042b - אלו טרפות פרק שלישי, חולין דף מב, ע"ב

Granted, according to our Tanna,^[1]

בשלמא לתנא דידן - Even though he taught only eighteen, at any rate he did not state a number, so one can say: what he taught, he taught, and what he did not teach comes under this general rule.

what he taught, he taught; and what he left out comes under this general rule.^[2]

But according to the Tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael, who said "eighteen treifos"^[3] - and no more?!

אלא לתנא דבי ר' ישמעאל - Who did state a number, there is a difficulty, for there are "בסגר" (a mnemonic), and these are Mishnah and Baraisa: an animal whose legs were cut off, in the chapter Beheimah Hamakshah (below, 76a); how much must be missing from the spine, in Ohalos; the flayed animal, in our chapter; and likewise the shriveled lung. And the seven rulings are seven treifos that the Amoraim enumerated, which were not taught in a Mishnah, and which they had received from their teachers. The hind legs are called "legs," and the front ones are called "hands."

But there is an animal whose legs were cut off from the knee joint and above, which is treifah?^[4]

ארכובה - "Genouil" (knee) - the place where the shank and the thigh join, where it is cut off at the time of flaying.

He holds like Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, who said: it can be cauterized and live.^[5]

ר' שמעון בן אלעזר - In the Tosefta it is taught thus: Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar declares it kosher, because it can be cauterized and live; here the Gemara cited the end of his words, and did not yet cite "Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar declares it kosher."

Even though it can be cauterized and live - to whom are you saying this? To the Tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael! The Tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael holds that a treifah can live!^[6]

ופרכינן אע"ג דיכולה ליכוות ולחיות - And we object: even though it can be cauterized and live, it is still a difficulty, for even so one can say that Rabbi Shimon does not disagree about treifah. For against whom are we raising the objection? Against the Tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael, who stated a number, and he holds that a treifah can live, as he expounds "and between the living beast that may not be eaten" (Vayikra 11:47), calling a treifah a "living" beast. Rather, he answers thus: he holds like Rabbi Shimon, who said that it is kosher, as is taught there: Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar declares it kosher.

Rather, he holds like Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, who said: it is kosher.

But there is the missing spine?

As we learned: "How much must be missing from the spine?^[7]

כמה חסרון בשדרה - So that it no longer conveys tumah by ohel, but only by touch and carrying, like a bone the size of a barley grain. For a whole spine, a whole skull, the majority of the number [of bones] or the majority of the build, we learned in Ohalos (2:1) that they convey tumah by ohel even though there is no flesh on them.

Beis Shammai say: two vertebrae.

And Beis Hillel say: one vertebra."

And Rav Yehudah said in the name of Shmuel: and the same applies to treifah?

וכן לטרפה - For Beis Shammai it is not treifah with less than two vertebrae, and for Beis Hillel it becomes treifah with one vertebra.

"The omasum and the reticulum,"^[8] which you count as two - count them as one.

חשבינהו כחד - For they are next to each other, and are like one.

Take out one and put in one.

But there is the flayed animal?^[9]

והאיכא גלודה - One whose hide was taken off, and it was flayed entirely, either through boils or through work, as the Mishnah teaches (below, 54a): and the Sages disqualify.

He holds like Rabbi Meir, who declares it kosher.

And he answers: he holds like Rabbi Meir, who declares it kosher.

But there is the shriveled lung (charusa)?^[10]

והאיכא חרותא - As the Mishnah teaches (ibid.): "These are kosher: charusa" - by the hand of Heaven; and it is taught below (55b): by the hand of man, it is treifah. What is charusa? Any whose lung shriveled and hardened like the branches of a palm, because a person frightened it with his voice. Sometimes it shrivels from thunder and hail; that is by the hand of Heaven, and it recovers. But by the hand of man it does not recover.

The gall bladder - who teaches it?^[11]

מרה מאן קתני לה - That the Mishnah counted a perforated gall bladder in the number of eighteen treifos, that is a lone opinion: Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Yehudah teaches it, below in our chapter (43a), in our sugya. The Tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael does not hold of the gall bladder; he takes out the gall bladder and puts in the shriveled lung.

Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Yehudah. Take out the gall bladder, and put in the shriveled lung.

But there are the seven rulings?^[12]

As Rav Masna said: this thigh bone,

בוקא דאטמא - The thigh bone (femur).

that slipped out of its socket - treifah.

דשף מדוכתיה - That it jumped out of its place, the hole in the bone into which it is inserted. Below (54b) it concludes: provided its sinews have decayed. "בוקא" is like "בוכנא," a pestle: its head is round and it is inserted in a hole, like a pestle inserted in the hole of the mortar.

And Rachish bar Pappa said in the name of Rav: if it was diseased in one kidney - treifah.

לקתה בכוליא אחת - And all the more so in both. Below (55a) it concludes about it: provided the disease reaches the place of the groove.

