Chullin 119

Yesterday, we talked about yadot, “handles” on food. This was the Talmud’s term for the inedible extensions of produce, like grape stems and pomegranate crowns, that may convey impurity to the edible portions of the food. Similarly, the rabbis of the Talmud hold that when food has a natural, protective layer (think orange peel), called a shomer, this layer can combine with the edible portion. Together, they can meet the egg-bulk threshold that makes food susceptible to impurity.

Today, Rav Oshaya wonders:

What is the law with regard to two protectors joining together?

In other words, do multiple protective layers contribute to the overall volume for the purposes of determining susceptibility to impurity? In its attempt to answer this question, the Gemara cites Mishnah Oktzin 2:5:

Rabbi Yehuda says: There are three peels surrounding an onion. The inner, whether whole or punctured, joins together with the onion to constitute the requisite measure to impart the impurity of food. With regard to the middle peel, when it is whole it joins together with the onion, but when it is punctured it does not join together with the onion. The outer peel does not join together with the onion at all, and both in this case and in that, it is ritually pure. 

One could argue, especially if one has studied a lot of Talmud, that each and every layer of an onion is a shomer that provides protection for the layers within. However, Rabbi Yehuda considers only the top three outer layers. In his view, the outermost layer, the paper-thin one that falls off easily, is not considered a protective layer, and therefore does not join together with the rest of the onion to meet the egg-bulk threshold. However, the second layer, when intact, functions as a shomer. But if it becomes damaged, it loses its ability to protect the inner sections of the onion and therefore is no longer considered a shomer — which means it does not count in the volume calculation. The third layer, argues Rabbi Yehuda, is not a peel at all but part of the flesh of the onion. Therefore, it is not a shomer, and whether whole or punctured, it is always included in the volume measurement.

Wait a minute: If Rabbi Yehuda believes the third layer down is just onion and not peel, doesn’t this mean that he believes there are only two layers of protection and not three, as he initially stated? Worse: Given that he disqualifies the papery outer layer, we might even say he only regards the onion as having one true shomer. Given that, his opinion is not be useful in answering Rav Oshaya’s question about whether two protectors can combine!

How we might apply Rabbi Yehuda’s statement to Rav Oshaya’s question turns out to be moot as the Gemara next tells us that Rav Oshaya is not talking about two layers of protection on the same piece of produce, but rather two separate pieces of protection — for instance, the peels of two different onions. Rav Oshaya is asking if each of the two peels counts, together with their insides, toward the egg-bulk measure, a matter to which Rabbi Yehuda’s teaching does not relate.

The Gemara sets Rabbi Yehuda and his onion aside. If it had not briefly turned its attention to it, students of Daf Yomi would not have encountered this teaching at all. This is because Tractate Oktzin, where we find Rabbi Yehuda and the onion, does not have Gemara of its own; it appears in the Mishnah alone. This is another reminder that the Talmud, like an onion, has many layers. Not only are there many layers in the Mishnah and Gemara, but beyond the canonical Babylonian Talmud there are tractates in the Mishnah that have no Gemara. And beyond that, there are other works from these same generations of rabbis — a compilation parallel to the Mishnah called the Tosefta, multiple compilations of midrash, a calendar of feast days, and even a whole other Talmud — that we will not read as part of the Daf Yomi cycle. These join together to form the larger corpus of authoritative classical rabbinic material, though the Babylonian Talmud is given the most authority of them all.

Read all of Chullin 119 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 27, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.