004 - הִלְכוֹת מַאֲכָלוֹת אֲסוּרוֹת פֵּרֶק ד

Laws of Ma'achalos Asuros, Chapter 4

1. One who eats a kezayis of the meat of a domestic animal that died, or a wild animal that died, or a bird that died, receives lashes, as it says, "לֹא תֹאכְלוּ כָל-נְבֵלָה" ("you shall not eat any neveilah," Devarim 14:21). Whatever was not slaughtered properly is considered dead; and in Hilchos Shechitah it will be explained what slaughter is proper and what is not.

2. Only pure species are forbidden on account of neveilah, because they are fit for slaughter, and if they were slaughtered with kosher slaughter, they would be permitted to be eaten. But with impure species, on which slaughter has no effect, whether it was slaughtered, or died in the ordinary way, or he cut flesh from it while alive and ate it, he receives lashes not on account of neveilah and tereifah, but on account of eating the flesh of an impure animal.

3. One who eats a live pure bird, of any size, receives lashes on account of eating neveilah; even if it does not contain a kezayis, since he ate all of it, he receives lashes. If he ate it after it died, it must contain a kezayis; and even if it does not have a kezayis of meat in its entirety, since the whole bird amounts to a kezayis, he is liable for it on account of neveilah.

4. One who eats a kezayis of the flesh of a stillborn or nonviable young (nefel) of a pure animal receives lashes on account of eating neveilah. It is forbidden to eat an animal that was born until the eighth night, for anything that has not lasted eight days in the case of an animal is like a nefel; but one does not receive lashes for it. If he knows that it completed its months in the womb and was born afterwards, which is nine months for a large animal and five for a small one, it is permitted on the day it was born.

5. The afterbirth that comes out with the young is forbidden to be eaten; but one who eats it is exempt, for it is not flesh.

6. One who eats a kezayis of the flesh of a pure domestic animal, wild animal or bird that became tereifah receives lashes, as it says, "וּבָשָׂר בַּשָּׂדֶה טְרֵפָה לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ, לַכֶּלֶב תַּשְׁלִכוּן אֹתוֹ" ("and flesh torn in the field you shall not eat; to the dog you shall throw it," Shemos 22:30). The "טְרֵפָה" (torn animal, Shemos 22:30) mentioned in the Torah is one torn by a beast of the forest, such as a lion, a leopard and the like; and likewise a bird torn by a bird of prey, such as a netz and the like. You cannot say that it tore it and killed it, for if it died, it is a neveilah; and what difference is there if it died by itself, or he struck it with a sword and killed it, or a lion broke it and killed it? Thus the verse speaks only of one that was torn and did not die.

7. If a tereifah that has not died is forbidden, one might think that if a wolf came and dragged a kid by its leg, its tail or its ear, and someone chased it and saved it from its mouth, it should be forbidden, since it has been torn. Therefore the Torah says, "וּבָשָׂר בַּשָּׂדֶה טְרֵפָה . . . לַכֶּלֶב תַּשְׁלִכוּן אֹתוֹ" ("and flesh torn in the field . . . to the dog you shall throw it," Shemos 22:30), which requires that the animal be made into flesh fit for a dog. You have thus learned that the tereifah mentioned in the Torah is one that a beast of the forest tore and broke, and it is about to die but has not yet died. Even if he hurried and slaughtered it before it died, it is forbidden on account of tereifah, since it cannot survive this blow that came upon it.

8. You are thus found to learn that the Torah forbade the dead animal, which is the neveilah; and it forbade one about to die because of its injuries, even though it has not yet died, which is the tereifah. Just as you do not distinguish with the dead animal, whether it died by itself, or fell and died, or choked to death, or a beast mauled and killed it, so you do not distinguish with one about to die, whether a beast tore and broke it, or it fell from a roof and most of its ribs were broken, or it fell and its limbs were crushed, or he shot an arrow at it and punctured its heart or lung, or an illness came upon it by itself and punctured its heart or lung or broke most of its ribs, and the like. Since it is about to die in any event, it is a tereifah, whether the cause was by the hand of flesh and blood or by the hand of Heaven. If so, why does the Torah say "טְרֵפָה" (torn, Shemos 22:30)? The verse speaks of the common case; for if you do not say so, it would be forbidden only if torn in the field, but if torn in the courtyard, it would not be forbidden. You have thus learned that the verse speaks only of the common case;

9. and the meaning of the verse is that one about to die because of its injuries, which cannot live because of this injury, is forbidden. From here the Sages said this general rule: any animal whose like cannot live is a tereifah. In Hilchos Shechitah it will be explained which illness makes it a tereifah and which illness does not make it a tereifah.

10. Likewise one who cuts flesh from a living pure animal: that flesh is tereifah, and one who eats a kezayis of it receives lashes on account of eating tereifah; for this is flesh from an animal that was not slaughtered and has not died. What difference is there whether a beast tore it or he cut it with a knife, whether all of it or part of it? For it says, "וּבָשָׂר בַּשָּׂדֶה טְרֵפָה לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ" ("and flesh torn in the field you shall not eat," Shemos 22:30): once the animal has become "flesh in the field," it is a tereifah.

11. An animal that is ill because its strength has waned and that is about to die: since no blow has come upon any of its limbs that would kill it, it is permitted, for the Torah forbade only what resembles an animal torn by a beast of the forest, in which a fatal blow has been dealt.

