Commentary for Chullin 9:9

העור והרוטב (the hide and the juice of meat) – because it is taught in the Mishnah in the chapter [four]: “A beast which was in hard labor” regarding the placenta–after-birth, and that it does not defile the defilement of foods nor the defilement of carrions, it (i.e., the Mishnah) teaches, “The Hide and the Juice of Meat” – chapter 9). But this that separates–divides, because it (i.e., the Mishnah) teaches in the chapter “A beast which was in hard labor” (in Mishnah 5): “[If] he found a live nine-months’ birth, it requires slaughtering and he is liable for to the ruling of ‘it and its young’,” it (i.e., the Mishnah) taught afterwards [the chapter] “It and its young.” But since it (chapter 5) is speaking about ritual slaughtering that is not appropriate, it (i.e., the Mishnah) teaches after it (chapter 6), “the requirement to cover up its blood,” and since it (i.e., the Mishnah) teaches in “the requirement to cover up its blood,” and that it applies to wild beasts and fowl, it (i.e., the Mishnah) teaches “The sinew of the hip–the sciatic nerve” (Chapter 7) which applies to wild animals but not to fowl. But since it teaches in “The sinew of the hip–the sciatic nerve” with the thigh that was cooked with the sinew of the hip [with forbidden swallowing], it teaches “Every [kind of] flesh” (Chapter 8), and after it, it returns to the first matter of the placenta–after-birth, or that doesn’t become defiled with the defilement of foods.

Introduction The ninth chapter deals with two different forms of uncleanness: 1) food-uncleanness and 2) nevelah uncleanness. There are some differences between the two forms of uncleanness. Food that is unclean can cause other food to become unclean if there is the amount of an egg of food, whereas for nevelah uncleanness an olive’s worth is sufficient. Our mishnah teaches that some parts of the animal are considered to be food and therefore susceptible to food uncleanness even though they are not usually eaten.

העור והרוטב – the hide of the ritually slaughtered animal, such as, for example, less than an egg’s bulk of flesh and its hide is attached to it, it combines, because it protects the flesh, and the guards combine for a light defilement which is defilement of food, as It is written regarding it (Leviticus 11:37): “[If such a carcass falls upon] seed grain that is to be sown, [it is pure],” in he manner that people find for sowing, wheat in its husk and barley in its husk and lentils in their husks. But even though that in this verse (Leviticus 11:37 referenced above), it is written that “it is pure,” the reason is that it did not become susceptible, but adjacent to it (Leviticus 11:38): “but if water is put on the seed, [and any part of a carcass falls upon it]” that it becomes susceptible, it is impure.(i.e., “it is impure for you”).

The hide, meat juice, sediment, dried-up meat, bones, sinews, horns and hooves join together [to make up the minimum quantity in order] to convey food-uncleanness, but not to [make up the minimum quantity in order to] convey nevelah-uncleanness. These are all parts of the animal that are not generally or ever eaten. However, these parts, joing together with the generally edible parts of the animal to create a minimum volume the size of an egg to convey uncleanness to other foods if the animal was rendered unclean. The reason is that all although these parts are not eaten on their own, they are sometimes eaten with other parts of the meat. Alternatively, some of these things protect the meat of the animal, even if they themselves are not eaten. Therefore, they join with the meat in adding up to this minimum value. However, these things do not join together with the rest of the meat to cause nevelah-uncleanness, which requires the minimum volume of an olive.

והרוטב – that it is congealed–becomes solid in that it is the manner to eat it with the meat–flesh, and combines to complete the measurement, like the bulk of an egg. But it is not able to receive defilement on its own.

Similarly, if a man slaughtered an unclean animal for a Gentile and it still has convulsions, it can convey food-uncleanness, but it conveys nevelah-uncleanness only after it is dead, or its head has been chopped off. This animal cannot be eaten by a Jew or by a Gentile. It can’t be eaten by a Jew because it is an unclean animal, for instance a camel. It can’t be eaten by a Gentile because it is still convulsing and is therefore prohibited under the Noahide prohibition of eating the limb of a living animal. Nevertheless, this animal is considered food because just as when a Jew slaughters a kosher (clean) animal he causes it to be able to receive impurity, so too when he slaughters a non-kosher animal, he causes it to be able to receive impurity. However, it is not considered a nevelah in order to convey nevelah uncleanness until it is truly dead or has its head cut off. If its head is cut off, it is considered dead even if it is still convulsing.

