Masechet Chullin Daf 20
Dec. 17th, 2018 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretDaf 20
The discussion here is of melika, an unusual procedure described in Leviticus for offering bird sacrifices. It involves the Kohen cutting the back of the neck of the bird with their sharpened right thumbnail.
We're obviously studying Chullin so the Gemara asks why the Mishna is discussing a sacrifice. The answer is either because the Mishna wanted to compare Melika to Shechita to show how similar they are, or to compare Melika to Shechita to show how dissimilar they are. That might seem odd, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Normally with sacrifices, shechita is done essentially the same as shechita chullin. Melika is one of the relatively few exceptions. And there is a weird feature of melika which is that if you slaughter a bird by melika with the intention of offering it as a sacrifice, it's acceptable to eat, but if you just slaughter a bird by melika for chullin, it's a neveila. So the Gemara is trying to understand if melika is essentially like chullin shechita of birds, but with a few weird features that make it different, or if melika is an essentially different process.
It seems the answer depends on whether you think chullin shechita for birds is required d'oraysa or d'rabbanan (Most of the times when shechita is mentioned, it mentions chaya or behema, which are categories that exclude birds. Occasionally Of is mentioned with chaya or behema and so some learn that we are obligated d'oraysa to shecht birds, while others don't make that connection and say rather that shechita chullin for Ofs is just a practice we adopted to minimize confusion, similar to basar v'chalav on birds.) If chullin shechita of birds is d'oraysa, then the Torah prescribes these two separate procedures for shechting birds in different situations, and so we can learn things from one procedure that applies to the other by analogy. However, if chullin shechita of birds is d'rabbanan, its methods are learned from chullin shechita of animals, and you can't learn anything from the comparison between melika and chullin shechita of birds.
And so this will have implication for how you learn whether certain features of melika are acceptable bedieved or assur. For example, unlike shechita, melika is supposed to be done with a pushing motion rather than a back and forth motion. But if you do melika with a back and forth motion, is it a kosher sacrifice bedieved? According to those who think that chullin shechita of birds is the same as melika except where it isn't, you apparently would say that melika with a back and forth motion is acceptable bedieved.
The discussion here is of melika, an unusual procedure described in Leviticus for offering bird sacrifices. It involves the Kohen cutting the back of the neck of the bird with their sharpened right thumbnail.
We're obviously studying Chullin so the Gemara asks why the Mishna is discussing a sacrifice. The answer is either because the Mishna wanted to compare Melika to Shechita to show how similar they are, or to compare Melika to Shechita to show how dissimilar they are. That might seem odd, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Normally with sacrifices, shechita is done essentially the same as shechita chullin. Melika is one of the relatively few exceptions. And there is a weird feature of melika which is that if you slaughter a bird by melika with the intention of offering it as a sacrifice, it's acceptable to eat, but if you just slaughter a bird by melika for chullin, it's a neveila. So the Gemara is trying to understand if melika is essentially like chullin shechita of birds, but with a few weird features that make it different, or if melika is an essentially different process.
It seems the answer depends on whether you think chullin shechita for birds is required d'oraysa or d'rabbanan (Most of the times when shechita is mentioned, it mentions chaya or behema, which are categories that exclude birds. Occasionally Of is mentioned with chaya or behema and so some learn that we are obligated d'oraysa to shecht birds, while others don't make that connection and say rather that shechita chullin for Ofs is just a practice we adopted to minimize confusion, similar to basar v'chalav on birds.) If chullin shechita of birds is d'oraysa, then the Torah prescribes these two separate procedures for shechting birds in different situations, and so we can learn things from one procedure that applies to the other by analogy. However, if chullin shechita of birds is d'rabbanan, its methods are learned from chullin shechita of animals, and you can't learn anything from the comparison between melika and chullin shechita of birds.
And so this will have implication for how you learn whether certain features of melika are acceptable bedieved or assur. For example, unlike shechita, melika is supposed to be done with a pushing motion rather than a back and forth motion. But if you do melika with a back and forth motion, is it a kosher sacrifice bedieved? According to those who think that chullin shechita of birds is the same as melika except where it isn't, you apparently would say that melika with a back and forth motion is acceptable bedieved.