Daf Yomi

Eternal and Immutable

“Only Those Enumerated by the Sages”

(Chulin 54a)

Members of Yosef the hunter’s household, who were in the habit of killing beasts either by striking them or shooting an arrow into the gid hanasheh (sciatic nerve), came before R. Yehuda b. Besera and asked whether this rendered the animal a treifah. Similarly, the household of R. Papa b. Abba the hunter, who would kill an animal by shooting an arrow into its kidney, came before R. Abba and asked whether doing so rendered the animal a treifah.

In each case, the answer was the same: The animal remains kosher, as we only render as treifah those categories listed by our Sages. This is so even though eventually the animal might die from its wounds. In the event that salves were applied, we were taught – “gemiri” – that the animal could live and therefore it is not considered a treifah.

Unknown Cures

Rambam (Hilchos Shechita 10:12) codifies this halacha and states that even where current medical knowledge has no cure for the animal’s wound, it nevertheless remains kosher. Kesef Mishna (ad. loc) comments that Rambam evidently interpreted gemiri as meaning that such was the halacha as handed down by Moshe from Sinai: that a cure exists for these types of wounds even though it remains unknown to us.

Conversely (infra 10:13), Rambam notes that even though a medical cure may be found for those treifos enumerated by our Sages, they nevertheless remain classified as treifah. In short, only those treifos listed by our Sages are prohibited – no more, no less.

The Torah Speaks to Matan Torah

The Chazon Ish (Yoreh De’ah 5:s.k.103, also Even Ha’Ezer 27:s.k.3) explains Rambam’s statement. It does not mean that medical experts who profess to possess the ability to cure certain treifos are not believed, as we see that surgeons, through their expertise, have the ability to cure many ailments by cutting through the stomach, yet we also see in the Mishna (supra 42a) that a cut to the stomach renders the animal a treifah. The Chazon Ish explains that the Torah spoke to the period of its giving – Matan Torah. Any defect considered incurable at that time remains a treifah for eternity despite any future medical advancement.

A Change in Nature

Alternatively, the Chazon Ish suggests that it is not that the remedies of today would not have been effective in earlier times; rather, the nature of life changed over the course of time such that previously ineffective remedies now have the ability to cure (See Tosafos, Moed Kattan, 11a sv “chvara samuch l’misrechei m’ali,” who explain that what was once considered safe to eat and in fact was considered to be at its best – such as fish about to turn rancid – would now be considered dangerous because nature has changed in our times.) The laws of treifos were established by the Torah for eternity in accord with the laws of nature at the time of Matan Torah and therefore disregard any subsequent change.