Daf Yomi with Rabbanit Dr. Tamara Spitz

This week we will learn about the prohibition against deliberately inflicting a blemish on a bechor to permit its slaughter, with exceptions for blemishes caused by non-Jews and accidental self-defense. The Gemara teaches about the mumcheh (certified expert) required to validate a blemish, disqualifying a kohen from certifying his own animal due to conflict of interest, and invalidating any judge who takes payment for rulings. Daf 37–39 catalogues specific eye blemishes that qualify as a mum, requiring that any blemish be both visible and permanent.

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This week we will learn how long an owner must raise a bechor before giving it to the kohen, and warns that a kohen may not receive gifts as payment for his help. Chapter 4 then deals with mistaken or unqualified rulings, and forbids taking payment for religious services like judging and testifying. It continues with how to treat people suspected of misusing bechorot. We will also learn that redeemed blemished offerings may be sold in the market, unlike a bechor and ma’aser.

For more info or to visit the main shiur page please visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://webyeshiva.org/course/daf-yomi-one-week-at-a-time-bechorot

This week we will learn about caesarean-born animals and the animal born after them: Rabbi Tarfon treats both as doubtful firstborns, while Rabbi Akiva says neither is a bechor. Chapter 3 then deals with an animal bought from a non-Jew whose birth history is unknown, using Rabbi Yishmael’s age brackets and Rabbi Akiva’s physical signs of a prior birth to decide. The section ends by assuming a nursing animal is nursing its own young, and not another animal’s.

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This week we will learn about which animals are and are not obligated in bechor, the first born of a kosher animal, including animals born from cross-species unions, animals bought from non-Jews, and cases where the fetus emerged unusually, with the underlying principle that only an animal that truly “opens the womb” in the normal sense acquires kedushah, sanctity. We will also learn about cases of safek (doubt) in bechor status, when two animals give birth simultaneously and it is unclear which offspring is the firstborn, or when one of the mothers had previously given birth and the other had not.

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This week we will continue learning about the sanctity of the first-born donkey, and why the donkey requires redemption. We will also learn that one may not derive any benefit from the carcass of a donkey killed by arifah (neck-breaking, the alternative to redemption), and that even a small sheep fulfills the mitzvah of redemption.

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We will begin Masechet Bechorot and learn that there are 3 types of firstborns: Kosher animals, Donkeys and Humans. Each type is redeemed in its own unique way. We will begin to learn about the first-born donkey this week.

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This week we will finish Masechet Chulin with the twelfth perek on shiluach hakan (sending away the mother bird), establishing that the mitzvah applies only to kosher birds encountered incidentally in the wild (ki yikarei). The Gemara asks the major question of whether one must proactively seek out a nest to perform the mitzvah or whether it only applies when one actually wants the eggs. We end the masechet with the conclusion that if the light mitzvah of shiluach hakan earns the promise of long life, how much more so do the weightier mitzvos, with the Gemara resolving that these rewards are fulfilled in olam haba, the next world.

Hadran Alach Masechet Chulin!

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This week, we will learn about the laws of matnot kehunah, the priestly gifts (the foreleg, jaw, and stomach) that anyone slaughtering a kosher animal must give to a kohen. We will learn what each gift is, who is obligated to give it, and who is exempt. We will then begin the final chapter in this masechet and learn about the mitzvah of Shiluach HaKen, the sending of the mother bird when collecting the eggs.

For more info or to visit the main shiur page please visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://webyeshiva.org/course/daf-yomi-one-week-at-a-time-chulin/⁠

This week we will learn about tumat neveilah (the ritual impurity of animal carcasses) and tumat ochalin (the impurity laws governing food), including the special case of ever min ha-chai, a limb hanging from a still-living animal. The Gemara also teaches about a dangling limb or piece of flesh still attached to a live animal, weighing whether it counts as food susceptible to impurity versus impurity from a limb of a living creature. We will also begin the 10th chapter, which discusses gifts that are given to the Cohen.

