Avodah Zarah 38

On today’s daf, the Talmud discusses bishul akum, the rabbinic prohibition against eating food cooked by non-Jews — out of fear the food contains unkosher ingredients or eating it will create too-close ties with non-Jews — and shares the following anecdote:

Rav Beruna says that Rav says: In the case of a gentile who ignited a fire in the meadow, all the locusts that were burned in the meadow are prohibited. 

The Gemara wonders what exactly is going on here. One could think that Rav is concerned that once burned, it is difficult if not impossible to determine if a particular locust is kosher or not — so he forbids them all. (Yesterday, we were reminded that while most locusts are not kosher, there are some species that are.) If this were the case, however, he would not have needed to mention that it was a non-Jew who started the fire. And so, the Gemara concludes, Rav must be concerned that this is a case of bishul akum. Since a non-Jew set the fire that cooked the locusts, they are forbidden to Jews to eat.

Or maybe not:

Rav Hanan bar Ami says that Rabbi Pedat says that Rabbi Yohanan says: With regard to a gentile who singed the head of an animal, is it permitted to eat part of it, even from the tip of the ear, which is fully cooked? Evidently, this is permitted because the gentile merely intends to remove the hair and not to cook the ears. Here, too (in the case of burned locusts) it ought to be permitted because he merely intends to clear the meadow, not to cook the locusts.

In other words, if a non-Jews intends to burn the hair off an animal carcass and in the process cooks it, or at least part of it, a Jew can eat the cooked meat (assuming the animal was kosher and underwent ritual slaughter) without violating the principle of bishul akum. So too, suggests the Gemara, a Jew should be able to eat the incidentally burned locusts as the non-Jew’s intent was to burn the field and not to cook the bugs that were in it. If this is true, then Rav does not prohibit the locusts on account of bishul akum, but because we are not able to tell, in their charred state, if they are kosher.

The Gemara concludes that this is indeed the case and explains why Rav specified that it was a non-Jew who burned the field: Because he was referring to an actual incident, not a theoretical case, and the fact that the fire was set by a non-Jew was incidental.

While it probably strikes many as unappetizing, there is a case to be made for eating bugs. They are plentiful, a good source of protein and cultivating them for eating has a much lower impact on the environment than many of the other things that we eat. If you keep kosher, and are considering expanding your palate this way, Leviticus 11:20–23 provides a list of permitted insects but lacks sufficient detail for us to be sure about which species are kosher. That means it can be difficult to tell which ones are permitted to eat, even if they are not burned in a fire. 

Over the centuries, the legal commentaries included more and more detailed lists. For example, Moses Maimonides says:

“There are eight species of locusts which the Torah permitted: a white locust, a member of the white locust family, the razbenit, the spotted grey locust, a member of the spotted grey locust family, the artzubiya, the red locust, a member of the red locust family, the bird of the vineyards, the yellow locust, a member of the yellow locust family, the yochanah of Jerusalem.”

Although far more detailed than the Torah, it can still be a challenge to match up the names on Maimonides‘ list with the names we use today. If you are interested in a more contemporary list, the Biblical Museum of Natural History has a helpful article, which includes a link through which you can order yourself a snack — no need to identify which are permitted by yourself.

Read all of Avodah Zarah 38 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 26, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.