Text
The Talmud ritual is comparable to an Assyrian ritual based on the incantation series Utukku lemnūtu where a mouse and shoot of a thorn bush are hung from the patient’s door sill.
SAA 10 238:
As soon as something has afflicted him (= the patient), the exorcist rises and hangs a mouse and a shoot of a thornbush on the vault of the (patient’s) door. The exorcist dresses in a red garment and puts on a red cloak. He (holds) a ra[ven on] his right, a falcon on [his left], and po[urs … ] on the censer of the ‘7 gates,’ grasps a [ … ], holds a t[orch in his han]d, stri[kes] with a [w]hip and recites [the incantation] “Verily You are [Evil].” [After] he has finished, he makes another exorcist go around the bed of the patient, followed by a censer and a torch, recites the incantation “Begone Evil hultuppu (going) as far as to the door and (then) conjures the door. Until (the demon) is driven out, he does (this every) morning and evening.
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 68b:
For migraine (lṣlḥytˀ) let one take a wild cock and slaughter it with a crystal (lit. white) vessel (for collecting blood?) over the particular side of the head which hurts him, with the warning that the blood does not blind the patient’s eye. And let (the healer) hang (the cock) in the threshold of the house so that when he enters and exits he rubs against it.
Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 68b
SAA 10 238
Bibliography
| Geller 2000, 18 | Geller, Mark J. “An Akkadian Vademecum in the Babylonian Talmud.” In: S. Kottek and M. Horstmanshoff (eds.). From Athens to Jerusalem. Medicine in Hellenized Jewish Lore and in Early Christian Literature. Rotterdam: Erasmus Publishing 2000, 13-32. |
| Parpola 1983, 162 | Parpola, Simo. Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. Part 2: Commentary and Appendices. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 5.2. Kevelaer: Butzon and Bercker, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag 1983. |
Amar Annus
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