themselves. Doctors subordinated their judgement to their patients' narratives, and were expected to pay more attention to the sick person's interpretation of their own illness. There are four basic 'grades' of action in case of ailments: ignoring them; taking a home-made remedy or tried and trusted medication; treatment by a healer; and, if all else failed, consultation with a medical professional. The choice of treatment procedure depended on a range of factors: the severity of the illness, the patient's personality, their familiarity with treatment methods and the range of remedies stocked in the medicine cupboard at home, the availability of official and unofficial medical or paramedical services, and the financial standing of the patient and those in his or her immediate circle.","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132595290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"DISEASES AS DEMONIC BEINGS","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.15","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses how Jews view diseases as manifestations of demons. The Jewish culture of eastern Europe saw diseases either as autonomous entities whose existence was closely bound up with that of humans or as entirely separate beings that could take possession of the human body and manifest themselves in the form of various symptoms (pain, stabbing sensations, swelling, redness, etc.). Some of these 'lived' in the body of their host as congenital to it, even vital for its proper functioning. Others were seen as harmful intruders. This anthropomorphization of physical misfortunes had a variety of consequences for therapeutic practices. The demonic character of diseases invading the human body occasioned the use of remedies designed to confuse, frighten away, disgust, bribe, or starve the anthropomorphized complaint. Diseases that were imagined as unclean beings would be treated with a vast arsenal of magical remedies, including popular apotropaics. In the popular conception the human body was the natural seat of all manner of beings, without which it could not exist. These were normally dormant, but in certain adverse conditions they would awake and make their presence painfully felt in some way. Jewish sources contain examples of magic incantations to drive out worms, conjurations in Yiddish borrowed from the language of the Christian environment, biblical quotes, and so on. In the folk understanding, it was in the nature of some diseases to 'attack' whole populations. Mystical methods were ubiquitously employed to combat plague, the most widespread being symbolic isolation.","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131210058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Evil Eye","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781906764982.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781906764982.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the evil eye. The evil eye played a fundamental role in Jewish beliefs surrounding medicine. This denoted individuals who were in possession of eyes capable of casting spells, causing harm to others or damage to material objects, whether intentionally or not. An angry or jealous look spawned an evil angel and it was this angel that wreaked the damage attributed to the evil eye. In order not to cast a glance that might have magical consequences, one should turn one's gaze to heaven. Every sudden indisposition was attributed to the influence of the evil eye. Symptoms which were a sure sign that one had fallen victim to it were a high temperature, headache, yawning, stretching, and drowsiness, but the list was an open one, and could also include various types of swelling, convulsions, vomiting, or accidents such as bone fractures or sprains. The power of the evil eye came not so much from otherworldly sources as from the free will — or lack thereof — of the person inflicting it. Verbal attempts would be made to redirect the attention of the evil eye onto other objects, while guests and even people met on the street would be issued with warnings not to 'inflict the eye', to 'look at the lamp', or to 'count nine chimneys', otherwise their 'eyes would end up on the fifth house from here'. A considerable range of common apotropaics was in widespread use in traditional society.","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130935278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"DEMONS AND WITCHES","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.16","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter talks about demons and witches. People believed that an illness or other health issue could be the work of supernatural beings such as demons, devils, or witches. These creatures were thought to do their mischief not by directly entering the victim's body, but usually by using magic. In the popular imagination, humans were constantly surrounded by demons and the like, though not all of these creatures drew satisfaction from making mischief. Ghosts and demons were thought to inhabit specific places, or to be in the habit of behaving in particular ways, and, left in peace, they would not interfere in human affairs. In the folk consciousness, any interference in a sphere perceived to be the domain of unclean forces was bound to render the meddler vulnerable to a more or less violent reaction on the part of those forces. The practical ramifications of this belief were visible in superstitions surrounding matters such as building and moving into a house. Places considered holy and which were reserved for the enactment of rites and rituals were by no means out of bounds to incorporeal beings. There is also a belief there were demons who, at the request of the rebbe, would protect the Jewish community from the local squire's insatiable greed. Almost every type of demon could be persuaded to help