Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala
Religion
Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala
Hebrew literature -- Translations into English
"For night-blindness, let a man take a hair-rope and bind one end of it
to his own leg and the other to a dog's, then let children clatter a
potsherd after him, and call out, 'Old man! dog! fool! cock!' Let him
now collect seven pieces of meat from seven (different) houses; let him
set them on the cross-bar of the threshold, then let him eat them on the
town middens; and after that let him undo the hair-rope, then let him
say thus: 'Blindness of So-and-so, son of Mrs. So-and-so, leave
So-and-so, son of Mrs. So-and-so, and be brushed into the pupil of the
eye of the dog.'" (Quoted from "The Fragment," by Rev. W.H. Lowe of
Cambridge.)
_Gittin_, fol. 69, col. 1.
According to the Rabbis, a man should not drink water by night, for thus
he exposes himself to the power of Shavriri, the demon of blindness.
What then should he do if he is thirsty? If there be another man with
him, let him rouse him up and say, "I am thirsty;" but if he be alone,
let him tap upon the lid of the jug (to make the demon fancy there's
some one with him), and addressing himself by his own name and the name
of his mother, let him say, "Thy mother has bid thee beware of Shavriri,
vriri, riri, iri, ri," in a white cup. Rashi says by this incantation
the demon gradually contracts and vanishes as the sounds of the word
Shavriri decrease.
_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 12, col. 2.
A python is a familiar spirit who speaks from his armpits; a wizard is
one who speaks with the mouth. As the Rabbis have taught, a familiar
spirit is one who speaks from his joints and his wrists; a wizard is one
who, putting a certain bone into his mouth, causes it to speak.
_Sanhedrin_, fol. 65, cols, 1, 2.
He who says to a raven "Croak," and to a hen raven, "Droop thy tail and
turn it this way as a lucky sign," is an imitator of the ways of the
Amorites (Lev. xviii. 3).
_Shabbath_, fol. 67, col. 2.
Women going out on the Sabbath-day are allowed, as the Rabbis teach, to
carry with them a certain stone believed to counteract abortion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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