The Jew as a Gentile’s “Kashrus Certificate”
“We Do Not Give Innards to a Gentile”
(Chullin 33a)
Is it permitted to give a gentile the innards of an animal to eat? The source of this issue is found not in the Acharonim, nor in the Rishonim, and not even among the Geonim, but in our Gemara.
This topic arises from the way an animal is slaughtered. The two simanim, the windpipe and the esophagus, are not cut simultaneously. The windpipe is at the front and is cut first, followed by the esophagus. As the lungs are connected to the windpipe from which they get air, it turns out that they are detached from the animal before the end of shechita – before the second siman is cut. A Jew may eat the lungs. Since the Torah instructed Jews to slaughter in this manner, this is the way an animal is permitted for Jews to eat. Other limbs detached from the animal before cutting the second siman are forbidden.
Permitted to Us, Forbidden to Them?
Gentiles, however, are not commanded to slaughter, and as far as they are concerned, shechita has no consequence. For them, it is like a dying animal from which a limb or other meat removed before death is forever forbidden as ever min hachai, literally a “limb from the living,” which is forbidden also to gentiles. Indeed, Rav Acha bar Yaakov believes that the lungs and intestines of an animal, cut off before its death, are forbidden to gentiles. But the Gemara cites Rav Papa’s opinion: “Is there anything permitted to Jews that is forbidden to gentiles?” In other words, it cannot be that there is any food allowed to Jews and forbidden to gentiles.
This basic rule, cited elsewhere (Sanhedrin 59a; Tosfos, Chullin 102a), should be examined by means of the following inquiry. There is no food permitted to Jews and forbidden to gentiles. What is the principle on which this rule is based? There are two possibilities.
We can understand this rule from the perspective of values: Jews, children of royalty, are a special people, and as such are restricted in which foods they may eat. If Hashem allowed Jews to eat a certain food, He certainly did not forbid it for gentiles.
Siman or Sibah
We can also understand this rule as a kashrus label: If a Jew is allowed to eat a certain food, that is the best “kashrus certificate” that the food can be given. In other words, the very fact that a food is permitted for Hashem’s chosen people permits it for gentiles too.
We can summarize these two definitions with one of two words: Is this a reason to permit it for gentiles (sibah) or is it only an indication that it is permitted (siman)? [Sibah vs. siman is a classic distinction often made in halachic analysis.]
One possibility is that it is a substantive principle: if the Torah permitted a certain food to Jews (who are held to a higher standard of kashrus restrictions), it would not then forbid that same food to gentiles. According to this approach, the very fact that Jews may eat the food is itself a reason (sibah) to permit it to gentiles as well.
Alternatively, the rule may function only as an indicator (siman). If a food is permitted to Jews, that demonstrates that the Torah did not view it as prohibited food in an absolute sense. The permissibility for Jews thus serves as evidence that gentiles may eat it too, unless there exists an independent reason to prohibit it to them.
The difference between these approaches is significant. In the case of our Gemara, the lungs and intestines become permitted to a Jew through the process of shechita. For a gentile, however, shechita has no halachic significance. Since these organs were detached before the animal’s death, there is reason to classify them as ever min hachai for a gentile.
If the rule is merely a siman, this secondary concern that we just mentioned overrides the indication drawn from the fact Jews can eat it. But if the rule is a sibah – that whatever the Torah permits to Jews cannot remain forbidden to gentiles – then the fact that Jews may eat these innards itself becomes grounds to permit them to gentiles as well. A rule is a rule, and this outside concern won’t override it.
This essential inquiry is the key to understanding Tosfos on our sugya (see Kovetz Shiurim II, Kovetz Shemuos 23, etc.) and a very important and basic difference among opinions in the Rishonim as to how to rule concerning innards (Rambam, Hilchos Melachim 9:12-13, and in Kesef Mishneh and Lechem Mishneh; Tur Shulchan Aruch, Yorah Deah 27).