And we learned: "If the spleen was removed - kosher."^[13] And Rav Avira said in the name of Rava: they taught this only when it was removed, but if it was perforated - treifah.

אבל ניקב טרפה - Below it explains: perforated in its upper part, where it is thick; but in its thin part, it is kosher.

And Rabbah bar bar Chanah said in the name of Shmuel: simanim that were torn loose for most of their length - treifah.^[14]

נדלדלו - Torn in several places, and attached a little here and a little there.

And Rabbah bar Rav Sheila said in the name of Rav Masna in the name of Shmuel: a rib uprooted from its base - treifah.

נעקרה צלע - Even though we learned in the Mishnah "most of its ribs were broken" - specifically broken; there we require the majority. But if one rib was uprooted from its base, as far as half of its vertebra, as explained below (52a), it is treifah.

And a skull crushed for most of it.

וגולגולת שנחבסה - It was struck many blows, yet was not broken through and the membrane was not perforated: if most of it was crushed, it is treifah. "נחבסה" is "demincier" in the vernacular.

And the flesh covering most of the rumen, torn for most of it - treifah.

ובשר החופה את רוב הכרס - This is the thick membrane called "tenpena," which is seen when the animal is opened and the flesh is cut along the length of the animal. It is called "covering most of the rumen" and not "covering the rumen" because a minority of the rumen is hidden inside the ribs of the chest and the cartilage, and the majority is covered with flesh.

כרס - "Panse" - the rumen alone, without the reticulum and the omasum. If most of the flesh opposite the rumen was torn, even though, measured against all that flesh, the tear is a minority (for that flesh holds all the intestines and runs down to the thighs), we measure only by what is opposite the rumen, and if most of that was torn, it is treifah. Shmuel does not hold like the one who explains below (50b) "the majority of the outer one" in the Mishnah as the flesh covering most of the rumen; for if so, what would Shmuel come to teach us? He explains the Mishnah below as something else.

The perforations are eight?!^[15]

נקובי תמניא הוו - Even when you count the omasum and the reticulum as one, and remove the gall bladder, eight perforations of the Mishnah still remain.

Count them as one. Take out seven and put in seven.

If so, the severed ones are also two?!

פסוקי תרין - The trachea and the spinal cord.^[16]

Count them as one.

Then one is missing?

And besides, Rav Avira's ruling in the name of Rava is also a perforation?

דרב עוירא - A perforated spleen.

Tosafos

והא איכא בהמה שנחתכו רגליה - Question: why does he not object from an animal whose junction of the sinews was removed,^[17] which is taught explicitly in the chapter Beheimah Hamakshah (below, 76a) to be treifah? One can answer that it is included in "an animal whose legs were cut off."

ואמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל וכן לטרפה - Rav Yehudah infers this from the end of the Mishnah, which teaches about the skull: How much must be missing from the skull? Beis Shammai say: the size of a drill; and Beis Hillel say: enough that, were it taken from a living person, he would die. So the measure of what is missing is reckoned by the measure of death. That is why Rav Yehudah's ruling is counted together with the Mishnahs, since he infers it from the Mishnah, and it is not counted with the [seven] rulings as Rav Avira's ruling is, even though that too was said on a Mishnah. And if you ask: if so, why does he not also object "but there is the skull," since Rav Yehudah refers to all of it? Rabbeinu Tam says that Rav Yehudah does not refer to the skull. For it is understood that the missing skull is together with the membrane, and an animal becomes treifah through perforation of the membrane alone; but a person, who has mazla (a guardian fortune), requires missing skull together with perforation of the membrane. As for what is said in Eruvin (7b), which counts two stringencies that contradict each other, such as spine and skull: he mentioned skull along with spine. Alternatively, it refers to the treifah laws of a person,^[18] and "the same applies to treifah" also refers to the skull, where there is both a stringency and a leniency: a stringency regarding one who kills a person, and a leniency regarding the redemption of a firstborn, if he became treifah within thirty days, that the Kohen need not return [the money] if he received it, and regarding one who made his fellow a treifah. However, it is difficult: shortly, on Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Yehudah's ruling that a perforated gall bladder is treifah, the Rabbis challenge him from Iyov, which implies that an animal does not become treifah through what does not make a person treifah. And further, below (47b), on a red or green [lung] being kosher, it brings the case of Rabbi Nasan, before whom a woman came who had circumcised her son, etc., which shows that whatever lives in a person lives in an animal as well. It would seem to explain that the missing skull is without the membrane, and it is treifah because the membrane will eventually be torn; that is why he does not object here from the skull, for the Mishnah teaches "the membrane of the brain was perforated." But this cannot be explained so, for there are many people from whose skull more than the size of a drill was removed, and they still live. It seems, rather, that the missing skull is with perforation of the upper membrane, for then the lower one will eventually tear; but without missing bone, if the upper membrane is perforated, the lower one will not eventually tear. And likewise in an animal there is an opinion (below, 45a) that the lower membrane protects. And even according to the one who says that [perforation of] the upper membrane makes it treifah though the lower one is not perforated, one can distinguish between a person and an animal, not for Rabbeinu Tam's reason, but because in a person the lower membrane is harder and stronger than in an animal; therefore a person requires missing bone together with perforation of the upper membrane, while in an animal the lower membrane is soft, and missing bone is not required together with the upper one. But in a matter that is the same in both, there is no distinction between them at all.

