Przykazanie dotyczące zakazu spożywania „ścięgna, które skurczyło się” [גיד הנשה] obowiązuje w Ziemi Świętej i poza nią, w czasie istnienia Świątyni i po jej zakończeniu, u zwierząt poddanych ubojowi w celach świeckich [חולין], a także w odniesieniu do ofiar konsekrowanych i dotyczy zwierząt dzikich i domowych, a także prawego i lewego uda zwierzęcia; nie dotyczy to ptactwa, ponieważ nie ma ono „wgłębienia w udach”. Dotyczy płodu w zarodku, a jego łój [חלב] jest dozwolony. Według R. Meira: „Nie można polegać na twierdzeniu rzeźników co do usunięcia גיד הנשה [nerwu kulszowego]”; ale mędrcy utrzymują: „Aby można było na nich polegać pod tym względem i w usuwaniu חלב, czyli łoju”.
Bartenura on Mishnah Chullin
גיד הנשה. ובמוקדשים – even a burnt offering which is burnt entirely, he removes the nervus ischiadicus (i.e., sinew of the hip, the sciatic nerve) and casts it upon the ashes of the communal altar that is called “pile” (the place on the altar where the ashes are piled up) and it is not offered up with the meat.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Chullin
Introduction
At the conclusion of the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, Genesis 32:33 states, “That is why the children of Israel to this day do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip was wrenched at the thigh muscle.” The “thigh muscle” is identified by the rabbis as the sciatic nerve. Our chapter is about this prohibition.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Chullin
שאין לו כף – it does not have a hollow [of the thigh or a spoon-shaped hip] similar to that of man which is round, but the rather, the meat that is upon the thigh-bone of the fowl is in its width. And if fowl is found that has a round sole, its sciatic nerve is prohibited.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Chullin
[The prohibition of] the sciatic nerve is in force both within the land and outside it, both during the existence of the Temple and after it, in respect of both unconsecrated and consecrated [animals]. It applies to cattle and to wild animals, to the right and left hip. The prohibition of the sciatic nerve is applicable in all times and at all places (as was the prohibition of “it and its young” and the mitzvah of covering the blood). It applies to all types of mammals, both wild and domesticated and to both of their hips.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Chullin
ונוהג בשליל – a living [embryo] nine [months old] that is found in the animal.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Chullin
But it does not apply to a bird because it does not have a socket [on its hip]. The prohibition does not apply to birds, because their hips do not have “sockets” as do those of mammals.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Chullin
And the Halacha is not like R. Yehuda.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Chullin
It applies to a fetus. Rabbi Judah says: it does not apply to a fetus. And its [forbidden] fat is permitted. According to the first opinion, the prohibition of the sciatic nerve applies to a fetus found in its mother’s womb when she was slaughtered. Rabbi Judah says it does not because this fetus is edible based on its mother’s having been slaughtered. In other words, since this fetus is treated as if it were one of its mother’s limbs, the prohibition of the sciatic nerve doesn’t apply. Rabbi Judah adds that the same holds true with regard to the forbidden fat, the helev, of a fetus. It can be eaten. Rabbi Judah, as we can see, does not accord to the fetus the status of a born-animal.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Chullin
וחלבו – of the embryo is permitted. Another interpretation: and the fat of the sinew, meaning to say, the permitted fat of animals (as opposed to forbidden fat) is permitted according to al, but the Jewish people which is holy practiced a prohibition regarding it.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Chullin
Butchers are not trustworthy with regard to the [removal of the] sciatic nerve, the words of Rabbi Meir. The sages say: they are trustworthy with regard to it as well as with regard to the [forbidden] fat. It is quite difficult to remove the sciatic nerve (this is why sometimes this cut of meat is not available at the kosher butcher). Therefore, Rabbi Meir holds that the butcher is not believed to have removed it. The other rabbis disagree and hold that the butcher is believed to have removed both the sciatic nerve and the forbidden fat.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Chullin
ואין הטבחים נאמנים – [the butchers are not believed] to state we take it because of the trouble it is for them to hollow it out. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.
