Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna: XLII. Treatise Cholin: Chapter II

Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, by D. A. Sola and M. J. Raphall, [1843], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER II.

§ 1. When one of the pipes 1 has been cut through in killing fowl, and both 2 in killing cattle, they are Cashér; 3 also when the greatest part of these had been cut through. R. Jehudah saith, "It

is necessary that in killing fowl the veins at the side of the throat should also be cut through." If but one half [of the trachea] is cut through in fowl, and one and a half [i.e. the trachea, and half of the œsophagus] in cattle, it is unfit; but if the greater part of one tube is cut through in fowl, and the greater part of the two in cattle, it is Cashér.

§ 2. If a person cut off two heads of animals or fowl at once, it is Cashér; also if only the greater part of both tubes was cut through in each. When two persons take hold of a knife whilst killing, even if one held it at the top of the blade and the other at the bottom [or handle], it is Cashér.

§ 3. If he hewed or chopped off the head at one blow, it is Pasool. 4 If, when killing, he had accidentally cut off the whole head, it is Cashér, if the knife extended the width of a neck [beyond the place cut]. When a person in killing cut off two heads at once: if the knife extends the width of one neck only beyond the places cut, it is Cashér. 5 This is, however, only in case the knife had been passed down the throat of the animal only, without drawing it back, or that the second or back cut was only made without the down [or first] cut; but if the knife in cutting was drawn to and fro, if it exceeded in the least the width of the throat of the animals, even if it was as small as a penknive or lancet, it is Cashér. Should a knife happen to drop accidentally on the throat of an animal, although it was duly slaughtered in consequence, yet it is Pasool; for it is said [Deut. xxvii. 7], "Thou shalt sacrifice, and thou shalt eat," viz. that only which thou [thyself] sacrificest, that shalt thou eat. If whilst in the act of slaughtering, the knife should drop from a person's hand, and he picked it up; or his clothes, and he picked them up; 6 or, that having become exhausted by the exertion of setting or sharpening the knife, it was necessary that another person should finish the cutting; if the delay thereby occasioned was such, that during its duration another similar animal might have been slaughtered, it is Pasool. R. Simeon said, "When a knife could have been examined 7 during the interval."

§ 4. When the œsophagus had been duly cut through, but the trachea was torn off, or the reverse; or, that he cut through one of

the tubes, and then waited till the animal died; or, that he covered or hid the knife by placing it under the second tube, 8 and cut it off; it must, according to R. Jishbab, he considered as Nebelah [i.e. as an animal which died of itself], 9 but, according to R. Akivah, as Terefá [i.e. an animal torn by wild beasts]. 10 R. Jishbab gave the following rule from the authority of R. Joshua, "Every animal which, owing to a defect in slaughtering, has become Pasool [or unfit for use], must be considered as Nebelah; but when the slaughtering was duly performed, and it became Pasool through another cause, 11 it must be considered as Terefá." Then R. Akivah assented to him [R. Jishbab].

§ 5. When a domestic or wild animal or fowl was slaughtered, and no blood followed [the incision], it is Cashér, and may be eaten with unwashed hands; 12 because the absence of blood rendered it unsusceptible of contracting and conveying pollution. R. Simeon saith, "The slaughtering rendered it susceptible."

§ 6. If an animal is slaughtered when it is dangerously ill, according to Rabbon Simeon ben Gamaliel, "It is sufficient [to render it Cashér] when it can move or struggle with its fore and hind legs." R. Eleazar saith, "It suffices if the blood spirted after its throat was cut." R. Simeon teaches, "That even when a person slaughtered such an animal at night, and found in the morning the walls [of the slaughter-house] covered with blood, it is Cashér, agreeable to R. Eleazar's opinion." But the sages hold it to be Cashér only, "when the animal struggled with either his fore or hind leg, or that it wagged its tail;" this applies to small as well as to large cattle. When a small cattle [a sheep or goat, &c.] is slaughtered [when dangerously ill], and extends its fore-leg, but does not draw it back, it is Pasool, because it only indicates the last throe of parting life. This is to be understood only in case the animal is supposed to be in imminent danger; but when it is considered sound, although it should not have exhibited any of the mentioned symptoms [after being killed], it is Cashér.