אפיק חדא ועייל חדא - According to the one who says that a deficiency on the inside is not called a deficiency, and the "deficiency" in the Mishnah is according to Rabbi Shimon, while according to the Rabbis it is included in "perforated," one must say that this sugya follows Rabbi Shimon, for according to the Rabbis there are only seventeen.

סימנין שנדלדלו ברובן טרפה - Rabbeinu Chananel explained^[19] that, according to what is concluded below (44a), where it is set in a case of complete detachment, "נדלדלו" means that they separated from each other.

אמר שמואל נעקרה צלע מעיקרה טרפה - Below (52a) Bar Zakai disagrees with him and says: uprooted - by the majority on one side; broken - by the majority on both sides. Here Shmuel's words were cited rather because of the other rulings he stated: a crushed skull, and the flesh covering most of the rumen. And if you ask: according to Rabbi Yochanan, who says there that whether uprooted or broken it is by the majority on both sides, they lack one of the eighteen treifos, since these cannot be counted as two, as both require the majority of both sides? One can answer that at any rate they are two, for this one is uprooted and that one is broken off.

Notes

1. 1. "Our Tanna" is the Mishnah (Chullin 42a), which lists the treifos without stating a total. A treifah is an animal with a fatal defect; even when slaughtered properly, it may not be eaten.
2. 2. The Mishnah closes its list (Chullin 54a) with a general rule: any animal whose like cannot live is treifah. Cases not listed by name are covered by that rule.
3. 3. The Tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught that eighteen treifos were stated, giving an exact number. Any further treifah therefore challenges his count.
4. 4. The Mishnah (Chullin 76a) rules that an animal whose legs were cut off above the knee joint is treifah. It is not among the eighteen.
5. 5. In the Tosefta Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar rules such an animal kosher, since the stump can be cauterized and the animal can live. The Gemara suggests that the Tanna of Rabbi Yishmael's school follows him.
6. 6. The Tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael expounds "and between the living beast that may not be eaten" (Vayikra 11:47) as a treifah that can live. For him the ability to live does not make an animal kosher, so the answer must be that Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar rules it kosher outright.
7. 7. A whole spine of a corpse conveys tumah by ohel (to whatever is under the same roof). The Mishnah in Ohalos asks how much must be missing for it to lose this; Shmuel says the same measure makes an animal treifah.
8. 8. The omasum and the reticulum are two of a ruminant's four stomachs. The count of eighteen treats their perforation as two entries; counting them as one makes room for the missing spine.
9. 9. A geludah is an animal whose entire hide has been stripped off. The Mishnah (Chullin 54a) records that Rabbi Meir rules it kosher and the Sages disqualify it.
10. 10. Charusa is a lung that has shriveled and hardened. When caused by Heaven it is kosher, since the lung recovers; when caused by a person frightening the animal, it is treifah (Chullin 55b).
11. 11. The Mishnah lists a perforated gall bladder among the treifos, but that is the lone view of Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Yehudah (Chullin 43a). The Tanna of Rabbi Yishmael's school does not count it, which leaves a place free.
12. 12. "The seven rulings" are seven treifos stated by Amoraim, not taught in a Mishnah, which they had received from their teachers. They follow: the dislocated thigh bone, the kidney, the spleen, the simanim, the rib, the skull and the flesh over the rumen.
13. 13. The Mishnah (Chullin 54a) lists an animal whose spleen was removed among the kosher ones. Rav Avira adds that if the spleen was perforated, the animal is treifah.
14. 14. The simanim are the trachea and the esophagus, the two organs cut in shechitah.
15. 15. The Mishnah lists many perforations: the esophagus, the brain membrane, the heart, the lung, the abomasum, the gall bladder, the small intestines, the rumen, and the omasum and reticulum. Even counting the last two as one and removing the gall bladder, eight remain.
16. 16. "חוט" here is the spinal cord; the Mishnah lists a severed trachea and a severed spinal cord as two treifos.
17. 17. The tzomes hagidim is the junction of the sinews in the animal's leg. If it is severed, the animal is treifah (Chullin 76a).
18. 18. A human "treifah" is a person with an injury he cannot survive. The status matters in capital law and in the redemption of a firstborn.
19. 19. Rabbeinu Chananel of Kairouan (11th century) wrote one of the earliest commentaries on the Talmud.