Daf Yomi

The Meat Is Kosher…Treifah…Kosher…Treifah…

“If One Clotted Blood”

(Chulin 120a)

For a long while, we have been occupied with the halachos of meat with milk, salting, neveilah, treifah, forbidden food becoming insignificant as one 60^th, etc. The following story appears to be an ideal way to briefly review a few important halachos and, at the same time, enjoy the outstanding perceptiveness of Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk, zt”l.

Some say that the event occurred when meat was being cooked for the wedding of one of his grandchildren. Others tell the story with an introduction recounting that a government-appointed, unlearned rabbi once accosted Rabbi Chaim with these words: “I don’t understand why you must examine a matter so extensively before answering halachic questions. Yes is yes and no is no!” Rabbi Chaim smiled and replied, “If so, let’s see how you would rule the following case…”

“A piece of neveilah fell into a pot of boiling meat. As soon as it became known, the frightened maid quickly extracted the neveilah and discarded it, leaving us with no way to know whether it was small enough to become insignificant in a multiple of 60 parts. Therefore, what is the status of the boiling meat in the pot?

The Pot of Meat Should Be Permitted

“One of the types of mixtures is called ‘a kind with its own kind’ (min b’mino), i.e., that the mixture consists of a forbidden article with a permitted article of the same type as, for example, in our case where the kosher and treifah were both meat. Such a mixture becomes, min haTorah, insignificant in a simple majority (51%) and does not require a multiple of 60 parts. Therefore, as it is obvious that the piece of neveilah is smaller than the contents of the pot (since it fell into the pot), it becomes insignificant in the majority. However, Chazal regulated that min b’mino also requires 60 parts (mi’d’Rabbanan). 

"In our case, where we do not know whether the neveilah became insignificant in a multiple of 60 parts or not, we have a doubt arising from a rabbinical decree (safek d’Rabbanan), and a safek d’Rabbanan is judged leniently (Shulchan Aruch, Yorah De’ah 98:2).”

The unlearned rabbi breathed a sigh of relief: “Indeed, the meat is kosher!”

No, No, the Meat Is Forbidden!

“The blood in the neveilah was not extracted as the neveilah was not salted,” Rabbi Chaim continued. “We therefore have a mixture of a kind with something which is not its own kind, i.e., the neveilah’s blood with the kosher meat, and as long as we are not sure that the contents of the pot are 60 times greater than that of the neveilah’s blood, the meat is forbidden as we cannot be lenient about a doubt concerning a Torah law (Shulchan Aruch, ibid.).”

“Right,” nodded the unlearned rabbi. “It’s treifah.”

“Right?” asked Rabbi Chaim. “It’s not certain at all! It could actually be that the meat is kosher, as the blood was absorbed in the neveilah meat and came out when cooked. Cooked blood is forbidden only by rabbinic decree. We again face a doubt as to whether the rabbinic prohibition is insignificant in 60 parts, and a safek d’Rabbanan is judged leniently.”

But in the End…

To the rabbi’s astonishment, Rabbi Chaim then added, “Cooked blood indeed is not forbidden by the Torah but merely by rabbinic decree. This case concerns the blood of a slaughtered animal, which is forbidden because of the prohibition on blood. But since the animal in question is a neveilah – a forbidden animal – cooking it doesn’t remove the prohibition of neveilah, and so its prohibition from the Torah remains. As long as we don’t know for sure that the kosher meat exceeds the blood of the neveilah by 60 parts, it cannot be eaten.”

Some add two more aspects to the story, one which would permit the mixture and another which would forbid it. One way or another, there’s no doubt that from that day on, no one asked Rabbi Chaim why one must deeply examine a matter before solving a halachic quandary (see Kisvei Kehilos Yaakov Hachadashim, Kodashim 3, which cites this story in Rabbi Chaim’s name; see ibid., where he devotes a lengthy discussion to whether the blood of a neveilah also has the prohibition of neveilah; and see Zecher Yitzchak 67, concerning the blood of a treifah).