והקיפה – spices. But they are not considered to be food on their own, but rather, to be combined with foods.

[Scripture] has [thus] made more cases that convey food-uncleanness than those that convey nevelah-uncleanness. The mishnah closes by noting there are more cases where something conveys food-uncleanness than nevelah uncleanness.

האלל (fatty substance of meat) – sinews of the spine and of the neck, and it is wide, white and hard, and we call it KAPILO in the foreign tongue. And its example is in Job [13:4]: “[If you invent lies,] All of you are quacks.” For once it is split–broken in two, it has no remedy to be attached once again, so you [as well], a thing that has no remedy, you say to provide a remedy. Alternatively, the Tanna–teacher [of the Mishnah] calls it אלל–fatty substance of meat–flesh which the knife has taken off (see Talmud Hullin 121a), when they flay the animal, sometimes when the knife removes from the flesh near the hide, and it is not considered food, but combines with the food.

Rabbi Judah says: if an olive’s bulk of dried-up meat was gathered in one place, one would thereby become liable [for nevelah-uncleanness]. In section one, we learned that “dried-up meat” does not join together with regular meat to create the minimum measure necessary to convey nevelah-uncleanness, should the animal be a nevelah. Because the dried-up meat is not generally eaten it does not count as meat. Rabbi Judah says that if a person gathered up an olive’s bulk of such a substance in one place, then he can be liable over it for nevelah-uncleanness (provided the substance comes from a nevelah, of course). He would be liable if he touches it, thereby becoming unclean, and then eats holy food (terumah or sacrifices) or goes into the Temple.

והקרנים והטלפים (and the horns and the hooves) – all that they sever them and blood comes out from them near their roots from below which are soft. But however, on their own, they are not food.

מצטרפין – because it protects.

לטמא טומאת אוכלין – to complete the measurement like the bulk of an egg, for impure foods do not defile with less than an egg’s bulk.

אבל לא טומאת נבילות – if they are carrion [meat], they do not defile, and they don’t combine to the equivalent of an olive’s bulk to complete the measurement of a carrion to defile a person and he clothing that are upon him, as it is written (Leviticus 11:39): “[If an animal that you may eat has died,] anyone who touches its carcass [shall be impure until evening],” and not on the hide which does not have the equivalent of an olive’s bulk of flesh and the hide completes the equivalent of an olive’s bulk, for the person who comes in contract with it is not ritually impure, because the guarding does not combine to defilement of carrions. And similarly, the spices and the juice of the meat that becomes congealed are not a species of carrion. And the fatty substance of meat and the sinews are not meat–flesh. But we consume them generally with flesh–meat.

כיוצא בו – [there is] that which defiles the defilement of foods, to receive defilement from the unclean reptile and it defiles other foods, but does not defile of its own accord the defilement of carrion to defile others.

השוחט בהמה טמאה לנכרי – a Jew who slaughtered an impure animal for the needs of a heathen, and it is still moves convulsively, even though It is not fit for a heathen, for ritual slaughter is not permitted to the children of Noah until it dies, even so, since an Israelite did a ritual slaughter, it is as good–valid slaughter, for since that slaughter is permitted regarding that an Israelite with a ritually pure animal, his intention–thought is considered as food with a ritual slaughter, even with something ritually impure for a heathen. But a heathen, regarding ritual slaughter does not consider it in his thought as food, and we do not find it as slaughter concerning him. But something ritually impure for a Jew is not considered as food for him., for his intention is void.

אבל לא טומאת נבילות עד שתמות – for this [verse] (Leviticus 11:39): “If an animal that you may eat has die.”

או עד שיתיז את ראשה – which would be an animal body maimed to disfigurement and a carrion while alive, and it is considered as dead, and even if it is maimed to disfigurement.

ריבה הכתוב לטמא טומאת אוכלים = for all of these has regarding food, tat they are food but it is not called carrion even though that it is belonging to it.

האלל המכונס (flayed off meat that is collected) – this fatty substance of the concluding segment [of the Mishnah], for everyone, it is flesh that the knife has taken off in flaying near the hide.