12. Even though it is permitted, the greatest of the Sages would not eat from an animal that was slaughtered hurriedly so that it not die, even if it made a convulsive movement (pirkus) at the end of the slaughter. There is no prohibition in this, but whoever wishes to be stringent with himself in this matter is praiseworthy.

13. One who slaughters a domestic animal, wild animal or bird, and no blood came out of them: they are permitted, and we do not say that perhaps it was already dead. Likewise one who slaughters a healthy animal, and it made no convulsive movement: it is permitted. But a critically ill animal (mesukenes), which is any animal that when stood up does not stand, even if it eats the food of healthy animals: if he slaughtered it and it made no convulsive movement at all, it is a neveilah and one receives lashes for it. If it made a convulsive movement, it is permitted, and the movement must be at the end of the slaughter; at the beginning it does not help.

14. What is the convulsive movement? In a small domestic animal, and in a wild animal whether large or small: if it stretched out its foreleg and drew it back, or stretched out its hind leg even without drawing it back, or only bent its hind leg, this is the convulsive movement and it is permitted. But if it stretched out its foreleg and did not draw it back, it is forbidden, for this is only the departure of life. In a large domestic animal: with either the foreleg or the hind leg, whether it stretched out and did not bend, or bent and did not stretch out, this is the convulsive movement and it is permitted. If it neither stretched out nor bent, whether foreleg or hind leg, it is a neveilah. In a bird: even if it only blinked its eye or only wagged its tail, this is the convulsive movement.

15. One who slaughters a critically ill animal at night, and does not know whether or not it made a convulsive movement: it is a doubtful neveilah and is forbidden.

16. All the prohibitions in the Torah do not combine with each other, except the prohibitions of a nazir, as will be explained there. Therefore, one who takes a little forbidden fat, a little blood, a little meat of an impure animal, a little meat of neveilah, a little of an impure fish, a little of an impure bird, and the like from other prohibitions, and combined from all of them a kezayis and ate it, does not receive lashes, and his law is like one who eats half a measure.

17. All neveilos combine with each other, and neveilah combines with tereifah. Likewise all impure domestic and wild animals combine with each other. But meat of neveilah with meat of an impure animal does not combine. How so? One who takes from the neveilah of an ox, the neveilah of a tzvi and the neveilah of a rooster, and gathered from all of them a kezayis of meat and ate it, receives lashes. Likewise if he gathered half a kezayis from the neveilah of a pure animal and half a kezayis from a tereifah, or half a kezayis of the meat of neveilah and half a kezayis of flesh from a living pure animal, and ate it, he receives lashes. Likewise the meat of a camel, a pig and a hare, of which he gathered from all of them a kezayis and ate it, he receives lashes. But if he combined half a kezayis from the neveilah of an ox and half a kezayis of the meat of a camel, they do not combine; and likewise anything similar. Likewise any impure animal and impure bird, or impure fish and impure bird: the flesh of both does not combine, because they are two different names, for each of them is under a separate negative commandment, as we have explained. But all impure birds combine, just as all impure domestic and wild animals combine. This is the general rule: all that are forbidden by one negative commandment combine; by two negative commandments, they do not combine, except neveilah and tereifah, since a tereifah is the beginning of a neveilah.

18. One who eats of neveilah and tereifah, or of impure domestic and wild animals, from the skin, the bones, the sinews, the horns and the hooves, and from the claws of a bird at the places from which blood oozes when they are cut, and from their afterbirth: even though it is forbidden, he is exempt, because these are not fit for eating; and they do not combine with the meat to make a kezayis.

19. The stomach contents (keivah) of a neveilah and of an impure animal are permitted, because they are like the other wastes in the body. Therefore, it is permitted to set cheese with the stomach contents of an animal slaughtered by a non-Jew, or of an impure domestic or wild animal. But the skin of the stomach is like the other intestines, and is forbidden.

20. The skin that comes over the face of a donkey at birth is permitted to be eaten, because it is like dung and urine, which are permitted. There are skins that are like meat, and one who eats a kezayis of them is like one who eats of the meat, provided he eats them while they are soft.

21. These are the ones whose skins are like their meat: human skin, the skin of the domesticated pig, the skin of the hump of a camel on which no burden has ever been loaded and which has not reached the age for a burden, so that it is still soft, the skin of the genital area of an animal, the skin under the fat tail, the skin of a fetus, and the skin of the anakah, the ko'ach, the leta'ah and the chomet. All these skins, while they are soft, are like meat in every respect, both for the prohibition of eating and for impurity.

22. It says of the stoned ox, "וְלֹא יֵאָכֵל אֶת-בְּשָׂרוֹ" ("and its flesh shall not be eaten," Shemos 21:28). But how could it be possible to eat it after it was stoned, since it is a neveilah? Rather, the verse comes only to inform you that once its sentence of stoning has been decided, it is forbidden and becomes like an impure animal. If he hurried and slaughtered it with kosher slaughter, it is forbidden for benefit, and if he ate a kezayis of its flesh, he receives lashes. Likewise when it is stoned, it may not be sold, nor given to dogs or to non-Jews. This is why it says, "לֹא יֵאָכֵל אֶת-בְּשָׂרוֹ" ("its flesh shall not be eaten"). The dung of the stoned ox is permitted for benefit. If it became known that it is exempt from stoning after its sentence was decided, for instance if its witnesses were proved false (zomemim), it may go out and graze with the herd; and if it became known after it was stoned, it is permitted for benefit.