Chullin 54a — the Talmud in English

For we learned:

“The gullet: its perforation with anything.”

Therefore

its being clawed

also is obvious to me that it is

with anything.

The windpipe —

its perforation with a sela; its being clawed —

with how much

must it become red?

After he had asked, he then answered: One and this one,

the gullet,

and one and this one,

the windpipe —

its being clawed

is

with anything.

What is the reason? Its venom,

the poison,

burns away,

burning

and proceeding,

spreading even with clawing of anything.

Rav Yitzhak bar Shmuel bar Marta sat before Rav Nahman, and he sat and said: The clawing concerning which they said requires examination —

it requires the examination up to

opposite the intestines.

Rav Nahman said to him,

to Rav Yitzhak bar Shmuel: How do you say that the examination is up to opposite the intestines, when

by God! [

an expression of oath ]

Rav taught it,

Rav taught that it requires examination

from the shoulder-blade to the thigh.

And as he explains and proceeds:

And the Gemara discusses:

What is “shoulder-blade”?

If we say the shoulder-blade of the hand,

the palm of the hand, which is the broad bone of the shoulder, and “to the thigh” means up to the thigh, then

this is “opposite the intestines,”

as Rav Yitzhak said [for the lung and the liver are also called “intestines”], so what is Rav Nahman challenging him from Rav’s words!?

Rather, from the shoulder-blade of the brain,

the palm of the skull, including the entire cavity of the animal, and even opposite the signs,

to the thigh!

When

when

Rav Hiyya bar Yosef

went up to the Land of Israel from Babylonia,

he found

Rabbi Yohanan and Resh Lakish,

who were sitting and saying: The clawing concerning which they said requires examination —

opposite the intestines.

He said to them: By God! Rav taught it —

from the shoulder-blade to the thigh!

Resh Lakish said to him: Who is Rav? And who is Rav?

Who is that Rav whose teachings they always mention before us

and I do not know him?!

Rabbi Yohanan said: Does he not recognize him,

and do you not remember

that student,

Rav, before he went down to Babylonia,

who served Rabbi Rabbah [

the Nasi ],

and Rabbi Hiyya?!

And by God! During all those years that that student served in the academy —

I served while standing.

For he was more important than I, since I had to stand while he sat.

And Resh Lakish asked Rabbi Yohanan:

And in what was he greater?

In what was Rav’s greatness!?

And Rabbi Yohanan answered him:

He was greater in everything.

Rav’s greatness was in everything, both in Torah and in piety.

Immediately Resh Lakish began and said: Indeed, I remember

him favorably,

that man, whose teaching was reported from his mouth,

that if the windpipe is found

dislocated and slaughtered,

and it is not known whether it was dislocated before the slaughter or afterward —

it is fit.

And the reason for the matter is

that it is impossible for a dislocated organ to become slaughtered.

For once it is dislocated, it descends downward, into the animal, and it is impossible to slaughter it.

And Rabbi Yohanan says: He should bring and compare.

He should make additional cuts, similar to the slaughter cut, and compare them; and if the additional cuts resemble the cut of the dislocation, this is evidence that the slaughter was performed after the signs were torn from their place.

Rav Nahman said: They taught this

that it is impossible for a dislocated organ to become slaughtered

only when he did not grasp

the signs at the time of slaughter.

But if he grasped

the signs when he came to slaughter

and slaughtered —

it is possible for a dislocated organ to become slaughtered.

We learned in the Mishna: This is the general rule

that anything like which does not live is a tereifa.

What does this come to include? —

It comes to include the six teachings

explained above.

The people of

the men of

Yosef the hunter

the hunter,

struck

they would strike

the sciatic nerve,

the animal’s sciatic nerve, with an arrow or a stick,

and killed,

and the animal died on its own as a result of this blow, and they hastened and slaughtered it.

They came before Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira

to ask him what its law was.

He said to them:

But is there

an adding to the tereifot?!

For a blow to the sciatic nerve does not render it a tereifa, but

, you have only what the Sages enumerated

among the tereifot!

The people of Rav Pappa bar Abba the hunter,

the hunter,

struck

they hit

the kidney,

the animal’s kidney,

and killed

and it died on its own as a result of the blow to the kidney.

They came before Rabbi Abba

to ask him whether this blow renders it a tereifa.

He said to them:

But is there

an adding to the tereifot?! You have only what the Sages enumerated.

And we raise the difficulty: Why do such blows, to the sciatic nerve and to the kidneys, not render it a tereifa?

But we see that it dies

as a result of these blows!? And we answer:

It is received by tradition

that if

they apply a medicine to it,

if they spread a medicinal drug over it,

it lives,

it can continue to live. That is, since these blows have a remedy, they are not considered a tereifa.

Mishna:

And these are fit in an animal:

If the windpipe was perforated

without the loss of a sela.

Or if it was split

the windpipe along its length, with part of it remaining above and below.

How much may be lacking

from the windpipe and it will still be fit?

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Until

there remains in it

the Italian sela.

If the skull was crushed

was lacking

and the membrane of the brain was not perforated.

[The brain] was not perforated.

If the heart was perforated, but

it was not perforated up to

its inner cavity.

If the spine was broken, but its cord was not severed. If the liver was removed, and an olive-bulk remained of it.

The omasum and the reticulum that were perforated into each other,

in the place where their walls are pressed against each other, and through the perforation between them the food spills from one to the other, but it does not go out into the animal’s cavity.

If the spleen was removed.

If the kidneys were removed.

If the lower jaw was removed.

If the mother

the womb

of it was removed.

And one whose lung shrank,

the lung shrank

by the hand of Heaven.

For example, it heard the sound of thunder, and its lung shrank like palm branches.

One whose skin was peeled,

an animal whose skin was removed from it —

Rabbi Meir declares fit,

and the Sages declare unfit.

Gemara:

Every place where it is said “these,” it is a limitation, and it implies: “these,” and no more!

It was stated: Rabbi Yohanan said:

That which we learned at the beginning of our chapter,

“These are the tereifot,” is specifically

them, and not others.

And Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said:

That which we learned here,

“These are fit,” is specifically

these, and not others!

With regard to what do they disagree? —

With regard to Rav Mattana’s teaching.

For Rav Mattana said: This joint of the thigh [

see illustration in the book Sihat Hulin ]

that shifted

that moved

from its place,

from its place, is

a tereifa.

Rabbi Yohanan says: “These are the tereifot” specifically.

Therefore,

the tannai

the tannai taught in our Mishna

tereifot, and the tannai

also

“This is the general rule,”

to include also matters that he did not teach under “These are the tereifot,” but which are included in this general rule.