המכונס – that is gathered in one place. For its intention is not abolished, and the flesh is considered carrion, and he is liable for it if he came in contact or entered in the Temple or ate Holy food. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

אלו שעורותיהן (their hide is deemed equivalent to their meat) – they defile like their meat–flesh.

Introduction In yesterday’s mishnah we learned that the skin is not treated as part of the flesh, as far as transmitting nevelah-uncleanness. That is to say, in order for there to be an olive’s worth of flesh to convey nevelah-uncleanness, there must be meat and not skin. Our mishnah teaches that there are cases where the skin is considered to be impure like the flesh.

ועוד חזיר של ישוב – because it is soft and they eat it.

In the following cases the skin is considered flesh: The skin of a person, The skin of the domesticated pig. Rabbi Yose says: even the skin of the wild pig. The skin of the hump of a young camel. The skin of the head of a young calf. The skin around the hooves. The skin of the pudenda. The skin of a fetus. The skin beneath the fat tail. The skin of the gecko, the monitor, the lizard and the skink. Rabbi Judah says: the lizard is like the weasel. In all of these cases, the skin is treated just like the flesh. The skin of a dead human being transmits impurity in the same way that the flesh does. In the remainder of the examples listed here the skin is treated like flesh because it is eaten like the flesh. These are all cases where the skin is soft and therefore edible. Thus people eat the skin of the domesticated pig, but not the skin of wild pigs. Rabbi Yose says that people eat even the skin of wild pigs. In sub-section i, the mishnah lists four of the eight “reptiles” (sheratzim) mentioned in Leviticus 11:29-30. Rabbi Judah holds that the skin of a lizard is not eaten and therefore it is like the skin of the weasel, which does not count as flesh.

אף עור חזיר הבר – for he holds that this also is soft–tender. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda (actually, it should read, Rabbi Yosi, here, as Rabbi Yehuda’s comment in the Mishnah does not come until much later in the text).

If any of these skins was tanned or trampled upon as much as [was usual] for tanning, it becomes clean, excepting the skin of a man. Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri says: the eight reptiles have [real] skins. Generally the types of skins mentioned in section one are eaten and not tanned. That is why they convey impurity as does flesh. However, if they were tanned, or even begun to be tanned, then it is obvious that the owner does not intend to eat them. Therefore, they are pure from nevelah uncleanness. The one exception is human skin, which continues to be impure even if it is tanned (I realize that this is a disturbing image). Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri holds that the 8 reptiles listed in Leviticus 11:29-30 have real skins, ones that don’t convey nevelah-uncleanness. He disagrees with the sages above who distinguished between the different reptiles.

חטוטרת של גמל הרכה (hump of a young camel) – all the while that it didn’t carry a burden.

עגל הרך – all the while that it nurses.

ועור הפרסות (skin of the hooves) – when they sever–cut off the legs, and it is soft.

בית הבושת (pudenda) – the sides of the womb of the female.

ועור שתחת האליה – the hide of the tail from under the place where there is no hair, because it is soft.

האנקה (hedgehog) – RITZU

והלטאה (a species of lizard) – LEVIYARDA.

חומט (snail) – LUGMA.

הלטאה כחולדה (the lizard is equivalent to the weasel) – its hide is smoother than its skin, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

וכולן שעיבדן (and all of them which one tanned) – all of these which they stated that defile like he meat, if he tanned them, they became hide and were abolished from the law of flesh and are pure.

או שהלך בהן – that he stretched them in order to trample them, which is a bit like tanning them (and do not impart food uncleanness).

חוץ מעור אדם – it is the law of the Torah that the skin of man, after it is tanned, it is pure, and what is the reason that they said tha the skin of man that is tanned is impure, as a decree lest a person work the skins of his mother and–or his mother into mats–rugs to sit and–or to lie upon them.

יש להן עורות – and not one of them (i.e., the eight reptiles described in Leviticus 11:29-30) that 8ts hide will defile like its skin–meat. And it is not like the First Tanna–teacher who considers that four of them – their hides are like their meat–skin. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri.