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This week we will learn about the rules of tumat ochlin (food impurity), which requires a minimum egg-sized amount but can be supplemented by the animal’s skin, solidified meat juice, bones, sinews, horns, or hooves, contrasted with tumat neveilah, which requires a kezayit (olive volume) of actual meat and cannot be supplemented. The Gemara also teaches about the concepts of yad (handle) and shomer (protection), establishing that a handle attached to food transmits tumah but does not supplement the food’s volume, while a shomer that protects the food both transmits tumah and supplements its volume.

For more info or to visit the main shiur page please visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://webyeshiva.org/course/daf-yomi-one-week-at-a-time-chulin/

This week we will continue learning the laws of basar b’chalav by introducing two critical principles: first, nat bar nat (a secondary transferred taste), and second, davar charif (sharp foods), teaching that a radish or onion cut with a meat knife absorbs the meat taste throughout its entire mass due to its sharpness. The Gemara also examines the Biblical scope of the basar b’chalav prohibition, deriving from the Torah’s three mentions of “do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk” that the prohibition encompasses cooking, eating, and benefiting.

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This week we will continue discussing the rules for separating meat and milk, establishing the requirements for transitioning from cheese to meat. The Gemara teaches the rules of basar b’chalav mixtures, analyzing when a forbidden taste transferred through salting, cooking, or contact renders a mixture forbidden. We will also learn how to properly eat an udder and a heart without eating forbidden things with it.

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This week we will continue learning the laws of bitul (nullification), establishing that the standard ratio for nullifying a forbidden substance in a mixture is 60:1. The Gemara also discusses whether the prohibition of gid haNasheh applies to non-kosher animals. The seventh perek concludes with a discussion of ever min ha’chai (the limb of a living animal), debating whether it applies to non-kosher animals for Jews as it does for non-Jews under the Seven Noahide Laws.

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This week we will learn about gid ha-nasheh (the sciatic nerve prohibition from Jacob’s injury). The Gemara continues with the concept of geneivat da’at, that misleading people is forbidden even when no financial loss results. We will then learn about meat that was out of sight and therefore forbidden.

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This week we will discuss the mitzvah of covering the blood of a slaughtered undomesticated animal or bird with earth or similar things that promote growth. We will then begin Chapter 7, and learn ahout the mitzvah of Gid HaNasheh, dealing with the prohibition of eating the sciatic nerve of an animal.

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This week we will learn which joint of the hind leg determines whether an animal that had its legs severed is a treifah and then discuss what happens if the placenta is found in a slaughtered animal. We will then begin the fifth perek with the mitzvah of oto v’et beno, the Torah’s prohibition against slaughtering a parent and its offspring on the same day.

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This week we will learn about the status of a fetus found inside a slaughtered mother, establishing that the mother’s shechita generally permits the fetus along with her other internal organs, but with limitations. We will then discuss the laws of tumah belu’ah (swallowed impurity), establishing that a dead fetus inside a living mother does not transmit tumah on a Torah level since it is considered “contained”. The Gemara then teaches the concept of ben pakua, an animal removed alive from a slaughtered animal.

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This week we will learn how to identify kosher birds, since the Torah only lists the 24 non-kosher species rather than giving positive signs. We will also learn that eggs of non-kosher birds are Biblically forbidden. The Gemara also teaches the simanim for kosher fish (fins and scales), followed by a discussion of forbidden creeping creatures including snakes, scorpions, beetles, centipedes, and their like, which are all prohibited.

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This week we will continue learning about treifos, focusing on internal organs, debating whether missing or diseased kidneys render an animal a treifah, and then transitioning to the treifos unique to birds, including piercing of the kurkevan (gizzard) versus the zefek (crop). We will then learn about the simanim (identifying signs) of kosher animals, birds, locusts and fish.

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This week we will continue learning which injuries, diseases, and organ defects render an animal a treifah and which do not. The Gemara examines specific cases organ by organ: lungs, stomach, kidneys, spine, and more, debating the precise thresholds of size, location, and severity that determine kosher status.

For more info or to visit the main shiur page please visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://webyeshiva.org/course/daf-yomi-one-week-at-a-time-chulin/⁠