In the mishnah on yesterday’s daf, Rabbi Yehuda and the rabbis disputed whether the prohibition on consuming the sciatic nerve applies to non-kosher animals.
Rabbi Yehuda said: Wasn’t the sciatic nerve forbidden for the children of Jacob, as it is written: “Therefore the children of Israel do not eat the sciatic nerve” (Genesis 32:33), yet the meat of a non-kosher animal was still permitted to them?
The prohibition on eating the sciatic nerve is found in Genesis, before almost any other commandments are issued, including those about which animals are forbidden. Sometimes, the rabbis assume that even though the Torah had not yet been given, the patriarchs nonetheless kept kosher. But others acknowledge that most of these rules didn’t apply in that era. Taking the latter view, Rabbi Yehuda argues that when the prohibition on the sciatic nerve was given, the children of Israel were still permitted to eat all animals. Therefore, it follows logically that the sciatic nerve of all animals is prohibited.
The rabbis offer this counterargument:
They said to him: The prohibition was stated in Sinai, but it was written in its place.
The rabbis believe that the prohibition on eating the sciatic nerve was given at Sinai, alongside the other rules of kashrut, and that it was merely mentioned in Genesis 32 because of its connection to the story of Jacob wrestling the angel. Because the prohibitions were issued simultaneously, it makes logical sense that the sciatic nerve restriction applies only to kosher animals.
On today’s daf, we see an analysis of the timelines under discussion:
It is taught in a beraita that the rabbis said to Rabbi Yehuda: But is it stated in the verse: “Therefore the children of Jacob do not eat the sciatic nerve”? (No.) Isn’t it true that it is stated only that: “Therefore the children of Israel do not eat the sciatic nerve?” And the Jewish people were not called “the children of Israel” until they received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Rather, it was stated to the Jewish people at Sinai, but was written in its place, in order to know the reason the sciatic nerve was forbidden to them.
The rabbis make a semantic argument. The line in Genesis discussing the prohibition refers to “the children of Israel,” and the rabbis insist that this moniker wasn’t attributed to the people until they stood at Mount Sinai. Therefore, the prohibition must have been issued at Sinai and simply written in Genesis because of its topical association with Jacob’s wrestling match.
But there’s a glaring flaw with this argument:
Rava raises an objection: The verse states: “And Jacob rose up from Beersheba; and the children of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him” (Genesis 46:5).
We do, in fact, find that the people were called “the children of Israel” well before Sinai! This is only one of a number of such occurrences, but the aggadic commentator Ben Yehoyada argues that this is the first case where the term is clearly used for the entire people, and not just a literal reference to Jacob’s own children. In any case, this is a problem for the rabbis’ argument.
The Gemara replies, somewhat weakly, that this Genesis verse about the children of Israel (46:5) was nonetheless after “the incident,” i.e., the wrestling with the angel that gave Jacob the name Israel (32:33). This response also receives pushback:
Rav Aha, son of Rava, said to Rav Ashi: Then let it have been forbidden from that time!
If Jacob’s descendants are referred to as “the children of Israel” as soon as a few decades after the incident with the angel, then the prohibition in Genesis forbidding the sciatic nerve to “the children of Israel” should have taken effect from that moment, not centuries later at Sinai! This would seem to bolster Rabbi Yehuda’s contention that the sciatic nerve prohibition took effect before the prohibition on non-kosher animals.
Rav Ashi said to him: Was the Torah given on numerous different occasions? That time when the title “children of Israel” was first used was not the time when the incident of Jacob wrestling with the angel occurred and also was not the time of the giving of the Torah.
Rav Ashi doesn’t like the notion that numerous laws could have taken effect at random, disparate times. The verse Rava quoted, where Jacob and his descendants are heading toward Egypt, is neither the incident that prompted the prohibition, nor the time at which the Torah was given; therefore, the idea that this prohibition would have taken effect at that time is illogical to him. If it wasn’t immediately after the wrestling match, then the prohibition must have been given at Sinai, as the rabbis have stated.
Read all of Chullin 101 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 9, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
Will You Help Us Answer the Call? The shofar's blast is a call to wake up and show up for what matters. My Jewish Learning answers that call all year by keeping Jewish knowledge free and open to anyone who wants it. Your gift helps us keep answering.