בטהורה ובטמאה – whether it (i.e., the animal – beast or wild animal) is ritually slaughtered as a pure animal and the one who flays it is impure, or whether it is a impure carrion and the one who flays it is pure, if he flays it to make from the hide a spread–mat, that is, a mattress to spread out on top of the bed or on top of a table, as for example, when he tears and severs the hide completely lengthwise from the head of the animal until its tail, and he begins to flay the hide, there would be a connecting handle to remove the defilement from the carrion if a pure individual comes in contact with the hide, to bring in the defilement to the meat if it is pure.

Introduction Our mishnah discusses how long a hide that is being flayed from an animal is considered to be part of the animal. The importance of this issue is for matters of purity: if it is considered to be connected to the animal, then it conveys impurity to the remainder of the flesh and receives impurity as well. When it is disconnected it is considered a separate entity with regard to matters of purity.

עד כדי אחיזה (enough for a hold [on the carcass]) – which are two handbreadths, but more than this it is not handle to bring in or to remove defilement, but if the meat is pure and defilement touched it with more than these two handbreadths, the meat was not defiled, but if the meat was carrion and something pure that is more than two handbreadths touched it, these did not defile the pure [meat].

One who was flaying cattle or wild animals, clean or unclean, small or large: The rules in this mishnah apply to all animals, whether domesticated or wild, clean (kosher) or unclean, small or large.

ולחמת (waterskin) – if he did not sever the hide lengthwise from the beginning, but rather flays it double for the needs of the waterskin, he begins from the neck and turns it over towards its tail.

In order to use the hide for a covering, if he stripped as can be taken hold of [the hide is no longer considered as connected to the flesh.] The amount of hide necessary for it to be considered as disconnected to the flesh is going to depend on what he wants to use the hide for. If he is using it for a covering, either for a chair or table, or other such object, then once he has removed enough to grab hold of, the part that he has removed is considered to be disconnected from the flesh. If the animal is a nevelah, then the hide that has been already flayed does not make the person who touches it unclean. And if the animal was properly slaughtered but the hide became unclean, the remainder of the flesh remains clean.

עד שיפשיט את החזה (until he will flay the breast) – which is the connector. And one who touches the hide is like one who touches the meat–skin – whether to become impure–contract uncleanness or whether to make impure–impart it, because the breast is the hardest to flay from all of the limbs.

In order to make a water-skin, until the breast has been flayed. If he was intending to use the hide as a water-skin, then the hide is considered connected until he flays the breast. When skinning an animal for this purpose, he would cut a small hole at the place of the neck and then flay the rest of the skin whole. The skin counts as being connected until he gets down to the breast, because this is the most difficult place to properly flay. Until he reaches this point, the purity status of the skin and flesh is shared.

המרגיל (one who flays the animal from the foot upwards (the entire skin is considered as connected with the flesh – as long as the process lasts – for purposes of Levitical uncleanness) – that he begins from the feet of the animal to flay and he flays it double for the needs of the waterskin.

If he was flaying from the feet upwards, until the whole hide [has been flayed]. If he was flaying in the opposite direction, from the feet upwards, then the skin is considered connected until it is all removed.

כולו חבור – because e he breast is the end of his flaying. Therefore, it is all connected until the breast, and a person who touches the flayed hide, l=is like touching the skin–meat whether to impart uncleanness or to become unclean.

[All of these measures apply] for both conveying uncleanness and becoming unclean. As I have explained above, these rules apply in both directions: both to convey uncleanness from the animal to the hide, and from the hide to the animal.

עור שעל הצואר – and it was flayed of itself. Therefore, it is not connected to do the first playing that is connected in the manner that the breast makes.

As for the skin that is on the neck: Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri says: it is not connected. But the sages say it is connected until the whole hide has been flayed. The skin that surrounds the neck is easily separated from the flesh and therefore Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri considers it as disconnected from the flesh. If it becomes unclean, the flesh is not unclean and if the flesh is unclean, it remains clean. The other sages say that this hide is treated just as is the rest of the hide. One who touches it, it is as if he touched the flesh, even if part of it was removed. It is not separate until it has all been removed.

וחכמים אומרים וכו' – and the Halakha is according to the Sages.

עור שיש עליו כזית בשר – in one place [of carrion meat].