humans, and whether or not one was successful in this mission depended chiefly on one's cunning. Nonetheless, the dominant trope in folk tales is of demons harming or causing damage to humans, and even bringing death on them.","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114728853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"HEALTH AS A VALUE","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_100841","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_100841","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116250354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"FELDSHERS AND HEALERS","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.8","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter talks about feldshers and healers. Feldshers were the group most devoted to offering medical aid, and occupied a position somewhere on the borderline between official and folk medicine. It was they to whom one went with broken bones, sprains, dislocations, and other mechanical injuries. They were also considered the experts in taking the pulse, bloodletting, applying leeches, performing dry and wet cupping, applying iodine to the throat, pulling teeth, and giving enemas. Some feldshers had completed nursing training in community institutions such as homeless shelters or public baths. Most feldshers based their treatment on traditional views of anatomy, attributing illness to 'bad blood.' By the 1900s, feldshers had begun to bring elements of biomedicine into Jewish folk medicine. In the second half of the nineteenth century, women educated in midwifery schools gained the recognition of the rabbinic authorities. They were cited in the responsa as specialists, the more so since the scope of their competencies went far beyond assisting at births and they were practically comparable in their functions to feldshers. The Jewish populace preferred the assistance offered by feldshers, wise women, and midwives from within their own community. There was a fairly large group of practitioners who worked outside the parameters of the law and the regulations of state bodies. The scope of their activities may be defined as healing, even quackery, though not all of them drew on magic and they were not all known as quacks.","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126021938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"TSADIKIM AND PHYSICIANS","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjwh.9","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the role of tsadikim and how the Jews viewed physicians. The Jewish population of eastern Europe was caught in the middle of a conflict between traditional treatments, represented by Orthodox circles, and the modern alternatives propagated by educated physicians. Tsadikim were often perceived as allies in the struggle for health and life. In the Talmud this was the term used to denote individuals of exceptional piety and probity, suffused with the grace of heaven in recognition of their virtues. Rabbis were also considered tsadikim; throughout Jewish history they would be approached for advice and prayers for the sick. The treatment process took a variety of forms, which depended not only on the type of ailment but also on the healer's own preferences. The ultimate effort that a tsadik could expend for the good of his community was the sacrifice of his life. The death of a tsadik did not mean the end of life, but marked the beginning of the holy man's constant, uninhibited access to the divine throne. Doctors were not greatly trusted; they were seen as godless proponents of Enlightenment heresies who dressed in European fashion.","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"150 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134483058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Festivals and Rituals","authors":"Marek Tuszewicki","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781906764982.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781906764982.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter covers that dimension of Jewish therapeutic practices which encompassed daily and annual rites, rituals, and customs. Among the customs and traditions mentioned in the chapter is the interesting folk rite Pesach, which involved young men roaming the streets of their town looking for fellow residents with skin diseases. Anyone who answered to the description would be presented with a train ticket accompanied by the recommendation that they pack their bags quickly because the train to Egypt would not be waiting long. The chapter also talks about the Seder meal. Certain traditions connected with the Seder were interpreted specifically as prophylactic. It also talks about the cycle of autumn festivals which is of great importance for matters of health. It mentions the Days of Awe and the widespread custom of measuring the cemetery and graves with string to be later used to make wicks for candles. It also talks about the solemn significance and the Four species, a bundle composed of four types of plant: a date palm frond (lulav), three myrtle branches, and two willow branches, all bound up with palm rings, and an etrog (citron). The chapter discusses human life, understood by traditional Jewish society as being divided into successive stages, each of which was marked by important ritual events. It looks at the health-related justifications for the rituals that God-fearing Jews were required to perform, and it emphasizes the ubiquity in Jewish folk medicine of elements of the sabbath and festival liturgy, and of objects used in religious rites.","PeriodicalId":111438,"journal":{"name":"A Frog Under the Tongue","volume":"133 1-4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120918032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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