Chullin 54a (נד.) — the Talmud in English

We have already learned:

The gullet: its perforation is of any size.

Therefore,

its being clawed

is likewise obvious to me that it is

of any size.

The windpipe –

its perforation is the size of an issar. Its being clawed –

how much

must it redden?

After he posed the question, he then resolved it: One of these,

the gullet,

and the other,

the windpipe –

its being clawed

is

of any size.

What is the reason? Its venom,

the poison,

burns completely,

burning

and proceeding,

spreading even when it is clawed only to the slightest degree.

Rav Yitzḥak bar Shemuel bar Marta was sitting before Rav Naḥman, and he was sitting and saying: The clawing that they said requires examination –

the examination is required as far as

opposite the intestines.

Rav Naḥman said to him,

to Rav Yitzḥak bar Shemuel: How can you say that the examination is required only as far as opposite the intestines?

By God! [

an expression of oath]

Rav taught it,

Rav taught that the examination is required

from the skullcap to the thigh.

And he proceeds to explain:

The Gemara asks:

What is “skullcap”?

If we say it means the skullcap of the hand,

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

that is identical to “opposite the intestines,”

as Rav Yitzḥak said [since the lungs and liver are also called “intestines”]. And why does Rav Naḥman challenge him from Rav’s statement!?

Rather, it means the skullcap of the brain,

the skullcap, including the entire body cavity of the animal, even opposite the signs,

to the thigh!

When

he went up,

Rav Ḥiyya bar Yosef

from Babylonia to Eretz Yisrael,

he found

Rabbi Yoḥanan and Reish Lakish

sitting and saying: The clawing that they said requires examination –

opposite the intestines.

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

from the skullcap to the thigh!

Reish Lakish said to him: Who is this Rav? And who is this Rav?

Who is this Rav whose teachings they constantly mention to us,

and I do not know him?!

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Does he not seem familiar to you,

do you not remember

that student,

Rav, before he went down to Babylonia,

who served Rabbi Rabbah [

the Nasi ],

and Rabbi Ḥiyya?!

By God! All those years that that student served in the academy –

I served while standing.

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

And Reish Lakish asked Rabbi Yoḥanan:

And in what was he superior?

In what lay Rav’s greatness!?

Rabbi Yoḥanan answered him:

He was superior in everything.

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

Immediately, Reish Lakish began and said: Indeed, I remember

him favorably,

that man who stated a teaching,

that if the windpipe is found

dislocated and slaughtered,

and it is unknown whether it was dislocated before the slaughter or afterward –

it is kosher.

The reason for the matter is

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

Once it has been dislocated, it descends downward into the animal, and it is impossible to slaughter it.

And Rabbi Yoḥanan says: He should bring and compare.

He should make additional cuts, similar to the cut of the slaughter, and compare them; if the additional cuts resemble the cut of the slaughter, this is proof that the slaughter was performed after the signs had been torn from their places.

Rav Naḥman said: They taught

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

them when he came to slaughter

the signs, and slaughtered –

it is possible for a dislocated organ to become slaughtered.

We learned in the Mishna: “This is the general rule”:

Any creature that cannot live in such a condition is a tereifa.

What does this serve to include? –

It serves to include the seven teachings

that were explained above.

The household of

the people of

Yosef the hunter

the hunter,

struck

the animal

in the sciatic nerve,

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

and killed it,

so that the animal died on its own as a result of the blow, and they then hurried and slaughtered it.

They came before Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira

to ask him what its status was.

He said to them:

Is it possible

to add to the tereifot?!

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

you have only what the Sages enumerated

among the tereifot!

The household of Rav Pappa bar Abba the hunter,

the hunter,

struck

the animal

in the kidney,

in the animal’s kidney,

and killed it,

so that 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 rendered it a tereifa.

He said to them:

Is it possible

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

And we inquire concerning this: Why do blows of this kind, 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 an established tradition

that if

they administer medicine to it,

if they spread a medicinal substance upon it,

it will live,

it will be able to continue living. That is, since these blows have a remedy, they are not considered tereifot.

Mishna:

And these are kosher in an animal:

If the windpipe was perforated

without a deficiency the size of an issar.

Or if it was split

lengthwise, with a portion remaining above and below.

How much may be missing

from the windpipe and it still remain kosher?

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Until

there remains in it

the size of an Italian issar.

If the skull was crushed,

a deficiency was made in it,

but the membrane of the brain was not perforated.

If the heart was perforated, but

it was not perforated as far as

its cavity.

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

If the omasum and the reticulum were perforated into one another,

in the place where their walls are pressed together, and through the perforation between them the food passes from one to the other, but it does not emerge into the animal’s body cavity.

If the spleen was removed.

If the kidneys were removed.

If the lower jaw was removed.

If the womb was removed,

the uterus

belonging to it.

And if it was shriveled,

the lung shriveled

by the hand of Heaven.

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

If it was skinned,

an animal whose hide was removed from it –

Rabbi Meir declares it kosher,

but the Sages declare it unfit.

Gemara:

Whenever the term “these” is stated, it is a limitation, meaning: “these and no others”!

It was stated: Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

The statement that we learned at the beginning of our chapter,

“These are tereifot,” is specific

and refers specifically to these, and not to others.

And Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said:

The statement that we learned here,

“These are kosher,” is specific

and refers specifically to these, and not to others!

With regard to what do they disagree? –

They disagree with regard to Rav Mattana’s ruling.

For Rav Mattana said: As for this hip joint [

see the illustration in the book Siḥat Ḥullin],

that slipped

that moved

from its place,

from its location, it is

a tereifa.

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: “These are tereifot” is specific.

Therefore,

the tanna

the tanna taught in our Mishna

“tereifot,” and the tanna

also taught

“This is the general rule,”

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