Chulin 59
Summary
- This שיעור on מסכת חולין דף נט begins from the משנה near the bottom of דף נח עמוד ב and establishes that an animal in danger may be eaten if it is not a *treifah* and the condition does not pose סכנה to the person, while an animal whose condition is dangerous to humans is forbidden משום סכנת נפשות even when it is not forbidden משום *treifah*. The גמרא analyzes cases of harmful foods and bites, distinguishes between types of חלתית and types of poison, and adds medical-physical tests and stories that illustrate סכנה and halachic verification. The שיעור then introduces the next משנה about סימני כשרות for animals, birds, grasshoppers, and fish, cites the Rambam that knowing סימנים is a מצות עשה, emphasizes Rashi’s requirement of מסורת for birds, and presents later debate about whether מסורת is required for new animal species such as buffalo. The גמרא proceeds through practical identification rules for בהמה and the סימנים distinguishing חיה from בהמה for permitting חלב, resolves horn-criteria, and concludes with reports about the huge טביא דבי עילאי and אריא דבי עילאי and the Roman Caesar’s encounter with רבי יהושע בן חנניה.
- This משנה rules that conditions like אחוזת הדם, *me’ushenet*, *metzonenet*, eating הרדופני, eating chicken feces, or drinking מים הרעים leave the animal כשר because they create סכנה to the animal but not to the person, and they do not render the animal a *treifah*, so the שחיטה remains כשר. The תפארת ישראל cites sudden blood congestion as the meaning of אחוזת הדם, Rashi describes אחזה דם וחלסה, and the Rambam describes a symptom of choking and difficulty breathing. The מאירי explains that מים מגולים venom is diluted by passing through the animal and therefore is not considered סכנה to the person, while others interpret מים הרעים as putrid water that sickens the animal. The משנה then rules that if the animal eats סם המות that is dangerous to humans or if a snake bites it, it is מותרת משום *treifah* and אסורה משום סכנת נפשות.
- The תפארת ישראל asks why it matters whether the prohibition is משום *treifah* or משום סכנה when the animal cannot be eaten either way. The תפארת ישראל answers that an איסור *treifah* can be בטל בששים in a mixture, while סכנה is governed by even a thousand does not nullify it. The ספר דור רביעי answers that *treifah* remains forbidden permanently, while סכנה depends on doctors and may pass after time and examination. The ספר מנחת בכורים on the תוספתא applies these halachot not only to animals but to birds as well.
- Shmuel rules that feeding an animal חלתית renders it a *treifah* because it punctures the intestines. The פרי חדש rules that even immediate שחיטה does not help because something עומד to develop a נקב is treated as though the נקב already exists. A ברייתא lists the משנה’s cases and adds feeding תיה, חלתית, פלפלין, and even eating סם המות as כשרה, while snakebite or bite by a כלב שוטה is מותרת משום *treifah* and אסורה משום סכנת נפשות. The גמרא resolves חלתית by distinguishing leaves, which are כשר, from the stronger stalks or grains, which puncture and are *treifah*.
- The גמרא resolves the סם המות contradiction by distinguishing poison that endangers only the animal from poison that endangers humans. The גמרא challenges why animal-only poison is repeated when הרדופני already serves that role and answers that there are two forms of animal-only poison. Rav Yehuda identifies תיה as עיקרא דמרירתא, the bitter root.
- Rav Yehuda states that one who eats three תקלי of חלתית on an empty stomach has skin that peels, and Rabbeinu Gershom describes unbearable itching and scratching until no intact skin remains. Rav Avuhu reports that he ate one תקלא and would have suffered the effect if he had not sat in water to cool himself, and he applies to himself the פסוק in קהלת of החכמה תחיה בעליה. Rav Yosef warns that eating sixteen eggs, forty nuts, seven caper berries, and two *revi’iyot* of honey at one time in תקופת תמוז on an empty stomach cracks the thread that connects the heart.
- A young deer brought to the ריש גלותא has its lower hooves cut off, and Rav checks the צומת הגידין and deems it כשר because the cut is below that junction. Rav wants to eat it *be’umtza*—heavily salted and briefly grilled nearly raw—but Shmuel warns of possible snake venom at the wound and סכנה. Shmuel advises roasting it in an oven so the meat will reveal itself, and the meat breaks into pieces, indicating venom and establishing danger. Shmuel recites on Rav the פסוק of לא יאונה לצדיק כל און, and Rav recites on Shmuel the פסוק כל רז לא אנס לך.
- The שיעור introduces the next משנה as defining סימנים for כשר animals, birds, grasshoppers, and fish. The Rambam in הלכות מאכלות אסורות פרק א הלכה א defines knowledge of these סימנים as a מצות עשה based on ויקרא כ:כה and ויקרא יא:מז. The פסוקים in ויקרא יא:ב–ג define animal סימנים as fully split hooves and chewing cud, and the Torah uses חיה and בהמה interchangeably so these סימנים apply to both.
- The תורה lists twenty-four עופות טמאים and the משנה supplies סימנים for identifying a טהור bird when the identities of the twenty-four are not fully known. Rashi on דף סב עמוד ב rules that no bird is eaten without מסורת because חז״ל once assumed a certain bird was כשר and later discovered it was דורס, and the רמ״א rules similarly in יורה דעה פב:ג. The משנה states that any עוף הדורס is טמא, and Rashi defines *dores* as gripping and lifting food with claws and also as holding food down with the foot while pecking. Rabbeinu Tam rejects the lifting definition because chickens do that and defines דריסה as eating living prey without waiting for death, while Rabbeinu Gershom defines it as grabbing prey from the air.
