On the second side of today’s daf, the Gemara returns to the mishnah’s statement that everyone can perform kosher slaughter except for a deaf person, one who is legally incompetent and a minor. These folks, the mishnah asserts, may slaughter an animal, but only with supervision. The Gemara on today’s daf asks a follow-up question:
Who taught that we do not require intent for slaughter?
The assumption of the Gemara seems to be that minors and those who are deaf or legally incompetent cannot have intent. This doesn’t mean they have no thoughts or feelings. Rather, it means that we don’t deem those thoughts and feelings legally significant. (The Gemara’s assumption is that people who are deaf have limited reasoning ability. Today, of course, we know better.)
This idea makes the most sense if we look at an extreme example. Consider a toddler, who is poised to slaughter an animal. (Sorry for the awful image of a small child wielding a butcher knife.) Can we reasonably say that the toddler has the capacity for full intention to slaughter in accordance with Jewish law? Hardly.
But this becomes more complicated if we consider someone who is close to the age of majority. Should we really hold that a 12-year-old boy cannot have the intention to slaughter in accordance with Jewish law? This position is far less tenable.
So the Gemara asks: Are we sure that minors cannot have legally consequential thoughts? To answer this question, the rabbis bring a source from elsewhere, which teaches that minors, along with people who are deaf or legally incompetent, do not have intentions that carry halakhic weight. This is not an obvious conclusion. Rather, it’s definitional: We have to draw the line somewhere.
It is now established that those whose slaughter must be supervised do not have the capacity for legally consequential intentions. But there’s another, even more basic problem: Is proper intention necessary for valid slaughter? Not necessarily, as the following thought experiment shows:
Rava said: … Oshaya, the youngest of the company, taught: If one threw a knife to embed it in the wall, and in the course of its flight the knife went and slaughtered an animal in its proper manner, Rabbi Natan deems the slaughter valid. But the rabbis deem the slaughter not valid. Oshaya teaches: The halakhah is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Natan.
This is a highly contrived scenario, in which slaughter is clearly not intended, yet the stroke that killed the animal fulfilled the physical requirements for kosher slaughter. In this case, the sages are divided. Most hold that the slaughter is not valid, yet Rabbi Natan holds that it is.
Ultimately, Jewish tradition will conclude that ritual slaughter requires intention. Indeed, a shochet is required to make a blessing before slaughtering an animal, which focuses their intention. But in the Gemara, we see these ideas under development. And for a moment on today’s daf, the rabbis entertain the possibility that a knife that randomly wanders across the throat of an animal can effect a valid slaughter.
Read all of Chullin 12 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on May 12, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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