Hello Everyone,
First, as always I want to thank all the people who come to the “live” shiur. It really does mean a lot to me that you make this effort.
Today we finished the introductory set of shiurim which addressed the fundamentals of treifot. We saw until now that the principles of treifot , the list of conditions and their manifestations are considered to be set rules of Torah Sheb’al Peh. As the Rashba expresses this, anyone who tries to contend that an animal that has a treifah has lived for over a year with this condition is just wrong.
Today we examined in a little more detail the question of whether or not being a treifah is a reversible condition. We started with the discussion about perforations of the lungs. An animal with a perforation of the lung is a treifah. The Gemarah says that healed perforations of the lungs and the esophagus are nonetheless treifot. Nevertheless the Gemarah says that if the lung is perforated in a spot where the perforation adheres to the interior of the thoracic cavity (and these adhesions are known as “sirchaot”) the animal is kosher.
This raises two questions:
- a) What distinguishes healed lesions in general from adhesions between the lungs and thoracic cavity lining?
- b) Can we generalize from the leniency of adhesions between the lung and thoracic cavity lining?
Rashi explains what distinguishes the “kosher adhesion” from the “treif adhesion.” Rashi says the “kosher” adhesion is immediate and immediate because of its anatomical location. Other adhesions are flimsier and will eventually detach from the lung bringing back the perforation. It is not clear if Rashi so to speak “closes the door” on the possibility of other adhesions being “kosher.”
There is an argument along these lines between two of the great Sephardic Rishonim. Rabbi Aaron HaLevi (known as הרא”ה) notes that the Gemarah only mentions “treif” scar tissue ) קרום שעלה על המכה ) in the context of lungs and the esophagus. This being the case, the only healed treifot which remain treif despite their healing are the lungs and esophagus, The Rashba emphatically rejects this. The Rashba insists that treifot, even if they heal, remain “treif”
The Rashba’s great teacher, the Ramban, apparently disagrees. The Ramban , based on a paradox that is raised by the Gemara, makes the following observation: if a cow’s knee tendons are severed (the צומת הגידין) the animal is treif. If on the other hand the cow’s leg is severed above the knee , the animal is kosher. The Gemara resolves this paradox saying that we cannot apply the usual rules of reasoning by analogy to treifot.
Based on this paradox and its resolution the Ramban raises this possibility: if an animal is made treif by having its knee tendons severed it can be made kosher again by severing the leg above the knee. The Ramban asserts that an animal which is treif can be made kosher again proving this assertion by citing the case of lung adhesions. An animal is made treif when its lung is perforated and made kosher again when the adhesion forms which closes the perforation.
The Rashba who insists that treifot are irreversible provides an interesting reply to the Ramban. The Rashba says that if the Gemara says that an adhesion is kosher then that perforation was never treifah to begin with![1]
After reviewing these principles we went on to examine the question of cows who have undergone surgical treatment for various gastro-intestinal ailments. We saw last week that an anonymous commentator to the Tur wrote that it is a fact (in the fifteenth century) that animals have their stomachs perforated routinely to treat stomach ailments and these animals recover and thrive. The anonymous commentator writes that these cases of therapeutic stomach perforation proves that these particular perforations do not cause treifot (contrary to the opinions of the Gemara and Poskim). The great commentator to the Tur, Rav Yoel Sirkes, (known as the בית חדש or ב”ח ) says this anonymous comment should be removed from the Tur, we absolutely do not decide questions of treifot on the basis of practical observation.
In the late nineteenth century Rav David Tzvi Hoffmann (the Rosh Yeshiva in Berlin) was asked about surgically treated cows. In his work of response (שו”ת מלמד להועיל) he says one can rule leniently on the basis of the principles we mentioned:
- a) The רא”ה rules that healed perforations are not treifot (unless they occur in the lungs or esophagus)
- b) Rashi explains that adhesions are not considered as a “cure” for treifot because they ultimately rupture. This is simply not the case with surgically repaired perforations. These repairs are long-lasting; they certainly last well past the twelve-month benchmark for treifot. Rashi and even the Rashba never ruled that such forms of healed perforations are treifot.
- c) Since there are various opinions in the Gemara about where in the stomach does a perforation make the animal treifah, the animals in question are “doubtful” treifot . tThe rule is that when a doubtful treifah survives for 12 months the doubt is resolved favorably.
So we have seen in this תשובה how empirical observation applied in conjunction with the classical rules of Halacha are applied to reach a conclusion to a modern issue.
[1] Keep in mind that Rashi says that “kosher” adhesions form immediately