A hide which had an olive’s bulk of [unclean] flesh clinging to it, one who touches a shred hanging from it, or a hair that was opposite to it, he becomes unclean. This section teaches that one who touches something that is attached to a piece of flesh is considered as having touched the flesh. If there is a piece of flesh of nevelah (carrion) the size of an olive that is hanging from a hide, one who touches the hide has become unclean through nevelah uncleanness. He is also unclean if he touches the hair attached to the hide opposite the piece of flesh, for touching the hair counts as touching the hide which conveys the uncleanness from the flesh.

הנוגע בציב היוצא ממנו (the tassel–shred that proceeds from it – the tassel-like ends of the hide) – a strip and a wart that goes out from the same flesh and is suspended and connected in part. And with that tassel, there isn’t an olive’s handbreadth, but it is from its hide of an olive’s handbreadth.

If there were two pieces of flesh attached to it, each the size of half an olive, they convey uncleanness by carrying but not by contact, the words of Rabbi Ishmael. Rabbi Akiva says: neither by contact nor by carrying. Here, instead of there being one piece of flesh the size of an olive, the usual size necessary to convey nevelah uncleanness, there are two pieces of flesh, each the size of half of an olive. Both are attached to one piece of hide. Everyone agrees that these two pieces of flesh don’t join together to convey uncleanness by contact, since one is touching only one at a time. However, Rabbi Ishmael holds that if one carries the hide with the two olives attached to it he has become impure through carrying, because he is, after all, carrying an olive’s worth of nevelah. Rabbi Akiva says that they don’t convey impurity even when carried.

ובשערה – that is on the hide opposite that skin–meat.

Rabbi Akiva agrees that if there were two pieces of flesh, each the size of half of an olive, that he stuck on a twig and he waved them, he becomes unclean. Rabbi Akiva agrees with Rabbi Ishmael that if there are two half-olive size pieces of flesh stuck on a stick, they join together to count as one full olive. Waving counts as carrying, so if he waves this stick with the two nevelah pieces on it, he is impure.

טמא – for the hair is a protection.

Why then does Rabbi Akiva declare him clean in the [case where they cling to the] hide? Because the hide renders them negligible. The mishnah now explains why Rabbi Akiva says that the two pieces of flesh attached to the hide do not join together to transmit impurity while those attached to the stick do. The two small pieces of flesh attached to the hide are negligible and nullified vis a vis the hide. However, the stick that he put them on is not considered important and therefore they are not nullified in this situation.

מטמא במשא – for it carries an olive’s bulk of carrion.

ולא במגע – for it is impossible to touch together, and the two touches–contacts do not combine.

לא במגע ולא במשא – as it explains the reason in the concluding [clause], that the hide renders them negligible.

ומודה ר"ע – and even though there isn’t an olive’s bulk from its hide in one place, in the same manner as for example, when he inserts two halves of olives on a spindle–chip, meaning to say, on a thin piece of wood, and shook them, that it is ritually impure. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Akiva.

קולית (marrow-bone) – every bone that has in marrow is called a marrow-bone. And the marrow-bone of a corpse, one who touches it, whether it is stopped up or whether it is hollowed out, is ritually impure, for a bone like a barley corn of a corpse defiles through contact and carrying, as it is written (Numbers 19:16): “[And in the open, anyone who touches a person who was killed or who died naturally,] or human bone [or a grave, shall be impure seven days].”

With regard to a thigh-bone of a corpse or a thigh-bone of a consecrated animal, he who touches it, whether it be stopped up or pierced, becomes unclean. When it comes to human corpses, bones convey uncleanness just as does flesh. Thus one who touches a thigh-bone (this bone can actually be referring to any large bone) is impure no matter what state the bone is in. Consecrated animals that are disqualified by becoming either piggul (the priest had the wrong intention while offering the sacrifice) or remnant, cause hand-impurity (see Pesahim 10:9). The bones of consecrated animals also cause such impurity, again, no matter what state the bone is in.

וקולית המוקדשים – the sacrifice that is rejected in consequence of improper intention in the mind of the officiating priest and the portions of the sacrifices left over beyond the legal time and bound to be burnt defile the hands, for the Rabbis decreed regarding them because of suspected Kohanim (of willfully unfitting a sacrifice in order to spite the owner) and–or Kohanim who shirked their duties, and they decreed even with the bones hat were used for the portions of the sacrifices left over beyond the legal time.

