Ephraim Wertheim. Sha’ar Ephraim [responsa, along with charms, potions and folk medicine]

(MEDICINE)

Aaron Katz

Altona

1736

Second (expanded) edition. With Yiddish section of Seguloth and Refuoth plus additional material. Hebrew manuscript leaf with a potion for menstruation inserted before f. 18.

Vinograd Altona 28; Mehlman, 938 (incomplete).

A fascinating manual containing folk-remedies and cures for a variety of sicknesses especially for “those in the villages who do not have ready access to doctors.” The author was also known as a kabbalist, indeed the introductory pages record an anecdote whereby he exorcised a dybbuk. The final leaf is a glossary of scientific symbols identified in Yiddish and Latin (transliterated in waybertaytsch letters). The author is clearly quite confident in his medical knowledge and is of the opinion that many of the local gentile doctors were charlatans, who furthermore, had no skills in Latin.