Cupping in Jewish Life and Law

Naomi Miller writes:

The gold-medalist swimmer Michael Phelps has been pictured in the news media with purple bruises from cupping glasses on his upper body. I knew there is a saying in Yiddish about such cups, but I can’t remember it—perhaps something with the word bankes that has a meaning like “Does it help?” Would you know what it is?

Naomi Miller is on the right track. The expression she’s looking for is es vet helfn vi a toytn bankes, “It will help as a cupping glass helps a dead man”—in other words, not at all. This expression is not a criticism of cupping, a form of folk medicine once common in Yiddish-speaking Eastern Europe. It simply observes that if you hope to benefit from such treatment, it’s first a good idea to make sure you’re still alive.