With regard to a thighbone of a nevelah or of a [dead] sheretz, if it was stopped up, he who touches it remains clean, but if it was at all pierced it conveys uncleanness by contact. However, when it comes to nevelah impurity or the impurity caused by a dead sheretz (one of eight types of creepy crawly animals mentioned in the Torah), it depends on whether the bone was pierced such that the marrow could escape. The bone itself doesn’t convey impurity, whereas the marrow does. Thus, if it was not at all pierced, then the person who touches it or carries it is clean. But if it was pierced, even with a very small pierce, he is unclean.

קולית נבלה – the marrow-bone of a carrion – its bones do not defile, as it is written (Leviticus 11:39): “[If an animal that you may eat has died, anyone who touches] its carcass [shall be impure until evening],” and not the bones, and similarly for the moving creatures–reptiles. Therefore, those that are stopped up are pure, even from being defiled by carrying, and all the more so, through contact, for it is impossible for it to touch the bone-marrow that is inside. But even though the guard brings in and removes defilement, these words refer to a thing where it is possible to touch the defilement itself, even if only the guard touched it, it is impure, but where it is impossible to touch the defilement itself, the guard does not defile it.

From where do we know [the same rules apply] for carrying? Scripture says, “He that touches and he that carries” (Leviticus 11:39-40), anything that [can become unclean] by contact [can become unclean] by carrying. And anything that cannot [become unclean] by contact, cannot become [unclean] by carrying. The same rules that apply to touching a pierced or stopped up bone of a nevelah or sheretz apply to carrying such a bone. When one carries a pierced bone, he is impure. This is not the surprising aspect of this rule. What is surprising is that if one carries a non-pierced bone, he remains clean, even though he carried the marrow which counts as flesh of the nevelah. When it comes to nevelah, the same rules that apply to touching applying to carrying if one is pure from touching a stopped up bone, then he is also pure when he carries such a bone. This is derived from the juxtaposition of the verbs in Leviticus 11.

נקובים כל שהוא (hollowed out in any amount whatsoever) – een like the thread of hair where it is possible to bring into it a thread of hair of his head or his beard, for he becomes defiled through thins.

מנין שאף במשא – it is referring to the bone-marrow of a carrion, for a moving creature–unclean reptile does not defile through carrying.

ביצת השרץ – there are eight moving creatures–creeping things that attach eggs, such as the toad, the sand lizard and the lizard (see Leviticus 11:29-30: “The following shall be impure for you among the things that swarm on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and great lizards of every variety; the gecko, the land crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.”).

The egg of a sheretz in which there has formed an embryo is clean. If it was pierced, however small the hole was, it is unclean. If the egg of the sheretz is not pierced, then one who touches it is pure, because there is no way of touching the sheretz that is inside. If it is pierced, then the one who touches it is unclean, no matter how small the hole is.

המרוקמת (the egg of a creeping thing in a developed state) – where a chick–young bird is formed within.

A mouse which is half flesh and half earth, if a man touched the flesh he becomes unclean, but if he touched the earth he remains clean. Rabbi Judah says: even if he touched the earth that is over against the flesh he becomes unclean. The rabbis know of, or at least discuss, a mouse that was not formed by normal ways of procreating, but rather rose out of the dust. When it had not been fully formed, it would be half dust and half earth. If one touches the earth part, he has not become impure by touching a mouse, which is a sheretz. If one touches the flesh, he is impure. Rabbi Judah holds that the earth counts as part of the mouse/sheretz, and one who touches it is impure. Saul Lieberman discusses this mishnah in his book, Hellenism in Jewish Palestine. On pages 183-184 he writes, “The existence of such a mouse was taken for granted by many ancient authors. Plinius cites it as a ‘fact’ which could confirm the credibility of other wonderful creatures…. ‘In one part of their body they are already alive, while the most recently formed part of their structure is still of earth.’ It is exactly the mouse described by the rabbis…The information about that kind of mouse the Rabbis probably got from Egyptian sources. When the alleged existence of the miraculous creature was brought to their attention they commented on its would-be Halakhic status.”

