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Chaticha Naase Neveila

Chulin (8:3) | Yisrael Bankier | 14 hours ago

The Mishnah teaches that if a drop of milk falls onto a piece of meat that is above the juice of the stew and there is enough milk to impart a flavour, then that piece of meat is forbidden. If the stew is then stirred, whether the entire stew is forbidden depends on whether that piece of meat can impart a flavour on the entire stew; and not just the milk that was absorbed inside the piece. In other words, the contents of the stew would need to be sixty times that volume of that first piece, otherwise the entire stew would become forbidden.

Rav, cited in the Gemara, explains that the principle behind this Mishnah is that when the milk falls on the piece, the piece becomes a new prohibited object -- chaticha naase nevilah. In other words, the entire piece is equivalent to non-kosher meat. Consequently, once it is stirred into the pot, the contents must be sixty times the prohibited object -- which is that piece of meat.

The Tosfot (Chulin 100a, s.v. be'she'kadam) cites the debate regarding the scope of this law. According to R' Efraim, chaticha naase nevilah only applies to basar be'chalav. What is novel about basar be'chalav, is that each of the items in the mixture were originally permitted. It is only once they are cooked together that the prohibited item is created. Consequently, it is in that context that we apply chaticha naase nevilah, since the issue is not the milk that is absorbed in the meat, but the resulting combined cooked food. Regarding other prohibited mixtures -- for example, if non-kosher meat was cooked with kosher meat and there was not enough kosher meat to annul it -- we do not say that the kosher meat becomes a neveilah. It is certainly prohibited, but that is due to the prohibited, substance being absorbed inside the permitted one.

Rabbeinu Tam however understands that chaticha naase nevilah also applies for other prohibited items also. The Gemara however discusses a case where, according to the conclusion, a piece of meat absorbed some flavour from a neveilah, the neveilah was removed, and the original piece of meat mixed with others. The Gemara teaches that if the neveilah imparted a flavour to that first piece of meat, then the entire pot is prohibited. The Gemara explains that this is according to the opinion that min be'mino, a mixture of similar items, is never annulled. The Tosfot asks, that if min be'mino is not batel, then it should not matter if the initial piece was sixty time the neveilah or not. According to Rabbeinu Tam, that first piece should be assur and be considered a neveilah. Rabbeinu Tam answers that when it is less than a sixtieth, we longer say chaticha naase nevilah. Why?

The Mishnat Rabbi Aharon explains the chaticha naase nevilah for basar be'chalav is biblical based on the reason we brought above. He then cites the Ran who explains that when chaticha naase nevilah applies to other prohibitions it is rabbinic, modelled from basar be'chalav. He adds that it is built on the existing law of taam ke'ikar -- that a prohibited flavour is like the prohibited food itself. In other words, because the permitted food has absorbed the flavour of the prohibited food, it becomes prohibited. That law is biblical. It is simply that if more permitted food was subsequently added (unintentionally) to dilute the prohibited flavour, it would no longer be prohibited. The rabbinic enactment of chaticha naase nevilah in this context is to treat the entire first piece as being prohibited, requiring sixty against the entire piece. Note however that the entire reasoning is based on the first step, that the initial piece was prohibited due to taam ke'ikar, that we then applied chaticha naase nevilah.

The Mishnat Rabbi Aharon continues that we can now understand why we do not say chaticha naase nevilah if the piece became prohibited with a mashehu (a small amount). Chaticha naase nevilah for other issurim is only relevant when the object becomes prohibited due to taam ke'ikar. In that case however, since it was only prohibited due to the stringency applied to mixtures that are min be'mino and not because of taam ke'ikar, extending the law of chaticha naase nevilah to this case is not relevant.

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