Pt3 Sex, Bloodletting, Travel, and Other Dangerous Activites (Gittin 70a-b)
A series of 6 actions that will cause Immediate Death; 8 actions are difficult on the body when done in large amounts; 8 actions that decrease the semen
This is the third and final part of a three-part series. First part here, second part here.
A series of Six actions that will cause Immediate Death: return from travel, let blood, bathe, get drunk, sleep on floor, have sex
Six actions, if done all together, will cause immediate death.
However, R’ Yoḥanan notes that these actions lead to certain death only if performed in this exact order.
Abaye adds that performing them out of order results in weakness, not immediate death.
An exception is mentioned where the slave of a woman named Me’oret died after performing three of these actions, explained by the slave's inherent weakness.
ששה, העושה אותן – מיד מת, ואלו הן:
הבא בדרך ונתייגע,
הקיז דם,
ונכנס לבית המרחץ,
ושתה ונשתכר,
וישן על גבי קרקע,
ושימש מטתו.
אמר רבי יוחנן: והוא שעשאן כסידרן.
אמר אביי: כסידרן – מת, שלא כסידרן – חליש.
איני?!
והא מעורת, עבדה ליה לעבדה תלת מינייהו, ומית!
ההוא כחוש הוה.
With regard to one who performs the following acts, if he performs the six of them consecutively he dies immediately, and they are:
If one came back from a journey on the road and was exhausted,
let blood,
and entered the bathhouse,
and drank and became intoxicated,
and slept on the ground,
and engaged in sexual intercourse, then he will die.
Rabbi Yoḥanan says: But he will die for certain only in the case where he performs them in this order.
Abaye said: If he performs these actions in this order he will die. But if he performs them out of order he will become weak.
The Gemara asks: Is that so? But didn’t a woman named Me’oret make her slave perform three of these actions and he died as a result?
The Gemara answers: That slave was weak, which is why he died. But an ordinary individual would die only upon performing all of these acts in the previously mentioned order.
Eight actions are difficult on the body when done in large amounts: travel; sex; wealth; work; wine; sleep; hot water; bloodletting
שמונה – רובן קשה ומיעוטן יפה, ואלו הן:
דרך,
ודרך ארץ,
עושר,
ומלאכה,
יין,
ושינה,
חמין,
והקזת דם.
Eight actions are difficult for the body and the soul to handle in large amounts and are beneficial in small amounts, and they are:
Traveling on the road,
engaging in the way of the world, i.e., engaging in sexual intercourse,
having wealth,
work,
drinking wine,
sleep,
hot water,
and bloodletting.
Eight actions decrease the semen: salt; hunger; netek; crying; sleeping on the ground; gudg’daniyot; unripe dodder; bloodletting on the lower portion of the body
שמונה ממעטים את הזרע, ואלו הן:
המלח,
והרעב,
והנתק,
בכייה,
ושינה על גבי קרקע,
וגדגדניות,
וכשות שלא בזמנה,
והקזת דם למטה – כפלים.
תנא: כשם שקשה למטה כפלים, כך יפה למעלה – כפלים.
אמר רב פפא: למטה – למטה מן הביצים, למעלה – למעלה מן הביצים.
וכשות שלא בזמנה.
תנא: כשם שקשה שלא בזמנה, כך יפה בזמנה.
אמר רב פפא:
זמנה – תמוז,
שלא בזמנה – טבת,
יומי ניסן ויומי תשרי – לא מעלו ולא קשו.
Eight actions or illnesses decrease the semen, and they are:
Salt,
hunger,
a skin disease called netek,
crying,
sleeping on the ground,
the melilot plant,
and dodder eaten not in its time, i.e., before it is ripe.
And bloodletting performed below, on the lower portion of the body, causes twice as much harm as the other actions mentioned.
The Sage taught: Just as bloodletting below causes twice as much harm, so too, bloodletting above, on the upper portion of the body, is twice as effective.
Rav Pappa said: When the Gemara mentioned letting blood from below it meant below the testicles, and when it mentioned letting blood from above it meant above the testicles.
It was taught: And dodder eaten not in its time, before it is ripe, causes harm.
The Gemara explains: A Sage taught: Just as eating dodder not in its time is harmful to the body, so too, eating it in its time, when it is ripe, is good for the body.
Rav Pappa said:
Its time is Tammuz, in the summer,
and not in its time is Tevet, in the winter.
And during the days of Nisan, spring, and the days of Tishrei, autumn, they neither help nor harm.