Chullin 94b — the Talmud in English

One, because of coercion

lest the gentile take meat by force from the slaughterer and not pay him.

And one, lest they sell him unslaughtered carcasses and tereifot.

The Master said: And with regard to a gentile—

whether whole or cut, he need not remove the sciatic nerve from it.

And we raised this:

With what are we dealing? If you say it is in a place where they make an announcement,

that today a tereifa was found among one of the animals, and in that place it is permitted to buy meat from a gentile on that day because they did not announce a tereifa, then why

does he not need to remove the sciatic nerve from a cut thigh?

But

since they did not announce

today,

a Jew will come to buy from him,

from the gentile, and since the thigh is cut, the Jew will think that the nerve was removed from it and will stumble through eating the sciatic nerve?

Rather, it is obvious

that it is speaking

in a place where they do not make an announcement,

about the tereifa if one is found. There it is forbidden to buy meat from a gentile at any time, lest on that very day there was indeed a tereifa and the meat in his possession is from that animal. Therefore, it is permitted to send even a cut thigh to a gentile without removing the nerve from it, since there is no concern lest a Jew buy the thigh from the gentile.

If so,

say the middle clause

of the beraita, as it teaches:

“For two reasons they said: One may not sell unslaughtered carcasses and tereifot to a gentile: one because he misleads him, and one lest he return and sell it to another Jew!” And if

it is speaking

in a place where they do not make an announcement,

there is no concern that he will sell it to a Jew, for

the Jew will not come

to

buy from him,

from the gentile, because of the concern lest the meat be a tereifa?

Rather, it is obvious,

that it is speaking

in a place where they make an announcement,

and today there was indeed a tereifa, but because of coercion they did not announce it. Therefore, it is forbidden to sell unslaughtered carcasses and tereifot to a gentile on that day, because perhaps a Jew will buy it from him, since today it is permitted to buy from a gentile, as they did not announce a tereifa.

If so,

say the final clause

which teaches:

“A person should not say to a gentile, ‘Buy meat for me with this dinar,’ for two reasons: one because of coercion, and one lest they sell him unslaughtered carcasses and tereifot!” And if

it is speaking

in a place where they make an announcement,

there is no concern that they will sell him a tereifa, for

if it were the case that it was a tereifa

today—

they would have made an announcement!

And since they did not announce, it is a sign that there is no tereifa today.

Rather, it is obvious

that it is speaking

in a place where they do not make an announcement,

and it is impossible to know whether a tereifa animal was found today, and there is concern lest they sell from it to a gentile.

Now this is difficult:

The first clause and the final clause are in a place where they do not make an announcement, while the middle clause is in a place where they make an announcement!?

And we answer:

Abaye said: Yes! The first clause and the final clause are in a place where they do not make an announcement,

whereas

the middle clause is in a place where they make an announcement!

Rava said: The entire

beraita

is in a place where they make an announcement.

The first clause and the final clause

are speaking

when they announced

that a tereifa animal had been found today. Therefore, in the first clause it is permitted to send a thigh to a gentile, and there is no concern lest a Jew buy it from him, since today it is forbidden to buy meat from a gentile. And in the final clause it is forbidden for a Jew to give a dinar to a gentile so that he will buy meat for him, lest they sell him meat from the tereifa.

The middle clause

is speaking of a case in which there was a tereifa today and they

did not announce it

because of coercion. Therefore, it is forbidden to sell this tereifa to a gentile, because perhaps a Jew will buy it from him, since today it is permitted to buy from a gentile, as they did not announce it.

Rav Ashi said: The entire matter is in a place where they do not make an announcement,

where it is always forbidden to buy from a gentile. Therefore, in the first clause it is permitted to send a thigh to a gentile, and in the final clause it is forbidden to send the gentile to buy meat, since there is concern lest a tereifa was found today.

And the middle clause

says that it is forbidden to sell unslaughtered carcasses and tereifot to a gentile. And although in a place where they do not make an announcement there is no concern that a Jew will buy the tereifa from the gentile, nevertheless it must be forbidden because of

a decree lest he sell it

the Jew to a gentile

in the presence of a Jew,

and that Jew will hear the Jewish seller say to the gentile that the meat is kosher, and will think that the matter is true and come to buy the tereifa from the gentile [according to Tosafot, s.v. “Amar”]. [See Rashi and Tosafot as to why, in the first clause, they did not prohibit sending a thigh to a gentile for this reason, as a decree lest he give it to him in the presence of a Jew].

And we raised this:

How do they make the announcement

when a tereifa is found in the city?

And we answer:

Rav Yitzhak bar Yosef said:

This is the wording of the announcement:

“Meat has fallen to the soldiers!”

Meat fit for gentiles has come into our possession.

And we object:

Let them say

and announce:

“Tereifa meat has fallen to the soldiers!”

And we answer: If so,

they will not buy

the gentiles will not buy the meat, for it is disgraceful for them to eat meat that we do not wish to eat.

And we object: If so, if the gentiles do not know that the meat is a tereifa, how is it permitted to sell tereifot to them,

for are they not being misled?

And we answer:

They themselves are causing themselves to be misled!

They cause themselves to be misled, since they did not ask whether the meat was kosher or a tereifa.

As in the case of Mar Zutra, son of Rav Naḥman, who was going from Sikhra to Bei Meḥoza, while Rava and Rav Safra were coming to Sikhra. They encountered one another

and met near Sikhra.

He thought that they had come to meet him

Mar Zutra thought that Rava and Rav Safra had come toward him from Bei Meḥoza.

He said to them

Mar Zutra said:

Why did the Sages need to trouble themselves and come all this way?

For you traveled such a great distance toward me.

Rav Safra said to him

to Mar Zutra:

We did not know that the Master was coming

we had no knowledge at all of your arrival; rather, we were going on our way and met by chance. But

if we had known

that you were coming to the city—

we would have troubled ourselves even more!

We would have gone even farther toward you.

Rava said to him

to Rav Safra:

Why did you say that to him?

Why did you tell him the truth,

for you weakened his mind

since he had thought that we had come in his honor, and now his mind was weakened?

He said to him

Rav Safra said to Rava:

But we would be misleading him

if I remained silent, and through this he would be grateful to us for it needlessly.

Rava said to him:

He himself is misleading himself!

It would not be we who misled him had we remained silent; rather, he would have misled himself.

There was a certain slaughterer who said to his fellow: