Chullin 97b (צז:) — the Talmud in English

And the Sages said in other places that the measure of nullification is

sixty

!

Therefore—

a.

A substance of one type mixed with a substance of another type, when it is permitted,

where it is possible to examine it in a permitted manner, such as teruma, which a koen can examine to determine whether it imparts flavor to non-sacred produce

by tasting!

The koen should taste it and tell us whether the flavor of the teruma is discernible in it.

b.

A substance of one type mixed with a substance of another type

that is prohibited,

such as meat with milk—we examine it

with a professional taster

who is an Aramean gentile, and we rely on him.

c.

And a substance of one type mixed with a substance of the same type, where it is impossible to ascertain the matter by tasting.

Alternatively, a substance of one type mixed with a substance of another type that is prohibited, where there is no professional taster—

its measure is

sixty! These thighs of meat

pieces of meat

that were salted,

which they salted

in the house of the Exilarch,

in the residence of the Exilarch,

with the sciatic nerve present,

while the sciatic nerve was inside them.

Ravina prohibited

the meat, as the reason for his ruling will be explained below.

And

Rav Aha bar Rav permitted

the meat to be eaten.

They came and asked Mar bar Rav Ashi

what the ruling was concerning this meat.

He said to them: Father [

that is, Rav Ashi]—

permits it!

Rav Aha bar Rav said to Ravina,

who had prohibited it:

What is your reasoning

for prohibiting it?

If it is because

Shmuel said:

“Salted is like boiling; pickled is like cooked,”

and therefore you considered the sciatic nerve that was salted together with the meat as though it had been cooked with it and imparted flavor throughout the meat—

but Shmuel himself said

:

“They taught

that the sciatic nerve prohibits the thigh

only when it was cooked with it; but

if

it was roasted with it—

one peels away and eats until he reaches the nerve!”

Roasting too is considered “boiling,” and it is evident that what is “boiling” is permitted, whereas only what is cooked is prohibited!?

And if you would say: What does Shmuel mean by

“salted is”

“like boiling,” as he said,

Shmuel—

like boiling in cooking,

and therefore all the meat is prohibited—

but from the fact that

Shmuel said

“pickled is like cooked,” it follows

that when he said, “salted is like boiling,”

he meant boiling in roasting!

And we conclude:

It is difficult

why Ravina prohibited the meat that was salted together with the sciatic nerve. According to Shmuel, salting is like roasting, which contracts the nerve and does not cause its rendered fat to permeate the meat.

Rabbi Ḥanina said: When they assess

the ratio of one to sixty,

they assess

the sauce, the sediment, and the pieces.

And even

the pot

in which the prohibited and permitted substances were cooked joins them to make up sixty against the prohibited substance!

And we explain how the measure is assessed with regard to the pot:

Some say

that one assesses

the pot itself,

according to the volume of its walls and base.

And some say

that we assess

what the pot absorbed!

If initially there were sixty parts of permitted substance against the prohibited substance, and the permitted substance diminished so that it no longer amounts to sixty against the prohibited substance, we assess how much permitted substance the pot absorbed, and add the measure of what it absorbed to the permitted substance in order to nullify the prohibited substance; but we do not assess the volume of the wall of the pot itself. [See Rashi carefully.]

Rabbi Abbahu said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: With regard to all prohibited substances in the Torah

that became mixed with permitted substances, when it is impossible to taste the mixture—for example, when there is no Aramean gentile professional taster who can taste it, or when it is a mixture of one type with the same type—

we assess them as though they were [

the prohibited substances that became mixed]

onion and leek,

whose flavor is especially discernible; if onion and leek would impart flavor to this mixture, it would be prohibited. [This ruling of Rabbi Yoḥanan was stated before the halakha was established that a mixture of one type with the same type, or a mixture where there is no professional taster to taste it, is nullified in sixty.]

Rabbi Abba said to Abaye: Then let us assess them with pepper and spices, for

even if they became mixed

with a thousand parts, they are not nullified!

Because they impart flavor even in a thousand parts!?

He said to him: The Sages assessed that no prohibited substance imparts flavor more strongly than onion and leek!

Therefore, they established these as the greatest measure of imparting flavor when the flavor cannot be ascertained.

Rav Naḥman said: The sciatic nerve

has the measure of

sixty

against it,

and the nerve

itself

is not included

in the sixty permitted parts. A pot in which

a breast, [

which contains the udders], was cooked, and it was discovered that the meat was cooked together with the milk in the udders, while there was additional meat in the pot, has the measure

of sixty. And the breast itself is included in the count.

Since it itself is considered permitted and its entire prohibition is only because it was cooked with milk, therefore we assess it together with the meat that was cooked alongside the breast; and if there are fifty olive-bulks of meat equal to it, it is nullified by the majority.

The egg of a non-kosher bird

we assess

at sixty, and the egg is not included in the count!

Rabbi Yitzḥak, son of Rav Mesharsheya, said: And the breast itself,

which was cooked in a pot together with other meat,

is prohibited

to eat, since the meat was cooked and imparted its flavor to it [although the breast does not have the capacity to impart flavor to the meat because of its small quantity].

And if

the breast fell

into another pot,

after it had been cooked with sixty parts of meat, it

prohibits

the other pot, which does not contain sixty against it.

Rav Ashi said: When we were in the academy of Rav Kahana, we raised the following dilemma: When we assess

the breast that was cooked with meat, do we assess

according to it itself, or do we assess according to what emerged from it [

and this is referring to a case where the breast itself was removed from the pot]?

And we said:

It is obvious that we assess according to it itself! For if we assess according to what emerged from it—

how would we know

how much emerged?

And we challenge this:

If that is so,

as you say, that we assess according to the breast itself, so that there must be sixty permitted parts against the breast, then in cooking of this kind all the flavor of the breast emerges, since there was meat amounting to sixty against it. If so, when

this breast fell

into another pot,

it should not prohibit

the other pot, since all its flavor had already emerged into the first pot, and it should no longer be prohibited. Why, then, do we say that if it fell into another pot, the pot becomes prohibited?

And we answer:

Since Rabbi Yitzḥak, son of Rav Mesharsheya, said, “And the breast itself is prohibited,”

once the pot imparted flavor to the breast, it became prohibited. From that point, before all its flavor had emerged,

the Sages deemed

the breast

like a piece of unslaughtered carcass,

which remains prohibited forever. This is as we say concerning a piece of unslaughtered carcass that became mixed with sixty parts: the piece itself, when it is identifiable, remains prohibited forever.

And now we explain that which Rav Naḥman said:

An egg—

at sixty, and the egg is not included in the count!

Rav Idi bar Avin said to Abaye: Is that to say that

when one cooks an egg of a non-kosher bird together with kosher eggs,

it imparts

the non-kosher bird’s egg

flavor

into the kosher eggs, and therefore they assessed it at sixty?

But people say: “Like the water of ordinary eggs,”

meaning that the egg imparts no flavor to other foods except the flavor of water; that is, it does not impart flavor to other eggs when it is cooked together with them!?