Welcome to Tractate Chullin! The name of the tractate, chullin, literally means “non-sacred things.” While we’ve spent the past few months studying the laws of sacrificial offerings, this tractate moves us out of the Temple precincts and lays out the laws of non-sacred slaughter. That’s right, in this tractate, we’re going to learn the ins and outs — quite literally — of shechita, kosher animal slaughter.
Deuteronomy 12:20-21 states:
“When God enlarges your territory, as promised, and you say, ‘I shall eat some meat,’ for you have the urge to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you wish.
If the place where God has chosen to establish the divine name is too far from you, you may slaughter any of the cattle or sheep that God gives you, as I have instructed you; and you may eat to your heart’s content in your settlements.”
The Israelites are permitted to eat non-sacrificial meat, but only as God has instructed them. The problem is that nowhere else in the Torah does God lay out the actual laws of how to properly slaughter these animals. To understand how ancient Jews understood these laws, then, we have to turn to the Mishnah and the Talmud. The tractate ahead will discuss how to slaughter an animal, what makes an animal treyf, or non-kosher, before and after their slaughter, and the prohibition against mixing meat and milk.
Chullin will also address some other biblical laws related to animals, including the prohibitions against cutting off the limb of a living animal, eating an animal’s sciatic nerve, slaughtering an animal and its child on the same day, the priestly gifts due after animal slaughter, and the obligation to send the mother bird away when gathering her eggs or hatchlings. And along the way, we’ll read about the importance of rabbinic humility, eavesdrop on a cosmic interaction between the Moon and God, and learn about a remarkable demon who lived in Rav Pappa’s household.
The tractate starts by discussing who is qualified to serve as a shochet, a kosher animal slaughterer:
Everyone slaughters, and their slaughter is valid, except for a deaf person, one who is legally incompetent, and a minor, lest they ruin their slaughter. And for all of them, when they slaughtered and others see them, their slaughter is valid.
The mishnah insists that almost anyone can be a legitimate shochet. Their “everyone” includes men, women, those who are in states of impurity, enslaved people, and non-Jews. Anyone who is knowledgeable in the (as-yet unstated) laws of shechita can legitimately slaughter kosher animals.
But this “everyone” is not infinitely expansive. Three categories of people — those who are deaf, legally incompetent (in rabbinic literature, usually due to mental illness), or children — require supervision to ensure they’ve complied with all rabbinic laws, in order that their slaughter be valid, or in Hebrew, kasher or kosher. This triad of individuals is often invoked in rabbinic literature in order to limit their agency and participation in the world of rabbinic obligation.
The dietary laws we’ll be learning in this tractate lay out a mode of intentional eating, which considers the significance of consuming other living animals and offers spiritual depth to the simple act of eating. But these laws also create communities who can and can’t eat together, groups who can and can’t participate in some aspects of these rituals, and, let’s be honest, mammals who eat and mammals who are eaten. As we learn this tractate, then, let’s pay attention to both the details of animal slaughter and rabbinic ritual law, and to how this system of kashrut, Jewish dietary laws, creates a community whose boundaries are both porous and exclusive.
Read all of Chullin 2 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on May 2, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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