Chullin

A knife with many notches must be regarded as a saw; with but one notch, if it is ogereth,1 it may not be used; if it is mesakseketh,2 it may be used. What is meant by ogereth and what is meant by mesakseketh? — Ogereth, said R. Eleazar, is a notch with two edges; mesakseketh, a notch with but one edge. Why is it that if the notch has two edges [the knife is invalid]? [presumably] because the first edge will cut [the skin and flesh] and the second edge will tear [the organs]. Then, even if the notch has but one edge it should likewise be said. The sharp edge of the knife will cut [the skin and flesh] and the notch will tear [the organs]! — [The reference is to a notch] that is at the top of the knife.3 But even so, when the knife is moved forward [the edge of the notch] cuts [the skin and flesh] and when it is drawn back it tears [the organs]! — [The reference is where the slaughterer] moved [the knife] forward but did not draw it back.4 Raba stated: There are three rules with regard to the knife: (i) if it has an ogereth, one may not slaughter with it, and if one did the slaughtering is invalid; (ii) if it has a mesakseketh, one may not slaughter with it in the first instance, but if one did the slaughtering is valid; (iii) if its edge is uneven,5 one may slaughter with it even in the first instance. R. Huna the son of R. Nehemiah asked R. Ashi: Did you teach us in the name of Raba that a knife with a mesakseketh is unfit for use? Is it not well known that Raba said: A knife with a mesakseketh is fit for use? — It is no contradiction, for in the one case [the slaughterer] moved the knife forward and backward6 but in the other case he moved the knife forward but not backward.7 R. Aha the son of R. Awia asked R. Ashi: What if the edge of the knife resembles an awn?8 — He replied: Would that we were given such meat to eat!9 R. Hisda said: Whence do we learn from Scripture that it is necessary to examine the slaughtering knife? From the verse: And slaughter with this and eat.10 But is it not obviously necessary so to do, seeing that if the gullet is perforated the animal is trefah?11 — We mean: [Whence do we learn from Scripture that] it is essential that the knife be examined by a Sage?12 But surely has not R. Johanan said that the ruling that one must present the knife to a Sage for examination was laid down only out of respect to the Sage? — The rule is actually Rabbinic; and the verse adduced is merely a support. In the West13 the knife is usually examined by the light of the sun.14 In Nehardea it is usually examined with water.15 R. Shesheth used to examine it with the tip of his tongue. R. Aha b. Jacob used to examine it with a hair. In Sura it was said: Seeing that it is to cut flesh it must be examined with flesh.16 R. Papa ruled: It must be examined with the flesh of the finger and with the fingernail, and the examination must be of the three edges [of the knife].17 Rabina said to R. Ashi: R. Sama the son of R. Mesharsheya told us in your name that you said to him in the name of Raba that it must be examined with the flesh and the nail on the three edges. R. Ashi replied: I said: ‘With the flesh and the nail’, but not, ‘on the three edges’. Another version reads: R. Ashi replied: I said: ‘With the flesh and the nail on the three edges’, but not ‘in the name of Raba’. Rabina and R. Aha the son of Raba were sitting before R. Ashi when a knife was brought to R. Ashi for examination. He thereupon asked R. Aha to examine it, who did so with the flesh of his finger and with his finger nail, on the three edges of the knife. ‘Well done!’ said R. Ashi. R. Kahana held a similar view. R. Yemar said: It must be examined with the nail and the flesh but not on the three edges. For did not R. Zera say in the name of Samuel18 that if one made a knife red-hot and slaughtered with it the slaughtering is valid, because the effect of the sharp edge precedes the effect of the heat; and the question was raised as to the sides of the knife, and the answer was given that the cut opens wide? Then in this case, too, we should also say that the cut opens wide. 19 R. Huna son of R. Kattina said in the name of R. Simeon b. Lakish. In three matters the law regards a notch as of consequence: (i) A notch in the bone of the paschal lamb;20 (ii) A notch in the ear of a male firstling;21 (iii) A notch in any organ which, if blemished, invalidates a sacrifice.22 R. Hisda adds: (iv) Also a notch in the slaughtering knife. And [why does not] the other [teacher include this last]? — Because he does not deal with unconsecrated matters. In all these cases the notch is measured by the standard of a notch which renders the altar unfit. the edge of the knife. the organs will be properly cut by the rest of the knife which is not notched. resembles an awn. the knife on the ground. detected by the ripple caused; or by allowing a drop of water to trickle down the edge of the knife, when any notch would impede the course of this drop of water. since the cut opens wide apart. thereof. Ex. XII, 46. slaughtered and used for ordinary purposes. The same would apply to a notch in any other organ besides the ear (v. Bek. 36a). E.g., if the female genital organs were defective.