Chullin

The father became faint, sighed deeply and drew in his entrails; whereupon his belly was immediately stitched up. IF ITS LEGS WERE BROKEN. A basket full of birds, each bird having its legs broken,1 was brought before Raba. He examined each at the juncture of the tendons and declared them to be permitted. Rab Judah said in the name of Rab: If the fore-leg of an animal was dislodged,2 it is permitted; if the femur of an animal was dislodged, it is trefah; if the femur of a bird was dislodged, it is trefah; if the wing of a bird was dislodged, it is trefah, for we apprehend that the lung has been pierced. Samuel said: It should be examined.3 R. Johanan also said: It should be examined. Hezekiah stated: A bird has no lungs. R. Johanan said: It has [lungs] and they are like rose petals situated immediately beneath the wings. What is meant by, ‘A bird has no lungs’? Does it mean that it has no lungs at all? But we see that it has! And should it mean that any defect therein would not render trefah? Surely Levi has taught: The defects enumerated by the Sages in the case of cattle apply also to birds, with this addition in the case of birds, namely: If the bone [of the skull] was broken even though the membrane of the brain has not been pierced! — We must therefore say that the statement ‘It has no lungs’ means that they are in no wise affected, whether the bird falls down [from the roof] or is scorched [in the fire]. Why is it so? — R. Hannah answered: Because they are protected by most of the ribs. But surely since R. Johanan has said that it has [lungs] and they are like rose petals situated immediately beneath the wings, it follows that Hezekiah was of the opinion that it has no [lungs] at all! — In truth, it has been said in the West in the name of R. Jose, son of R. Hanina, ‘It is evident from the statement of Beribbi4 that he knew nothing of fowls’. R. Huna said in the name of Rab: If the femur of a bird was dislodged, it is permitted. Rabbah, son of R. Huna, said to R. Huna, ‘But the Rabbis who came from Pumbeditha reported the statement of Rab Judah in the name of Rab thus: If the femur of a bird was dislodged it is trefah’! — He replied: ‘My son, every river has its own course’.5 R. Abba once went and found R. Jeremiah b. Abba examining [a bird] at the juncture of the tendons.6 Said R. Abba, ‘Why does the Master go to all this trouble? Has not R. Huna reported in the name of Rab: If the femur of a bird was dislodged it is permitted?’7 — He replied. ‘I know only of the following Mishnah: If the hind legs of an animal were cut off below the knee-joint it is permitted, above the knee joint it is trefah; similarly, if the juncture of the tendons was gone it is trefah.8 And Rab has said: The same is the law in the case of a bird’.9 ‘Then is there not here a contradiction between the two statements of Rab?’ — He [R. Jeremiah] remained silent. The other thereupon suggested. ‘Perhaps he [Rab] makes a distinction in law between a limb dislodged and a limb cut off’?10 — He [R. Jeremiah] then said: ‘And you merely suggest this distinction in Rab! Rab has expressly said so: If the femur [of a bird] was dislodged it is permitted, but if cut off it is trefah. And be not amazed at this! For if the animal is cut in one place it will die, and if cut in another place it will live’! When R. Abba went up [to Palestine] he found R. Zera sitting and reciting as follows: R. Huna said in the name of Rab: If the femur of a bird was dislodged it is trefah. R. Abba said to him, ‘By your life! Since the day you left [Babylon] to go up here11 of this word, which he quotes as the view of the Geonim, viz., ‘black birds with white spots on their heads’. Tosaf. bird was dislodged it was permitted, but where the practice obtained, as in Pumbeditha, to regard it as trefah, Rab would not interfere with or overrule the prevailing custom. This, however, gave rise to the belief that Rab also held it to be trefah. juncture of the tendons was unaffected. entirely, the animal is permitted, but where the limb was cut on the juncture of the tendons it would be trefah, for the constant pain of this injury would affect the general condition of the animal.