§ 7. When a person had slaughtered an animal for a heathen, it is Cashér; but R. Eleazar decides it to be Pasool. R. Eleazar teaches, "That if he slaughtered it with the intention that the heathen should only eat the caul of the liver of the animal, 13 it is Pasool, because the tacit intention of the heathen is to use it for idolatrous purposes." R. Joshua argued against this, and demonstrated his opinion by a syllogism from minor to major [‏קל וחומר‎], 14 "If where the intention renders Pasool, as in the case of consecrated things, 15 the matter is determined by the intention of the acting priest, does it not follow that in the present instance, which relates to non-consecrated things, 16 and where the intention does not render them Pasool, it should be determined by the intention of him that slaughtered?" 17

§ 8. When a person slaughtered an animal in or to the name of mountains, hills, seas, rivers, or deserts, it is Pasool. 18 When one of two persons holding the same knife had killed the animal with the mentioned idolatrous intention, and the other with a lawful intention, the animal so killed is Pasool.

§ 9. It is not lawful to slaughter [so that the blood should run] into the sea, or in a river, or to place the animal within a vessel; 19 but it is lawful to slaughter in a wet ditch, 20 or within a utensil on board a ship. 21 It is not permitted to slaughter in any pit at all, but it is lawful to make a pit within the house, that the blood may collect therein; but this is not permitted in the public street, not to countenance the custom of heretics. 22

the temple] as a burnt offering or [other] sacrifice, or as a doubtful sin offering, or as a Paschal sacrifice, or as a thanksgiving offering, it is Pasool; but R. Simeon considers it Cashér. When two persons take hold of a knife in slaughtering, and one of them did so with the intention of slaughtering it as one of the mentioned sacrifices, and the other with a lawful intention, it is Pasool. When it was slaughtered as a sin-offering, or as a certain trespass-offering, or as a firstborn, or as tithe [of animals], or as an exchanged sacrifice, it is Cashér; for this is the rule, "If tine animal was slaughtered as a sacrifice that can be offered by voluntary vow, it is Pasool; but if it was slaughtered as any other sacrifice, it is Cashér."

Footnotes

328:3 This is only when it has thus happened without premeditation, for it is necessary to commence the act of slaughtering with the intention of cutting through both tubes. For the elucidation of the following part of the Mishna, it is necessary to observe, that, according to tradition, five things are to be avoided in killing cattle or fowl, as they would render them Pasool, i.e. improper and unlawful to be used as food. The five mentioned invalidating causes are:—

‏שהייה‎ or delay. As when a person cuts a little of the throat of the animal, then stops and cuts again, and continues in the same manner till the act of killing is completed.

‏דרסה‎, or pressure, i.e. when the cutting was effected by pressure only, without passing the knife to and fro on the animal's throat, or cutting off the head or tubes by a single stroke, using the knife like a hatchet or sword.

‏חלרה‎ or concealment, i.e. when the knife was covered with any thing; for instance, if it was covered or hidden by the wool of the animal, or by a cloth, or that it was passed between the tubes, and the killing completed by cutting the tubes either upward or downward.

‏הגרמה‎ or deviation. When the cutting has been beyond the bounds or limits on the throat of the animal, and it was made either above or below these limits hereafter to be indicated.

‏עקיר‎ or tearing. When the tubes of any of them had been forcibly torn away before the act of killing was completed. (For more detailed particulars see Talmud, Treatise Cholin, p. 9, and Maimonides, chap. iii. of Hilchoth Shechitah, in vol. ii. of Yad Hachazakah.)

329:4 On account of ‏דרסה‎, "forcible pressure;" see the preceding note.

330:10 Which does not communicate legal uncleanliness to the person who carries it.

330:12 Blood is one of the seven fluids, mentioned in Treatise Yadaim, which render a substance susceptible of contracting legal pollution. (For a complete understanding of this Mishna see Treatises Zebachim and Yadaim.)

331:17 And not that of the heathen; consequently, that animal should be Cashér. The Halacha or decision is according to R. Joshua's inference.

331:18 To eat, but not to derive benefit from it; but if he said, "I slaughter it to the demon or spirit of the mountain," &c., it is not only Pasool, but prohibited to derive benefit from it.

331:19 To collect the blood. This and the following were ordered to avoid the idolatrous practices which were anciently in vogue; when, for instance, they let the blood run into the sea, to propitiate Neptune or some other fabulous deity.

331:21 Although the blood should run thence into the sea, for it is evidently done not to soil the ship.

331:22 This was also one of the ancient idolatrous practises to collect the blood in a pit.