Chullin 123

Yesterday, we studied a mishnah that declared that the skin of a human corpse is equivalent to its flesh with regard to its ability to impart impurity. Although the skins of animals, once separated from their flesh, are pure and can be used as leather, the rabbis rule that human skin is always impure. The Gemara explains that this ruling prevents people from using the skins of deceased relatives to make household items.
 
As the conversation about this mishnah comes to an end, the Gemara cites the following beraita, which raises a different concern:

The sages taught: In the case of a legion traveling for warfare from place to place, if even one member of the legion enters a house, the house is impure, as there is no legion that does not have several scalps.
 
While its size varied from era to era, a Roman legion had thousands of soldiers and, according to the beraita, it is more than likely that a handful of them would be carrying the scalps of those that they had slain. The rabbis therefore declare buildings that soldiers enter (presumably carrying those scalps) contract “tent impurity.” That is, by being in the room, the scalp renders the entire space impure.
 
For those who are skeptical about this claim, the beraita continues:

And you should not be surprised that they do so, as the scalp of Rabbi Yishmael was placed on the heads of kings.

Rabbi Yishmael is one of the 10 rabbis whose torture and execution at the hands of the Romans is preserved in rabbinic texts. We read an account of this as a part of the martyrology in the Musaf service of Yom Kippur. In it, the emperor’s daughter hears the cries of Rabbi Yishmael in response to witnessing the death of a colleague. She notices that he is attractive and requests that his life be spared. When her request is denied, she asks that his face be preserved and the emperor agrees. This is how, according to rabbinic tradition, the scalp of Rabbi Yishmael becomes a possession of the Roman Empire — and it is evidence that Romans collect scalps.

Rabbi Yishmael’s scalp appears in Avodah Zarah 11b as well, in a source that claims to describe a Roman ritual:

Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: They have another festival in Rome: Once every 70 years, they bring a man who is whole and free from any defect and have him ride on a broken man. And they dress him in the garments of Adam the first man and place on his head the scalp of Rabbi Yishmael.

As Rashi explains, the scalp is placed upon the “whole man” to add to his beauty as he rides atop the “broken” one. The two represent the biblical Esau, a rabbinic symbol for Rome, and Jacob, who, according to the biblical narrative, became injured after his nightlong wrestling match with an angel. The ritual projects the continued dominance of Rome over Israel.
 
Whether their claim that Roman soldiers carried the scalps of those that they had killed and their account of the once-in-70-years ritual arose from first-hand experience, the rabbis’ fear of their oppressors or their attempt to discredit them, we cannot be certain. What we do know is that the rabbis of the Talmud, depending on the generation in which they lived, carried actual and historical memories of suffering at the hands of the Romans. Those bubble through the charged material on today’s daf, and in other parts of rabbinic literature.

Read all of Chullin 123 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 31, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.