Daf Yomi

Kosher “Oxymoron”

“The Divine Law Permits It With (Any Two) Of Four Simanim”

(Chulin 75)

Our daf discusses the situation where one slaughtered a treifah animal and found in its womb a nine-month-old living fetus. Rabba notes that even if the mother’s slaughter is invalid because it is a treifah, the slaughter of the full-term fetus will permit the latter’s consumption. A ben pakua – a live animal that emerges from its mother – is permitted with any two of four simanim, either the slaughter of its mother’s two simanim (esophagus and trachea) or of its own two simanim.

A Puzzling Quandary

This halacha requires clarification. Since the fact that the mother is a treifah does not render her offspring a treifah (as evidenced by the fact that the offspring is fit for consumption after its own shechitah), why then is there any need at all for the offspring to undergo shechitah? This question is strengthened by the halacha (Mishna, supra 72b) that the shechitah of the mother, although a treifah and obviously prohibited from being eaten, nevertheless suffices to prevent the dead animal from becoming defiled and classified as a neveilah. Now, as regards the offspring – which is surely not treifah – why, then, require its own shechitah?

A Matter of Choice

Rabbi Akiva Eiger (Novella, Yoreh Deah end of siman 13) offers the following explanation. A ben pakua is rendered permitted via its mother’s shechitah by virtue of its being viewed as a limb of its mother – uber yerech imo. Therefore, if the mother were a treifah, then her fetus would also be treifah. Raba, on the other hand, is stating that in the situation where the fetus is viable, the Torah offers us a choice either to view the offspring as one of the mother’s limbs, thus permitting it through its mother’s shechitah, or to view it as a separate animal (and not as one of its mother’s limbs), in which case it would require its own shechitah. Therefore, if the mother is rendered a treifah, the first choice gives us no option to permit the offspring, but the second choice offers the possibility to slaughter the offspring and permit its consumption.

A Twofold Function

Rabbi Chaim Brisker explains this halacha (cited in the responsa at the end of his son’s sefer, Chiddushei Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik on Rambam, the end of p. 79a) by disputing the premise of the question, which assumes that the slaughter of a treifah renders a perfectly valid shechitah in spite of the fact that the animal is not fit for consumption due to its treifah status. He explains that every shechitah has a twofold function: It prevents the tum’ah (impurity) of neveilah from taking hold of the animal, and it also serves as the matir (means of permitting) the animal’s meat for consumption. The Brisker Rav infers from Rambam (Hilchos Ma’achalos Asuros chap. 5:15) that the reason the meat of a treifah is forbidden for consumption is that it lacks an effective shechitah. True, the shechitah of a treifah does accomplish that it is not neveilah; however, it cannot render the animal fit for consumption. If the shechitah cannot render the mother – the animal that was actually slaughtered – fit for consumption, then surely it cannot render the offspring fit for consumption either; hence the requirement for a second shechitah, of the offspring found in the slaughtered treifah’s womb.