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Rabbi Alex Tsykin

Chulin (7:3) | Rabbi Alex Tsykin | 2 days ago

The seventh perek of Chulin centres around the issur of Gid HaNashe (the sciatic nerve). The Mishnah relates that if one eats a kezayit of a Gid HaNashe, one receives lashes by Torah law. This is consistent with most other prohibited foods. However, the Mishnah then adds that if one eats an entire Gid HaNashe¹, even if it contains less than a kezayit, one receives lashes.

Similarly, the Mishnah goes on to relate that if a Gid HaNashe were to be cooked in a stew with other giddin which are indistinguishable from it, such that we would not be able to simply extract the Gid HaNashe, all the Giddin are forbidden.

Ordinarily the Torah rules that in a case when a forbidden object was lost among others permitted objects which are indistinguishable to humans (for example, if one was to find meat in a street where most butchers were kosher, and one had no idea as to the source of the meat), then all the objects in the mixture become permitted. The Torah rules that in such a case we may resolve the doubt in favour of permissiveness because of the rule "acharei rabim lehatot."² However, Gid HaNashe is treated differently. The Gemara asks why it has a separate, more stringent halacha, and answers, "Birya³ sha'ani," "a Birya is different."⁴ The Rishonim take a nnodumber of approaches to this rule.

Tosafot (Chullin 96a s.v. May Ta'ama) explains that foods are subject to the halacha of Birya if the Torah tells you not to eat them directly. For example, the Torah tell us not to eat of the Gid HaNashe, and tells us not to eat specific birds. An incomplete bird or Gid HaNashe would be referred to as part of the bird or the Gid, and would therefore have a different name. However, for foods which are not subject to this halacha, such as Neveilah (meat not properly slaughtered), both a piece of an improperly slaughtered animal and the entire animal together can be referred to as Neveilah. The word does not imply wholeness. The Torah is telling us not to eat an object with a particular name. Ordinarily the name is present only for a kezayit or more, however, with specific foods, the name is present even with a smaller quantity, as long as it is whole.

They further add the qualification that the halacha of Birya only applies to foods which featured their prohibition from the moment they came into existence. A kosher bird, even if improperly slaughtered, would not have been created with that prohibition, it acquired it when the animal died. As such, Tosafot rule that it must have always been forbidden with this specific prohibition, and must be whole, even if less than a kezayit.

Ritva⁵ suggests that there is a third condition. The Gemara in Makkot (17a) relates a machloket between R' Shimon and Rabanan about a grain of wheat. R' Shimon holds that a grain of wheat which was tevel (untithed) could render an entire granary forbidden if mixed in. Rabbanan disagree because "a Birya coming from a being with life force is called a Birya." Ritva interprets this to mean that Birya must come from an animal.⁶

Ran⁷ assumes that a Birya may be batel (nullified), contrary to other Rishonim, if it is immersed in 1000 times its count, not 60 as with other forbidden foods. He seems to understand the general rule that an admixture of a forbidden food is only forbidden when the forbidden food imparts flavour as implying that eating is partially defined by the presence of flavour.⁸ As such, it becomes permitted to eat when the flavour is not perceptible. However, in the case of a Birya, the mere act of consumption is forbidden, and as such it only becomes permitted if the Birya itself has been rendered completely inconsequential in context.

Rabbi Alex Tsykin

¹ The sciatic nerve alone and not the surrounding nerves and fat which are forbidden only by Rabbinic law.

² Shemot 23:2. Literally: we lean towards the majority

³ I will continue here with the convention that the word is to be pronounced "Birya," even though in fact it ought to be pronounced "Briya," implying a complete creation.

⁴ Chulin 100a. Gid HaNashe is not the only case of a Birya creating these two differences. The Gemara has other examples, such as non-kosher birds (Chulin 102b, if one eats an entire non-kosher bird, one receives lashes, even if the bird was smaller than a kezayit) and insects (Makkot 17a).

⁵ Makkot 17a s.v. verabanan

⁶ He further distinguishes an egg from an impure bird because it contains liquid in it which would not be considered a part of the developing bird. Tosafot argue that Rabbanan made this argument to R' Shimon according to his own view, but that they do not accept that coming from an animal is essential to the definition of Birya.

⁷ Brought in Ritva, Chullin 91b s.v. ufarkinanan

⁸ This likely relates to the well known machloket achronim about if one who cannot taste food should make a bracha when eating.

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