Chullin 94 – One Should Be Honest in Thoughts and Actions

A Jew may send a complete animal thigh to an idolater as a present, and not worry about removing the sciatic sinew. A non-Jew is allowed to eat it, and there is no danger that he will resell it to a Jew, since it is clear that it was not cut and the sinew was not removed.

However, a cut-up thigh should not be sent, because a Jew might buy it. But how could a Jew buy presumably non-kosher meat from an idolater? – We are dealing with a place where the majority butchers were Jewish, and when a non-kosher slaughter (terefah) occurred, they announced it. Jews then would refrain from buying from a re-seller on that day.

Another reason that a cut-up thigh may not be sent is that a Jew would then be deceiving an idolater, who would think that he got a super kosher piece of meat, and deceiving any person (literally, “stealing his mind”) is prohibited. One should not accustom himself to sleekness and enticement, and even one deceiving or misleading word is not allowed.

Art: Francisco De Goya y Lucientes - A Butcher's Counter

Chullin 93 – Fat and Blood

Some of the animal fat is prohibited by the Torah, and some is similar to it and is prohibited by the Sages. For example, the Torah prohibited “the fat that is on the flanks.”  As a rule, that includes only fat that is visible when the animal is flayed, but the fat covered by the muscle is permitted. However, as Rav Yehudah taught in the name of Shmuel, the fat that is under the loins is prohibited. How could this be, if it is covered by the loins? – As Abaye explained, when an animal is alive, its limbs separate from one another, and at times that fat is uncovered.

Rav Abba said, “The blood vessels in the foreleg are prohibited.” Rav Safra said to him, “Moses! Did the Merciful One say 'You shall not eat meat?'” Rava answered him, “Moses! Did the Merciful One say 'You may eat blood?'” Rather, if you are roasting the meat, the heat extracts the blood. However, if you are cooking the meat in a pot, you need to cut the vessels open first and salt them. Otherwise the prohibited blood gets reabsorbed into the meat.

Art: Esaias Boursse - Interior with Woman Cooking

Chullin 92 – Why Did The Angel Need to Go?

“Let me leave!” said [the stranger]. “Dawn is breaking.” “Are you thief or a kidnapper, who fears dawn?” – asked Jacob. “I am an angel, and since my creation my turn to sing a song to God has not arrived, till now, so I don't want to miss it,” – answered the angel. That is why Jacob then asked for a blessing.

We see from here that some angels sing a song to God only once in a lifetime. Even those that do it daily can only sing their song after the prayers are said on earth. Moreover, angels mention the name of God only after three words, “Holy, holy, holy (is) God of Multitudes,” whereas people say “Listen, Israel, God... Is One,” mentioning the name of God after two words.

Earlier we mentioned that the prohibition of sciatic sinew does not apply to fowl because they lack the spoon-shaped flesh over the thighbone. But we see that they do!? – Yes, there is a spoon, but it is not round. Rabbi Yirmiyah inquired, “What if some bird does have a round spoon-shaped flesh?” – Inquiry unresolved.

Art: Giorgio da Castelfranco Veneto ( Giorgione) - The Singing Lesson

Chullin 91 – The Fight Between Jacob and Angel

The prohibition of eating the sciatic sinew applies to the sinew of the right thigh and of the left thigh, but Rabbi Yehudah says that it applies to only one thigh, and logic dictates that it should be the right one. Is this the logic of the Torah or of the Sages? In other words, is Rabbi Yehudah certain that the Torah prohibited only the right sinew, or is he uncertain which one is prohibited, and so both are prohibited out of doubt?

Consider the following rule: if one ate a portion of the right sinew and of the left one, then according to the Sages he incurs double punishment, eighty lashes, but Rabbi Yehudah gives him only one punishment. Now if Rabbi Yehudah is in doubt about which sinew it is, then the person eating it can only be given a doubtful warning, which is no warning at all! Must be then that Rabbi Yehudah is certain that only the right sinew is prohibited. Why the right one?

One explanation is that the angel fighting with Jacob embraced him with his right hand and extended it to Jacob's right haunch and dislocated it. Another one – Jacob thought it was a non-Jew and positioned him to his right, to better protect himself. Yet another explanation, the angel looked like a Sage, and Jacob position himself to the left of the Sage, to show respect.

Art: Luca Giordano - Jacob Wrestling With The Angel

Chullin 90 – Exaggerations and Hyperbole

Rabbi Chiya bar Yosef said, “The prohibition of sciatic sinew applies only to sacrifices that are eaten, but not, for example, to a burnt offering.” Rabbi Yochanan disagreed.

Rav Pappa said that they don't really argue. Rabbi Chiya is talking about the the sinew not removed from the thigh, and then there is no prohibition to burn it, whereas Rabbi Yochanan is discussing a case where the sinew was already removed, and then it is prohibited to burn it.

Rav Nachman bar Yitzhak said that they do disagree. According to Rabbi Yochanan, the complete thigh is brought to the Altar – because it would be unseemly to bring it cut – but then the sinew is removed and thrown onto the mound at the center of the Altar, which also contained ashes.

At times, the mound had 300 kor (4,000 cubic feet) of ashes on it. Rava said, “That is an exaggeration.” Other examples of exaggerations, according to Rava, are that they gave a lamb to drink from a golden cup, or that 300 kohanim were needed to purify the Temple curtain in a mikva. The Torah itself uses hyperbole when it said, “large cities fortified to the heavens.”

Art: Thomas George Cooper - A ewe with lambs in a coastal landscape

Chullin 89 – Sciatic Nerve

When the book of Job says that “God suspended the Earth on nothing,” it alludes to that one who remains silent in the time of provocation, literally, “without anything,” and in his merit God maintains the world.

The sciatic sinew, “gid hanasheh,” is prohibited by the Torah on the account of the angel fighting with Jacob and striking him on the hip, dislocating his thighbone. The Torah says, “Therefore, the Children of Israel are not to eat the displaced sinew that is in the spoon of the thigh, to this day.” The “spoon” is the rounded, spoon-like flesh around the top of the thighbone.

The exact prohibition mentioned the sciatic sinew, and the commonly known sciatic nerve constitutes part of it. The prohibition applies both in the Land of Israel and outside, when the Temple is standing and now, to both regular animals and sacrifices. It applies to domestics and wild animals but not to fowl, because they do not have spoon-shaped flesh on their thigh.

Art: Francois-Andre Vincent - Job Being Scolded by his Wife

Chullin 88 – Materials for Covering the Animal Blood

If blood from animal slaughter became mixed with water and the amount of water is such that the mixture still looks like blood, one has to cover it. If blood mixed with red wine, then we look at wine as if it were water. If the corresponding amount of water in the mixture would not make it loose its appearance of blood, one still has to cover it. The same is true if it mixed with some other blood that does not require covering, such as blood of a domestic animal, but Rabbi Yehudah argues and says that blood cannot nullify other blood, and one always has to cover the mixture.

Blood that splattered – the Sages say that it too has to be covered, but Rabbi Yehudah says that covering any part of it is enough. All derive their opinion from the words in the Torah “its blood” but interpret them differently.

One may cover blood with fine sand or dung, lime or ground pottery, but not with course sand or dung, nor with uncrushed bricks. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel stated a rule: “Blood can be covered with anything in which plans can grow.”

Art: Francisco De Zurbaran - Still-Life with Pottery Jars