The Fat of the Land
“Only Those Whose Chelev Are Forbidden…”
(Zevachim 70a)
Our sugya delves into which chelev (fats) are tahor (ritually clean), touching on kosher chayos (non-domesticated animals) whose chelev are permitted. The Gemara continues to deliberate various possibilities. Let us consider another one.
Heaven-Sent Meat
The Gemara (Sanhedrin 59b) relates that R. Shimon b. Chalafta encountered two lions while he was going from place to place. Alarmed at the danger, he pronounced the verse “The young lions roar for prey” (Tehillim 104:21), and a miracle immediately occurred: Two pieces of meat fell from Heaven and the lions satiated their hunger with one of them. R. Shimon took the other piece of meat to the Beis Midrash and asked if it was tahor – in other words, whether it was permitted for consumption. The wise men replied that it was surely tahor as “nothing impure descends from Heaven.”
Mastery Of the Sefer Yetzirah
The Gemara later recounts (infra 67b) that R. Chanina and R. Oshaya would learn the halachos of Creation every erev Shabbos. Rashi (s.v, “aski b’hilchos yetzirah’) explains that in the course of their study of the Sefer Yetzirah, they combined letters of Hashem’s name by which He created the world, which resulted in a fine calf being sent down for them, which they ate. The Gemara does not mention whether the calf required ritual slaughter (shechittah) or not. Possibly it did not, because it was not born naturally.
To Slaughter or Not
The Acharonim discuss this question and the She’lah HaKadosh (Parashas VaYeshev, p. 70), asserts that an animal created with the use of the Sefer Yetzirah requires no shechitah. The Seder HaDoros concludes that Sanhedrin 59b proves likewise (Seder Tanaim Ve’amoraim, os Shin, Maareches Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta, os Beis, 182), as R. Shimon b. Chalafta was satisfied when he heard that the Heaven-sent meat was tahor and permitted to be eaten. If an unnaturally born animal – in this case, one that descended from Heaven – was deemed to require shechittah, he could never have eaten the meat.
A Temple Sacrifice
The author of Tur Barekes (Hilchos Yom Tov, p. 143) adds that there is no need for nikur (removing the forbidden fat and veins) in an animal descending directly from Heaven, nor any need to remove the gid hanasheh (the sciatic nerve). We should mention an interesting remark of Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin, that though a created animal needs no shechittah, nevertheless, in his view, it may be brought for sacrificial purposes to the Temple.
Sent By the Wind
The S’dei Chemed (Ma’areches Chametz u’Matzah, 2:3), however, warns that a person should rather suspect that the wind brought such a piece of meat onto his premises. In his view, the halachos mentioned in the Gemara were intended only for the Amoraim who had the ability to create animals with the Sefer Yetzirah and who knew very well if a certain piece of meat derived from Heaven.