{"id":14073,"date":"2011-10-06T21:20:22","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T21:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/life\/other\/masechet_hullin_110a116b\/"},"modified":"2015-11-04T10:13:35","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T15:13:35","slug":"masechet_hullin_110a116b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/masechet_hullin_110a116b\/","title":{"rendered":"Masechet Chullin 110a-116b"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Coming Week’s Daf Yomi by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz<\/em><\/p>\n

This essay is based upon the insights and chidushim (original ideas) of Talmudic scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, as published in the Hebrew version of the Steinsaltz Edition of the Talmud.<\/em><\/p>\n

Chullin 110a-b: Eating udder<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

On yesterday’s daf<\/em><\/a> we learned that one can eat udder without concern about the prohibition of mixing meat and milk if it was cut open and the milk was removed. Similarly, Rav Nachman<\/a> recommended that his wife, Yalta<\/a>, should eat roasted udder if she wanted to taste meat and milk. According to the Gemara<\/a> on today’s daf<\/em>, even during Talmudic times there was no clear consensus regarding the permissibility of eating udder.<\/p>\n

The Gemara relates:<\/p>\n

In Sura<\/a> people did not eat the udder at all, in Pumbedita<\/a> they used to eat it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rami bar Tamri, also known as Rami bar Dikuli, of Pumbedita once happened to be in Sura on the eve of Yom Kippur<\/a>. When the townspeople took all the udders of the animals that they had prepared for the pre-fast meal and threw them away, he immediately went and collected them and ate them. He was then brought before Rav Chisda<\/a> who said to him: \u2018Why did you do it?\u2019 He replied: \u2018I come from the place of Rav Yehuda<\/a> who permits it to be eaten.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Although the Gemara relates that Rav Chisda rebuked Rami for keeping the traditions of another community while visiting Sura, Rami replied that he had made sure to eat outside of the city limits in order to avoid the appearance of rejecting the local Rabbinic authority’s rulings.<\/p>\n

The reason for the large amount of animals that were slaughtered just prior to Yom Kippur<\/em>, would appear to be based on the Gemara<\/a> in Masechet<\/a> Yoma<\/a><\/em> (daf<\/em> 81b<\/a>), which teaches that someone who eats and drinks on erev<\/em> Yom Kippur<\/em> is credited as though he had fasted on both the ninth and the tenth days of Tishrei. This is generally understood to mean that there is a special mitzvah<\/a><\/em> to eat on the day before Yom<\/em> Kippur<\/em>. Nevertheless, we learned above (daf 83<\/a><\/em>) that Tosafot<\/a> explained it was only in the Galilee that people ate meat; in other places people preferred lighter fare, like fish or poultry. One suggestion is that the story on daf<\/em> 83 related to the times of the Mishnah<\/a> in the Land of Israel, while the story on today’s daf<\/em> takes place in Babylonia generations later, by which time traditions had changed.<\/p>\n

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Chullin 111a-b: Eating liver<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Much as the Gemara<\/a> is concerned with milk that is found in an animal’s udder and requires that the udder be cut open to remove milk before cooking, the Gemara is also concerned about blood that is found in liver. Since an animal’s liver has large amounts of blood, ordinary salting is not enough to remove all of it. Here, too, the Gemara recommends cutting it open and squeezing it out.<\/p>\n

The Gemara relates a number of stories that illustrate the disagreements about how liver is to be prepared. In one, Rav bar Shaba visited Rav Nachman<\/a>‘s house and refused to eat the liver that had been cooked, leading Rav Nachman to insist that he be forced to eat, since it is inappropriate for a student to be more stringent that his teacher, certainly in his teacher’s own house. \u00a0On the other hand, the Gemara tells of Rabbah bar Rav Huna<\/a> who once visited the house of Rabbah bar Rav Nachman, who noticed that a liver together with its arteries<\/a> had been prepared for the meal. He objected to this and explained to them that in order to prepare it for eating it would be necessary to cut it open lengthwise and breadthwise, leaving the cut part below to allow the blood to drain from it.<\/p>\n

According to the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch<\/a> (Yoreh De’ah<\/em> 73:1-2) the common practice is to broil the liver even after it is cut open and drained, so that the blood will be totally removed from it before eating. Once the liver is broiled, it can be eaten, or, alternatively, it can be cooked in an ordinary fashion. The requirement to cut open and drain the liver only applies when the liver is whole. When it is cut up, then the only requirement is to broil it.<\/p>\n

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Chullin 112a-b – Cutting sharp vegetables with a meat knife<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the Gemara<\/a>, if fish was cooked in a pan that had been used for meat, nevertheless the fish can be eaten with kutach<\/em> (a type of dip made of milk ingredients). In contrast, if a tznon<\/em> (radish<\/a>) was cut with a meat knife it may not be eaten with kutach<\/em>. This is so only in the case of a radish, which, on account of its strong flavor, absorbs from the knife, but in the case of kishut<\/em> (cucumber<\/a>) one need only scrape away the surface of the cut and then one may eat it with kutah. Lifta<\/em> (turnip<\/a> stalks) are permitted; silka<\/em> (beet<\/a> stalks) are forbidden, but if one cut these and turnips alternately, they are permitted.<\/p>\n

When there is no actual meat – just the taste of meat that was absorbed by the pot or pan – only a secondary taste would be transferred to the fish that is cooked. That taste is referred to as noten ta’am bar noten ta’am<\/em> – something that gives taste which is the progeny of something that gives taste. When the source of the taste is something permissible, we do not view that as significant. Regarding the case of the sharp vegetables, Rashi<\/a> offers two explanations for why we are stricter when they are cut with a meat knife. First of all, we must assume that a knife used for meat will always have some oily remnants from that meat that may not be visible, but would affect the flavor of the vegetable. Additionally, the pressure applied when cutting into the vegetable may force the taste absorbed in the knife into it. Tosafot<\/a> add that this would apply to all sharp vegetables, including onions, leeks and garlic.<\/p>\n

Kutach ha-Bavli<\/em> was a dip that was prepared for people to eat together with their bread. It was popular in Bavel<\/a> (which is why it is called kutach ha-Bavli<\/em>) and was made from moldy bread mixed with whey and salt.<\/p>\n

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Chullin 113a-b: Salting meat<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The prohibition against eating blood is repeated a number of times in the Torah<\/a> (see, for example, Vayikra<\/a> 3:17<\/a> & 17:11-14<\/a>; Devarim<\/a> 12:16<\/a>). How can we be sure to remove all blood before eating meat?<\/p>\n

The Gemara<\/a> on today’s daf <\/em>offers testimony about how this was done.<\/p>\n