Medical Authority and Jewish medicine in the Babylonian Talmud (Professor Mark Geller)

This video explores the history of medicine, particularly Jewish medicine in the Ancient period, and explores that findings in the Babylonian Talmud compiled in the late Classical Period that come in the form of its medical references. These appear to have clear parallels with those of the Mandaeans and other Aramaic speakers. Was there, then, a Jewish medicine, with knowledge transmitted during studies of Halachah/Halakhah? Or one which reflected shared knowledge and training with other communities in the Middle East? This in turn raises intriguing questions about who wielded most authority in medical matters - rabbis or doctors?
As Professor Mark Geller (University College London) observes, the career of the Babylonian scholar, Abbaye, and his work in areas as varied as gynaecology and paediatrics, is a case in point. Then there are the challenges posed by interpreting his language and how it was transmitted and understood by later scholars. (And not always in the way intended.)
Professor Geller took us into the world of Late Antique Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) from whence came the great and legendary rabbis who collated, edited and composed the Babylonian Talmud. An encyclopaedic work that recorded the sum of knowledge known to those rabbis, and a work that is still the foundation of all streams of living Judaism. Within that world we were directed to the less well known and even less understood or studied topic of medicine. More specifically, to a two page extract that appears in the tractate go Gittin (Divorce Bills) that enumerates, from head to toe in that order, a list of ailments and their respectively recommended remedies. Having eluded explanation this section, like countless others in the Talmud, which are poorly understood, has at best been ignored, and at worst considered an example of superstitious nonsense.
Also mentioned is the work of the anthropologist Lady Ethel Drower (1879-1972), who played a key role in the study of the Mandaeans and their manuscripts.
This was the 2020 Howard Rein Lecture, and was recorded at the University of Southampton on 21 January 2020. It was organised by the Parkes Institute, one of the world’s leading centres for the study of Jewish and non-Jewish relations.
IMAGE: An Aramaic Medicine Bowl, c. 5th Century AD.