Chullin 14

A perplexing mishnah at the top of today’s daf states:

In the case of one who slaughters an animal on Shabbat or Yom Kippur, although he is liable to receive the death penalty, his slaughter is valid.

Slaughtering is one of the 39 categories of work prohibited on Shabbat. By extension, it would certainly be prohibited on Yom Kippur, also known as Shabbat Shabbaton, the “Sabbath of Sabbaths.” A person who slaughters an animal on this sacred day faces the death penalty. How, then, can the rabbis rule that the slaughter itself is valid?

The Gemara doesn’t really answer that question. But it does place a restriction on meat slaughtered on Shabbat or Yom Kippur:

Rav Huna says that Hiyya bar Rav taught in the name of Rav: If one slaughtered an animal on Shabbat or Yom Kippur, although the slaughter is valid, consumption of the animal is prohibited for that day, and the members of the company (i.e., the other sages) tended to say that this halakhah is the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda.

Rabbi Yehuda does not allow the consumption of meat that is improperly slaughtered on Shabbat or Yom Kippur on that same day. Rather, he says one has to wait until the holiday has passed to eat it. The Gemara wants to know why: 

Which opinion of Rabbi Yehuda? Rabbi Abba said: It is the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda with regard to preparation for Shabbat, as we learned in a mishnah (Shabbat 156b): “One may cut the gourds before an animal on Shabbat. And likewise, one may cut an animal carcass to place before the dogs on Shabbat. Rabbi Yehuda says: If it was not already a carcass prior to Shabbat, it is prohibited because it is not prepared for use on Shabbat.” Apparently, since it was not prepared from yesterday, it is prohibited. Here, too, since it was not prepared from yesterday, it is prohibited.

Rabbi Abba points out that we learn in another mishnah that a person is permitted to cut up carrion (the flesh of an animal that died without proper slaughter) and feed it to their dog on Shabbat. According to Rabbi Yehuda, however, they can only feed the dog carrion on Shabbat if it comes from an animal that died before Shabbat. We infer, therefore, his position: Just as a dog cannot eat carrion from another animal that expired on Shabbat, a Jew cannot eat meat from an animal that was slaughtered on Shabbat.

But the Gemara is uneasy with this inference:

Abaye said to Rabbi Abba: Are the cases comparable? There (in the mishnah in Tractate Shabbat) initially the animal is prepared for use by a person, as it was prepared for slaughter, and now that it died without slaughter on Shabbat, it is prepared for dogs. But in the mishnah here, initially the animal is prepared for use by a person and now after it was slaughtered it remains prepared for use by a person. 

Intention matters to the rabbis. In the case in Tractate Shabbat, the animal that died was not intended for dog food. But in the mishnah under consideration in this tractate, the slaughter was intentional. So can we really infer Rabbi Yehuda’s opinion?

Rabbi Abba rejects that distinction: Do you hold that an animal during its lifetime is designated for consumption and therefore is prepared for use by a person? On the contrary, an animal during its lifetime is designated for breeding.

Rabbi Abba dismisses the concern. We cannot say that the animal that was slaughtered on Shabbat was always destined for slaughter. In fact, the owner might have had an entirely different purpose in mind, most likely breeding. So, in both cases, the death of the animal was not its intended end, and the comparison still holds. Rabbi Abba articulates an interesting assumption about why humans raise animals in the first place. Ultimately, they are not kept for ritual slaughter, milk, farm labor, their hide or any of the other myriad useful functions they serve. Their ultimate purpose, in his mind, is breeding and making more animals. This harkens back to God’s command in Genesis 1:28, that animals (and humans) should be fertile and multiply and fill the Earth.

None of this resolves the original question I posed: Why can the meat be eaten even if the slaughterer is liable for the death penalty? I’d like to suggest two reasons. First, the sages see the action (slaughter on Shabbat) as separate from the result (kosher meat). Second, by the time the Talmud was codified, the Temple had been destroyed, and no one was receiving the death penalty for Shabbat transgressions. The meat itself remained permissible. And so, non-intuitive as it might seem, it is permissible to eat meat from an animal that was slaughtered on Shabbat or Yom Kippur. 

Read all of Chullin 14 on Sefaria.

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