Masechet Chullin Daf 118-121
Apr. 1st, 2019 09:29 amMore catchup. Close to being back on track, I think I'll either catch up Tuesday or Wednesday.
It just became more important that I catch up. I realized the Masechet concludes right before Pesach, so I volunteered to make the public siyum for the bechorim erev Pesach. I've never done that before and I'm excited for the opportunity. But it means I actually do need to finish on time.
Daf 118
We continue to talk about items that are not foodstuffs but are susceptible to tumah when combined with attached foodstuffs. The Gemara discusses two basic categories- yad and shomer. A yad is a 'handle', a thing which is connected to a foodstuff and you might pick up by the foodstuff by. If it contacts a tamei thing, it transmits the tumah to the foodstuff, and if the foodstuff it's attached to is tamei, it transmits tumah to other things, but it does not combine with the foodstuff to make the minimum shiur for the foodstuff to be susceptible to tumah. A shomer is a 'guard', a shell or some other protective layer over a foodstuff. It transmits tumah to the thing it protects and transmits tumah from the thing it protects, and also combines with the thing to make the minimum shiur.
But if there are multiple layers of shomer, only the innermost layer is an actual shomer- you can't have a shomer of a shomer is the saying.
Daf 119
An interesting case is hairs on a hide. One opinion is that if they're in a bundle of bristles they can be a yad, but otherwise they have no status for tumah. Another opinion is that they're a shomer. But how can this be, the hide is already a shomer and the hairs are on the hide, so it should be a shomer of a shomer.
The solution according to this opinion is that the hairs poke through the hide and touch the meat, so they are a primary shomer. Which raises an out of left field problem- klaf for sofrut is made of hide, if all hide has microscopic holes for hairs to pass through in it, is it kosher? The concern is that if there are holes, then perhaps the letters will not be perfect, and will thus be invalid.
The answer is that the ink fills the microscopic holes completely and therefore the letters are perfectly formed in spite of the microholes- in order for the klaf to be invalid because of a hole, it needs to at least be a visible hole.
Daf 120
Most of the places in the Talmud where food is discussed, it's discussed in terms of achila. Does this include shtiya? Usually, yes. Drinking is considered eating is a classic Rabbinic statement, proving that classic Rabbinic statements are not always paragons of sage advice for living. Sorry.
Perhaps this principle just applies to normal drinking, though. Drinking things you're supposed to drink. What if you take tamei meat and you heat it up and liquefy it and then you drink the liquefied meat. That's not a normal thing to do, maybe it doesn't count as eating?
No, says Reish Lakish. There are several places in the laws of tumah achilah where the Torah uses the word nefesh. That means that eating is considered any time you put food in your mouth for enjoyment, even if it's in a weird way.
Daf 121
OMG![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
melannen, relevant to the halachos of shechting a furby!
If a Jew shechts a nonkosher animal for a non-Jew to eat, and the simanim have been cut but it's not yet dead (because it's an immortal Furby, obvs, or maybe because it's still in its death throes), then it's in this ambiguous middle status between dead and alive. Cutting the simanim has the effect of killing an animal for Jews, but non-Jews don't have shechita so for them the animal is alive until death full happens.
What are the consequences of this? When the animal dies, it will be neveilah as the carcass of an unkosher animal. When it's alive, it's not susceptible to tumah achilah. In this intermediate status, is it dead enough to be susceptible to tumah achilah (if someone exposes it to liquid) or is it alive enough to not be susceptible? Also, is it ever min hachai?
Machlokess Chizkiya v'Rabbi Yochanan. Rabbi Yochanan holds that the animal is treated as if it's still alive, while Chizkiya considers it in a middle state where it is susceptible to tumah and is not ever min hachai, but is not a neveilah.
So there you have it, the halakah by Chizkiya is that you can shecht a Furby and turn it into an undead Furby.
It just became more important that I catch up. I realized the Masechet concludes right before Pesach, so I volunteered to make the public siyum for the bechorim erev Pesach. I've never done that before and I'm excited for the opportunity. But it means I actually do need to finish on time.
Daf 118
We continue to talk about items that are not foodstuffs but are susceptible to tumah when combined with attached foodstuffs. The Gemara discusses two basic categories- yad and shomer. A yad is a 'handle', a thing which is connected to a foodstuff and you might pick up by the foodstuff by. If it contacts a tamei thing, it transmits the tumah to the foodstuff, and if the foodstuff it's attached to is tamei, it transmits tumah to other things, but it does not combine with the foodstuff to make the minimum shiur for the foodstuff to be susceptible to tumah. A shomer is a 'guard', a shell or some other protective layer over a foodstuff. It transmits tumah to the thing it protects and transmits tumah from the thing it protects, and also combines with the thing to make the minimum shiur.
But if there are multiple layers of shomer, only the innermost layer is an actual shomer- you can't have a shomer of a shomer is the saying.
Daf 119
An interesting case is hairs on a hide. One opinion is that if they're in a bundle of bristles they can be a yad, but otherwise they have no status for tumah. Another opinion is that they're a shomer. But how can this be, the hide is already a shomer and the hairs are on the hide, so it should be a shomer of a shomer.
The solution according to this opinion is that the hairs poke through the hide and touch the meat, so they are a primary shomer. Which raises an out of left field problem- klaf for sofrut is made of hide, if all hide has microscopic holes for hairs to pass through in it, is it kosher? The concern is that if there are holes, then perhaps the letters will not be perfect, and will thus be invalid.
The answer is that the ink fills the microscopic holes completely and therefore the letters are perfectly formed in spite of the microholes- in order for the klaf to be invalid because of a hole, it needs to at least be a visible hole.
Daf 120
Most of the places in the Talmud where food is discussed, it's discussed in terms of achila. Does this include shtiya? Usually, yes. Drinking is considered eating is a classic Rabbinic statement, proving that classic Rabbinic statements are not always paragons of sage advice for living. Sorry.
Perhaps this principle just applies to normal drinking, though. Drinking things you're supposed to drink. What if you take tamei meat and you heat it up and liquefy it and then you drink the liquefied meat. That's not a normal thing to do, maybe it doesn't count as eating?
No, says Reish Lakish. There are several places in the laws of tumah achilah where the Torah uses the word nefesh. That means that eating is considered any time you put food in your mouth for enjoyment, even if it's in a weird way.
Daf 121
OMG
melannen, relevant to the halachos of shechting a furby!If a Jew shechts a nonkosher animal for a non-Jew to eat, and the simanim have been cut but it's not yet dead (because it's an immortal Furby, obvs, or maybe because it's still in its death throes), then it's in this ambiguous middle status between dead and alive. Cutting the simanim has the effect of killing an animal for Jews, but non-Jews don't have shechita so for them the animal is alive until death full happens.
What are the consequences of this? When the animal dies, it will be neveilah as the carcass of an unkosher animal. When it's alive, it's not susceptible to tumah achilah. In this intermediate status, is it dead enough to be susceptible to tumah achilah (if someone exposes it to liquid) or is it alive enough to not be susceptible? Also, is it ever min hachai?
Machlokess Chizkiya v'Rabbi Yochanan. Rabbi Yochanan holds that the animal is treated as if it's still alive, while Chizkiya considers it in a middle state where it is susceptible to tumah and is not ever min hachai, but is not a neveilah.
So there you have it, the halakah by Chizkiya is that you can shecht a Furby and turn it into an undead Furby.