טהורה – because it is impossible to touch the chick–young bird that is inside.

ניקבה כל שהוא טמאה (if it is pierced in any measure, it is impure) – and even though he didn’t touch it, for the guard brings it and removes the defilement in something that is possible to touch.

עכבר שחציו בשר – there is a species of mouse which is not “fruitful and multiply” but rather, from itself, it is formed from the ground, like garbage that breeds worms, and if it still has not completed the creation of the mouse, other than from one side – the right or the left, he who touches the flesh is ritually impure. The earth over against the flesh is pure.

רבי יהודה אומר כו' – but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

האבר והבשר המדולדלים בבהמה – the limb is detached from it, which are the flesh, and sinews and bones, or only the flesh is detached from it, but they still are stirred up in it slightly. But there is a difference between a limb from a living animal to flesh from a living animal For the limb defiles man and utensils like a carrion, but the flesh which is not a limb, is pure from nothing, as we derive from Scripture as it is written (Leviticus 11:39): “If an animal that you may eat has died,” from part of he animal, as, for example, a limb from it, but the end of the Biblical verse, “anyone who touches its carcass shall be impure [until evening],” but since it is written, “if [an animal hat you may eat] has died,” implies that we require something similar to death that does not make an exchange–substitution, excluding flesh that makes substitutions that if one tears off flesh from the animal, other flesh will rise up under it (i.e., in its place).

Limbs or pieces of flesh which hang loose from a [living] animal are susceptible to food uncleanness while they are in their place. In the cases in this mishnah, the flesh or limb has become severed from the animal and has no chance of becoming reattached. This limb or piece of flesh is considered pure, because it is still attached to the animal. It does, however, receive food uncleanness. Food can become impure by contact with a sheretz (and other more serious forms of impurity) and food conveys impurity to other foods.

מטמאין טומאת אוכלין – if he thought about them to feed them to a heathen, they would be food that received defilement and [are able] to defile others, for their own defilement isn’t within them until he tears out all of them (i.e., the flesh, sinews and bones), but one receives defilement from the creeping thing and through it, they defile the others.

And [in order to become unclean] they must be first rendered susceptible to uncleanness. In order for food to be rendered susceptible to impurity, it must come into contact with a liquid. This limb or flesh cannot become unclean until it comes into contact with one of seven liquids (water, blood, milk, dew, honey, oil or wine).

וצריכים הכשר – to come into water after they are detached, and afterwards they are susceptible to ritual impurity forever.

If the animal was slaughtered, they have by the blood [of the slaughtering] become susceptible to uncleanness, the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Shimon says: they have not become susceptible to uncleanness. If the animal is slaughtered properly, the limb or flesh that was hanging off is made susceptible to food uncleanness by virtue of the blood that leaves the animal when it is slaughtered. This is true even though the slaughtering of the animal does not permit the hanging limb or flesh to be eaten (see above 4:6). In other words, we must treat the limb or flesh as food, even though it cannot be eaten. Rabbi Shimon disagrees and holds that just as it may not be eaten, it is not susceptible to impurity by virtue of contact with this blood.

נשחטה הבהמה – they were purified from defiling more because of being carrion. But even though they are forbidden for consumption because of (Exodus 22:30): “[you must not eat] flesh torn by beasts in the field,” through carrion they became purified, for ritual slaughter does not make a limb detached from the body (see Leviticus 11:32 – and Talmud Hullin 74a – the natural death of an animal causes the hanging limb to be considered as if detached – in life-time, so that it does not come under the law of carrion – but slaughtering does not – and the dangling limb is considered as a part of the slaughtered animal – see also Talmud Hullin 129a).

If the animal died, the hanging flesh must be rendered susceptible to uncleanness. If the animal died without being slaughtered, the animal becomes a nevelah but the flesh which was hanging off the animal while it was still alive is not considered nevelah. There is a rule that flesh that separates from an animal while it is still alive is not considered nevelah. Although this flesh was still attached, when it dies we consider it to have fallen off the animal. It still is susceptible to food impurity (as it did in section three), but before it can become impure it must be rendered susceptible by coming into contact with a liquid.

הוכשרו בדמיה – to be able to receive defilement without other preparation, like the law of the beast that was slaughtered and blood came out from it when its flesh had been preparated with that same blood.

