Chullin 137

As we learned recently, those who own a flock of sheep are obligated to give the wool from the first shearing to the priests. There is a dispute in the mishnah about just how many sheep are considered a flock: Beit Shammai says two; Beit Hillel says five. Both positions have biblical support: Beit Shammai cites Isaiah 7:21; Beit Hillel cites 1 Samuel 25:18.

The general rabbinic principle is that in disputes between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, the law follows Beit Hillel. Indeed, in the continuation of that mishnah, Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas and the rabbis disagree about whether the five sheep need to produce a minimum amount of wool to trigger the obligation — a discussion that certainly suggests Beit Hillel’s position of five sheep has been accepted.
 
It would be reasonable, therefore, for us to assume that the law follows Beit Hillel and the minimal flock size is in fact five sheep. But the Gemara on today’s daf throws that conclusion into doubt:

It was taught in a beraita of the school of Rabbi Yishmael son of Rabbi Yosei, that he says in the name of his father: Four sheep, as it is written: “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox, and four sheep for a sheep” (Exodus 21:37).

A new number has been proposed! Rabbi Yosei held that four sheep constitute a flock and the academy of Rabbi Yishmael, his son, adopted his position.
 
Now we have three possibilities for the definition of a flock: two sheep, four sheep, five sheep. So how do we decide between them? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, in a beraita, explains:

Had Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel’s statements been based on words of Torah, and the statement of the Distinguished One (Rabbi Yosei) based on the texts of the tradition (Prophets and Writings), even so we would listen to the statement of the Distinguished One, Rabbi Yosei. All the more so now that their statements are based on texts of the tradition, while the statement of the Distinguished One (Rabbi Yosei) is based on the statements of the Torah.

For the rabbis, some prooftexts are superior to others. A proof derived from Torah is considered more authoritative than one derived from other books in the Hebrew Bible — either the Prophets or the Writings. In the case of counting sheep, neither Beit Hillel nor Beit Shammai have a prooftext from Torah. Rabbi Yosei, however, does — which would, in and of itself, be a reason for him to win this debate. Moreover, says Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, even if Beit Hillel or Bait Shammai had a source from Torah, and Rabbi Yosei had only a verse from the Prophets, Rabbi Yosei, the Distinguished One, still would have carried the day — a testament to his greatness.

This teaching is even more surprising when we consider that rabbinic tradition tells us that it was Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi who codified the Mishnah. That means he decided which rabbinic teachings were presented in it, and which were not. It’s curious, therefore, that we have a teaching that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi prefers the opinion of Rabbi Yosei to that of Beit Shammai or Beit Hillel. If this was his judgment, we might have expected him to place Rabbi Yosei’s position right into the Mishnah. Why would he leave it out?

Alas, the process through which the Mishnah was edited is lost to the fog of time, so we can’t know for sure why Rabbi Yosei’s opinion was omitted from the original discussion of flock size. Perhaps the debate between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai was a stand-alone teaching and was entered into the record as such.

So is there an accepted number for minimal flock size? There are times when a ruling in a beraita supersedes what is written in the Mishnah. Not this time, however. The law follows the predictable pattern: Hillel wins. Even, it seems, when a third rabbi (Rabbi Yosei, the Distinguished One) has a more authoritative source. And even when Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi is on record as saying that the law would follow Rabbi Yosei even if his source were inferior.

Read all of Chullin 137 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on September 14, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.