A Frog Under the Tongue: Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe PDF
Preview A Frog Under the Tongue: Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe
This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:20:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms a frog under the tongue This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:20:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE LITTMAN LIBRARY OF JEWISH CIVILIZATION Dedicated to the memory of Louis Thomas Sidney Littman who founded the Littman Library for the love of God and as an act of charity in memory of his father Joseph Aaron Littman and to the memory of Robert Joseph Littman who continued what his father Louis had begun Get wisdom, get understanding: Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee PROV. 4: 5 The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization is a registered UK charity Registered charity no. 1000784 This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:20:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A FROG UNDER THE TONGUE ! Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe ! Marek Tuszewicki Translated by jessica taylor-kucia London The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in association with Liverpool University Press 2021 This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:20:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization Registered office: 4th floor, 7–10Chandos Street, London w1g 9dq in association with Liverpool University Press 4Cambridge Street, Liverpool l69 7zu, uk www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/littman Managing Editor: Connie Webber Distributed in North America by Oxford University Press Inc., 198Madison Avenue New York, ny 10016, usa First published in Polish © 2015Wydawnictwo Austeria, Kraków English translation of this abridged edition © The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization 2021 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization Catalogue records for this book are available from the British Library and the Library of Congress ISBN 978–1–906764–98–2 Publishing co-ordinator: Janet Moth Copy-editing: Agnes Erdos Proof-reading: Bonnie Blackburn Indexes: Marek Tuszewicki Production, design, and typesetting by Pete Russell, Faringdon, Oxon. Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:20:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms To Monika, my only medicine This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:20:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:20:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ! Iwish to express gratitude to all those who supported the idea of trans- lating A Frog under the Tongue. This book would not have come into being without the involvement of Connie Webber (the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization) and MichałGalas (Jagiellonian University of Kraków), whose enthusiasm for my vision greatly contributed to its realization. My special thanks are also extended to Wojciech Ornat of the publishing house Austeria for making this translation a natural consequence of our previous collaboration. The book has profited enormously from critical insights and advice from Leszek Hon´do, Zbigniew Libera (Jagiellonian Univer- sity of Kraków), and Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska (Catholic University of Lublin), who supervised and reviewed the original dissertation, devoted to the beliefs and healing practices of the Jewish people, long before it received its current form. Collecting the scattered and patchy source material and its evaluation would have been difficult without the help of Anna Jakimyszyn-Gadocha, Alicja Mas´lak-Maciejewska, Monika Biesaga, Zuzanna Kołodziejska, Magdalena Kozłowska, Jolanta Kruszniewska, Monika Szabłowska- Zaremba, Karolina Szymaniak, Sylwia Szyman´ska- Smolkin, Ewa We˛grzyn, Piotr Gra˛cikowski, and Yaad Biran. Certainly, my work on the project would have taken longer, and perhaps not even led to the goal at all, had it not been for the presence of my spouse, Monika Tuszewicka. Last, but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my outstanding translator Jessica Taylor-Kucia, as well as to the editorial team, especially Agi Erdos and Janet Moth, for their help and assistance in making this ‘peculiar’ topic available to international readers. This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:20:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms NOTE ON THE ENGLISH EDITION ! This work differs from the original Polish edition in a number of ways. Long passages about Jewish holidays and liturgies have been deleted, on the grounds that they will be familiar to Littman readers; on the other hand, information needed to understand the Slavic–Jewish interface has been added. Some passages have been abridged, on the recommendation of reviewers of the Polish edition. In particular, I have pruned the tangle of concepts rooted in Polish literature and ethnographic studies that might cloud the picture for a modern English readership. This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:20:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CONTENTS ! Note on Transliteration xi Introduction 1 PART I Health And Sickness in the Culture of Ashkenazi Jews 1. Health as a Value 21 2. Biblical and Talmudic Tradition 35 3. In the Family Circle 55 4. Feldshers and Healers 65 5. Tsadikim and Physicians 79 PART II A World of Similarities and Signs 6. Microcosm and Macrocosm 103 7. Humoral Pathology 125 8. Astrology 138 PART III Redemption and Festivals 9. Sin and Redemption 161 10. Festivals and Rituals 180 This content downloaded from 128.114.34.22 on Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:21:03 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
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