- The משנה’s סימני טהרה for birds include having an אצבע יתירה, having a זפק, and having a קורקבן that can be peeled. Rashi defines אצבע יתירה as a raised rear toe facing backward, while the Ran and Ramban define it as an elongated middle front toe seen in various birds. The crop holds food before digestion, and the peelable inner lining of the gizzard is a סימן of טהרה. Rashi implies that a bird must be non-dורס plus the other three סימנים to be known טהור, while the Rambam distinguishes between peeling ביד versus with a knife and cites גאונים that one does not permit a bird with only one סימן unless that סימן is קורקבן נקלף ביד, and other ראשונים allow reliance on one סימן when the bird is not דורס.
- רבי אלעזר בר צדוק rules that a bird that “splits its foot” with two toes forward and two backward is טמא, while a כשר bird has three forward and one back. A controversy arose about the white Leghorn chicken used for most American eggs, with claims that it shows two-and-two on a string. A בד״צ תשובה and OU agreement rule that the two-and-two posture occurs when the bird is agitated or landing, but when tranquil it stands three-and-one, preserving the chicken as כשר and the eggs as fully כשר, with reference to דף הכשרות volume 12 number 6 page 19.
- The משנה gives four סימנים for כשר חגבים: four legs, four wings, jumping legs, and wings covering most of the body, and Rashi explains the two jumping legs as positioned near the neck above the four regular legs. רב חיים בן עטר prohibits eating any חגב because known locusts place the jumping legs below the other legs, while Yemenite and Moroccan communities have a מסורת to eat the desert locust. Their מסורת treats the relevant limbs as *kartzolin* and adds the requirement ושמו חגב, with an observed חית-like marking on the belly as a רמז.
- The משנה defines כשר fish as having סנפיר and קשקשת, and the Rambam in הלכות מאכלות אסורות פרק א הלכה כד and the ruling in יורה דעה פג:א permit even one fin and one scale. The Ramban reports a fish with only one scale near the tail as permitted, while some restrict acceptance of a lone scale unless it is near the jaw, tail, or fin to avoid חשש that it detached from another fish. רבי יהודה requires two scales and one fin based on the doubled term קשקשת. The משנה defines scales as those fixed to the fish and fins as what enables gliding, and the Rambam’s wording דבוקים בו clarifies that a kosher scale is detachable without tearing the skin, as explained through the Ramban and the practical demonstrations attributed to Rabbi Chaim Goldberg.
- The גמרא cites the פסוק in דברים יד:ו and states a rule associating cud-chewing with lack of upper teeth and טהרה, and then challenges it from the camel and from shafan and arneves. The גמרא rejects making teeth a Torah criterion and reformulates the rule as: any animal without upper teeth is known to chew cud, have split hooves, and be טהור. The גמרא applies this to a desert case of hooves cut off where one checks the mouth, requiring recognition of a camel, and then specifically recognition of a בן גמל. Rav Reuven Katz in שו״ת דגל ראובן asks why רוב does not suffice and answers that relying on רוב would nullify the Rambam’s מצות עשה to distinguish by סימנים rather than probability.
- Rav חסדא teaches that when an animal’s mouth is mutilated one checks the hooves, and if they are fully split it is טהור provided one can identify a חזיר. The גמרא derives from דבי רבי ישמעאל and the word הוא that Hashem knows the world and that no creature besides the pig has split hooves while remaining טמא. The phrasing שליט בעולמו יודע is explained by מהר״ץ חיות as evidencing תורה מן השמים because later exploration does not refute these exclusive Torah claims.
- Rav חסדא teaches that if the mouth is mutilated and the hooves are cut off one checks the flesh, and if it tears or separates שתי וערב it is טהור, while otherwise it is טמא, provided one can identify an ערוד because an ערוד is טמא despite having that feature. The גמרא answers that this exception is established by קבלה and identifies the test location as בכנפי העוקץ or under the tail.
- Rav זירא explains that special סימנים of חיה are needed to permit its חלב because a kosher animal may still be uncertain as חיה or בהמה. The ברייתא states that a חיה has קרניים and טלפיים, and Rav Dosa treats qualifying horns as sufficient without further search for hooves. The גמרא rejects simple horns-and-hooves by citing goats and oxen and develops a horn taxonomy requiring כרוכות, חרוקות, מפוצלות, and חדורות, and when the horns are branched it is a decisive סימן of חיה. The rule for non-branched horns requires כרוכות, חדורות, and חרוקות with grooves that blend, and this becomes the framework for the ספק of עיזא כרכס and the practical difficulty emphasized as the domain where מסורת is needed to decide חיה versus בהמה for חלב.
- At the ריש גלותא an עיזא דכרכס is treated differently by Rav אחאי who forbids its fat and by Rav שמואל בריה דרב אבהו who eats it and applies to himself מפרי פי איש תשבע בטנו. A message from ארץ ישראל rules הלכתא כוותיה דשמואל בריה דרב אבהו that its fat is permitted as חלב of a חיה. The message adds ויזהרו ברבנו אחאי דמאיר עיני גולה הוא, and Rashi explains that one should not permit it in front of him without bringing him to agree through learning.
- Rav Yehuda identifies כרש as טביא דבי עילאי and טיגריס as אריא דבי עילאי, and Rav Kahana describes the lion’s immense size as nine אמות from ear to ear. Rav Yosef describes the deer’s length as sixteen אמות. The forthcoming story is previewed in which the Caesar demands to see the אריא דבי אילאי, the lion’s roars topple Rome’s walls and cause people’s teeth to fall out, and the Caesar begs for it to return. The Caesar then asks to see the הקדוש ברוך הוא, רבי יהושע בן חנניה demonstrates the impossibility by having him look at the sun in תקופת תמוז, and he argues that inability to look at the sun, a single משמש, proves the impossibility of seeing the שכינה.
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