The limb is unclean as a limb severed from a living creature, but is not unclean as the limb of a nevelah (, the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Shimon declares it clean. According to Rabbi Meir, the limb, attached to the dead animal, does convey uncleanness because it is considered like a limb that was detached from a living animal, which conveys impurity as does a nevelah. However, flesh that becomes separated from a limb separated from a living animal does not convey impurity. Therefore, Rabbi Meir notes that the limb is treated like a limb separated from a living animal and not like a limb from a nevelah. Should flesh become separated from this limb, it will not become impure. Rabbi Shimon says that the limb is pure it is neither like a nevelah, nor like the limb severed from a living animal. Since the limb didn’t fall off while the animal was alive, it cannot be considered at all like a limb that falls from a living animal. And since it is separated from the rest of the body, it is not considered like nevelah.

מתה הבהמה הבשר – that was dangling. צריך הכשר – to be susceptible for ritual impurity from the creeping animal if it had not been prepared once its skin was dangling. For it lacks the defilement of the carrion, for death makes the falling off of a limb detached from the body and it is considered as if that limb fell or that dangling flesh, and it is not made a carrion with it in its death, but rather, it separated from life, it and the flesh that separates from the pure life.

האבר מטמא משום אבר מן החי – for death makes the hanging limb to be considered as if detached as we have explained, and does not make a carrion with it. Therefore, it does not defile because of carrion. But there is a difference between a limb from a living animal and a limb from a carrion, for flesh that separates from the limb of a living animal does not defile, for even flesh that separates from the living does not defile all the more so, flesh that separates from the limb of a living animal, whereas flesh that separates from a limb from a carrion defiles like the flesh that separates the carrion itself.

ורבי שמעון מטהר – for it is impossible to maintain the words of Rabbi Shimon with this concluding phrase, for whichever way you turn, if death makes the hanging limb to be considered as if detached to become defiled because of the limb from a living animal, but does not make a hanging limb to be considered as if detached to be defiled because of a limb from a carrion. Therefore, by force, Rabbi Shimon refers to the opening clause [of the Mishnah] - the limb and flesh that are dangling on the animal defile food defilement in their place, but Rabbi Shimon purifies the limb all the while that hat it is from its hide in living creatures that does not defile through food defilement. But the reason of Rabbi Shimon, that stated the Biblical verse (Leviticus 11:34): “As to any food that may be eaten, [it shall become impure if it came in contact with water],” food that you can feed to heathens with permission is called fod and it defiles the defilement of food, excluding the limb and the dangling flesh that are forbidden to a heathen because of the limb of a living animal and flesh from a living animal. They are not called food and they do not make the defilement of food. But the Halakha is according to Rabbi Meir in both of these.

המדולדלים באדם טהורים – for (Numbers 19:14): “when a person dies [in a tent]” it is written.

Introduction This mishnah continues the discussion about hanging limbs and pieces of flesh. Whereas yesterday’s mishnah discussed an animal, today’s mishnah discusses a human being.

מת האדם הבשר טהור – for death makes the dangling flesh and the the flesh that separated from the living human being pure–clean.

A limb or a piece of flesh which hangs loose from a person are clean. As long as the limb or piece of flesh is attached to a live human being, it is clean. It is not a limb separated from a living being, because it is still attached.

האבר מטמא משום אבר מן החי – but the law of the limb that separates from the living human is what defiles, all the while that it is complete limb, it defiles through contact, and carrying and through tent-defilement. But an olive’s bulk of flesh that separated from him, or a bone the size of a barley-corn that separated from him, is pure–clean.

If the man died, the flesh is clean, the limb is unclean as a limb severed from the living body but is not unclean as a limb severed from a corpse, the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Shimon declares it clean. This debate is basically the same debate as we found in yesterday’s mishnah. When the person dies, the flesh is clean because it is considered as flesh that separated from the person while he was still alive. Such flesh is pure. The limb is considered like a limb that was severed from a living animal, which is impure. It does not count as part of the corpse because we consider it to have fallen off the body while the person was still alive. This is the opinion of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Shimon considers the limb to also be clean, for the same reason that he considers the limb hanging from the dead animal’s corpse to be clean (see yesterday’s mishnah).