Jewish medicine
Jewish medicine is medical practice of the
History
Ancient
There are no extant texts of ancient medicine, as a first subject, of Hebrew origin.[2] There was no medicine distinctly Jewish and instead Jewish practitioners had adopted Greek and later Graeco-Roman knowledge as practice.[3]
A text known as the "Book of Remedies" is recorded of in the Babylonian Talmud twice, and the baraita,[4][5] evidently dating from at least the reign of Hezekiah. Likewise, a text known as Sefer Refuot, which means "book of remedies," is known. However, its composition has been dated roughly to the time of the Byzantine Empire, anywhere from 1,000 and 1,700 years after Hezekiah.
It is possible that folk healers who had knowledge of
Middle Ages
Further Information: Medieval medicine of Western Europe
The Book of Remedies, the earliest medical text written in Hebrew, to
Though advances were made in gynaecology during the Middle Ages, the texts about gynaecology were written using the masculine form of Hebrew, indicating that gynecological texts were directed towards male doctors, not female midwives.[6] The only mention of midwives in these texts seems to be when direct contact with a woman’s genitalia is necessary; only then do texts specifically mention the women involved in the procedure.[6] In one instance, a text advised the doctor to "order the midwife to massage the orifice of her womb" with the herbs mentioned.[6]
As a result, the education of these women largely fell to their male relatives. Hava (also known as Hana), a Manoesque woman mentioned for her "medical capacity" in a document dated to the early 1320s,[8] and Virdimura, a Sicilian who obtained her medical license in 1376,[8] were female Jewish practitioners whose direct relatives—Hava's husband and sons, Virdimura's husband—were practitioners as well.[8] Jewish medical practitioners were often educated in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew, which gave them access to medical texts that were often inaccessible to their Christian counterparts.[9] Working as physicians, surgeons, and midwives, Jewish women were accepted as medical authorities in Paris, Florence, Naples, and Sicily, among other cities. Sara of St. Gilles, for instance, was a Jewish doctor who admitted a male Christian student, Salvetus de Burgonovo, in fourteenth century France.[8] Shatzmiller believes this is enough evidence to indicate that Sara taught female students as well.[8] Mayrona, a Jewish woman from Manoesque, France, is listed in over forty documents from 1342 as a phisica, or a licensed medical practitioner.[8] Jewish midwives made up a larger percentage of practitioners in some regions than their population would suggest.[10] In the French town of Marseille between 1390 and 1415, there are 24 known Jewish practitioners to 18 Christian ones; this is a shift from the period from 1337 to 1362 where Jewish doctors compromised approximately half of all practitioners in Marseille.[10]
Jewish practitioners participated in the exchange of knowledge between Christian and
The 17th century
The first organized study of Biblical medicine began during the 17th century.[11]
20th century
The famous doctor of psychiatry Sigmund Freud was Jewish by birth.[12] Abraham Maslow was born to Russian Jewish parents during 1908.[13]
See also
References
- ^ "Jewish Nobel Prize Winners". jinfo.org. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
- ^ H Friedenwald - The Bibliography of Ancient Hebrew Medicine - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, Bull Med Libr Assoc, v. 23(3); Jan 1935.
- ISBN 0801891426
- ^ DJ Halperin - The Jewish Quarterly Review New Series, Vol. 72, No. 4 (Apr., 1982), pp. 269-292 The "Book of Remedies," the Canonization of the Solomonic Writings, and the Riddle of Pseudo-Eusebius. Retrieved 2012-12-20
- ^ definotion of baraita - jewishencyclopedia.com and mishnah - jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2012-12-20
- ^ ISBN 978-9004109957.
- S2CID 143076908.
- ^ ISBN 9780520080591.
- ISBN 9780230282919.
- ^ S2CID 159621709.
- ^ Friedenwald
- ^ Arnold D. Richards
- The Jewish World of Sigmund Freud: Essays on Cultural Roots and the Problem of Religious Identity, McFarland, 2010 ISBN 078644424X
- ^ S D Kunin, JMiles-Watson - Theories of Religion: A Reader, Rutgers University Press, 2006