Chullin 110b (קי:) — the Talmud in English

He said to him

Rami bar Dikulei:

It is a borrowed cloak,

and Rav Yehuda said: In the case of a borrowed cloak, for the first thirty days

after it was borrowed—

it is exempt

from ritual fringes

even by rabbinic ordinance; and after thirty days it is exempt by Torah law but obligated by rabbinic ordinance.

Meanwhile,

while they were engaged in this dialogue,

they brought a certain man who did not honor [

who did not honor]

his father and mother.

They bound him

the man to the post in order to flog him, as we learned in tractate Ketubot: One who does not wish to fulfill a positive mitzva incumbent upon him is beaten in order to compel him to fulfill it, even until his soul departs.

Rami bar Dikulei said to them

Rami bar Dikulei:

Release him!

Set him free and do not flog him, because a court does not compel a person to fulfill the mitzva of honoring one’s father and mother,

as it was taught in a beraita: Any positive mitzva whose reward is stated alongside it

that is, whose reward the Torah explicitly states, such as the mitzva of honoring one’s father and mother, concerning which it is said, “so that your days may be lengthened,”

the earthly court is not charged with enforcing it!

For this reason the Torah specified its reward: to tell us that if one does not fulfill it, the sole punishment will be the loss of the reward explicitly stated for the mitzva, and there will be no other punishment, not even coercion to fulfill it.

Rav Hisda said to him

Rami bar Dikulei:

I see that you are exceedingly sharp!

You are extremely sharp.

Rami bar Dikulei said to him

Rami bar Dikulei:

If you had been in Rav Yehuda’s place—

I would have shown you my sharpness!

Abaye said to Rav Safra: When you go up there,

to Eretz Yisrael,

ask them: Liver—

what do you do

customarily do

with it

when cooking it? Is it permitted to cook it in a pot, or is it prohibited to cook it because while it cooks it emits blood into the pot, and blood that has been emitted is prohibited to eat and becomes reabsorbed into the foods in the pot?

When he went up

Rav Safra

found Rav Zerika

and asked him how one customarily cooks liver.

Rav Zerika said to him

Rav Safra:

I cooked it

I cooked liver

for Rabbi Ami—

and he ate it.

When he came

Rav Safra back

to

Abaye, he told him what he had heard from Rav Zerika,

Abaye said to him

Abaye to Rav Safra:

As for making itself prohibited—

I have no question!

That is, Abaye had no doubt regarding the cooking of the liver itself, for certainly the blood emitted from it during cooking does not become reabsorbed into it and render it prohibited. As long as the liver is expelling blood during cooking, it does not reabsorb the blood that it emits.

What I do have a question about—

is making another piece prohibited.

Does the blood that emerges from the liver during cooking prohibit the piece of meat cooking together with it in the same pot?

Rav Safra said to Abaye:

What is different about making itself prohibited, concerning which you have no question,

because you know the Mishna

as we learned

in tractate Terumot: “The liver—

does not become prohibited

through its cooking”? If so,

with regard to making another piece prohibited as well, you should have no question, as we learned,

in that same Mishna, which is known to you:

The liver

prohibits

the other piece cooking together with it in the pot,

but does not become prohibited

itself,

because it expels

the blood during cooking,

and

because it is preoccupied with expelling the blood, it

does not reabsorb

the blood that is emitted! But the other meat does absorb it.

And this applies

that it requires a lengthwise and crosswise cut—only to

liver,

because blood is collected within it, and when it emerges it is forbidden [by Torah law or by rabbinic law; see on page 110b Tosafot, s.v. “liver,” the opinion of Rabbeinu Tam, and the Rashba there],

but

the blood of

the spleen

[the spleen] is not collected within it, and the redness in it

is merely fat.

[Rashi wrote that it is permitted even to cook it in a pot. Tosafot wrote that specifically the body of the spleen is considered fat, but the blood that emerges from it is forbidden like all blood of the organs].

As in the case of Shmuel: They would prepare for him a spleen dish on the day he underwent bloodletting

—on the day that he underwent bloodletting, he would eat a dish of spleen.

It was stated:

One who roasts meat in an oven by means of a spit [with the pointed end of the spit facing downward] should do as follows:

Liver above meat—

is permitted.

We are not concerned that the blood emerges during roasting and flows onto the piece of meat hanging on the spit beneath it.

And why?

The blood

of the liver

slides right off,

sliding over the piece of meat during roasting, without being absorbed into it; rather, it falls to the ground, as blood naturally slides off.

But to place

spleen above meat—

is forbidden!

What is the reason?

Milk

that emerges from the khalav while it is being roasted does not slide over the piece of meat; rather,

it clings and adheres,

as milk naturally sticks, and it adheres to and is absorbed into the meat.

Rav Dimi of Nehardea taught the reverse:

Spleen above meat—

is permitted. What is the reason?

Milk

of a

slaughtered

animal is a prohibition

by rabbinic law

and we are not concerned about milk being absorbed into the meat beneath it during roasting.

But

liver above meat—

is forbidden,

because the prohibition of

blood

that emerges from the liver

is by Torah law,

and we must be concerned that it will be absorbed into the meat beneath it. [See Tosafot, s.v. “blood is by Torah law”].

Marimar expounded: The halakha is: Whether liver or spleen—

beneath meat is permitted,

because the blood of the liver and the khalav slides off and is not absorbed into the meat beneath it [with regard to the milk that emerges from the khalav, see Tosafot, s.v. “beneath meat is permitted”].

And placing the liver or the khalav

above meat—

only

after the fact, not

but

at the outset—

no!