For the source text click/tap here: Bava Batra 126
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A new Mishnah informs us that if a father says, “So-and-so, my firstborn son, shall not receive a double portion, or, if he says, “So-and-so, my son, shall not inherit with his brothers (and then he died), he has said nothing, for he has made a condition against what is written in the Torah.
The Gemara relates: There was a certain man who came before Rabbi Ḥanina and said to him: I know that this man is a firstborn. Rabbi Ḥanina said to him: From where do you know? He said to Rabbi Ḥanina: Because when people would come before his father to obtain a cure for their ailing eyes, he would say to them: Go to my son Shikhḥat, as he is a firstborn and his saliva heals this ailment.
We explore the history of spittle and the superstitions surrounding it to this day.