More than 40% of food produced and packaged in the United States is certified as kosher. This statistic is remarkable, especially given that only 2.5% of Americans are Jewish, and an even smaller proportion of those keep kosher. Most kosher food in America is actually being purchased by non-Jews. When asked, many consumers perceive kosher food as healthier and of higher quality than non-kosher alternatives.
Today’s daf challenges the perception that kosher food — specifically kosher meat — is associated with healthier animals and consumers. We have learned that some kinds of bodily states make an animal treyf, or unkosher — visible physical wounds, or those which can be made visible upon dissection. But many illnesses and signs of aging don’t leave visible markers. These bodily states don’t automatically make the animal unfit for kosher slaughter. But how can you tell if an animal is too far gone for its slaughter to be kosher?
One who slaughters an animal that is in danger (of dying), Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: only in a case where it convulses with its foreleg and with its hind leg. Rabbi Eliezer says: It is sufficient if blood spurted. Rabbi Shimon says: In the case of one who slaughters at night and the next day he awoke and found walls full of blood, the slaughter is valid, as it is clear that the blood spurted, and this is in accordance with the rule of Rabbi Eliezer. And the rabbis say: It is valid only in a case where it convulses with its foreleg or with its hind leg, or in a case where it wags its tail.
The mishnah offers four different opinions about when this slaughter is valid. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel says that the slaughter is valid and the animal is kosher if it reflexively convulses on (at least) one side of its body while dying. Rabbi Eliezer offers a more lenient opinion: Even if the animal’s reflex system is no longer working, as long as its blood pumps, its slaughter is kosher. Rabbi Shimon says that even if we only see that the blood pumped a little, by checking many hours later, the slaughter is still valid. Finally, the rabbis offer a more moderate position, which requires reflexive convulsion of at least one limb (or tail) for the meat to be kosher.
But why is it permitted to eat such an animal at all? After all, this discussion certainly doesn’t align with modern associations of kashrut and health. The Talmud explains the source of this ruling, but first, it names and roots our discomfort with eating such an animal.
From where do we learn that an animal in danger is permitted? And from where would it enter your mind that it is prohibited?! As it is written: “These are the living beings that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth” (Leviticus 11:2): Eat one that lives, but do not eat one that is not (fit to) live. And this one in danger is not fit to live.
Reading Leviticus 11:2, we might legitimately conclude that Jews are only permitted to eat animals that are fit to live, not those that are actively dying. But while this reading is interesting, the rabbis of the Talmud reject it. Instead, they propose a series of potential biblical prooftexts which allow the slaughter of the animal that is in danger of dying. Their final prooftext is Leviticus 7:24: “And the fat of a unslaughtered animal and the fat of a treifa may be used for any purpose; but you shall not eat it” (Leviticus 7:24).
We have already learned that eating these fats is forbidden as the fats are dedicated to God, so what does this specific verse come to add?
… Rather, from the fact that the Merciful One writes “an unslaughtered carcass,” by inference that the treifa is not the same as an animal in danger.
The argument here is complicated, so let me break down the relevant part. Leviticus 7:24 names two different kinds of animals: those that are unslaughtered and those that are treifa, meaning their torn flesh renders them unfit to be ritually slaughtered and eaten. But there are animals that could end up as carcasses who don’t have visible blemishes that would make them unkosher. The Talmud concludes that these animals don’t have to end up as carcasses and can be ritually slaughtered and consumed.
For those of us who assume kosher meat is healthy meat, this conclusion may be troubling. But the rabbis here recognize the animal’s enormous importance to the community. If the animal dies without being slaughtered, it is a huge financial loss for its owner and may mean a loss of important sustenance for their family or clientele. Its life takes on more meaning to those who benefit from its death. We can certainly imagine a case where a cow’s owner sees that their cow is declining and rushes to slaughter it so its meat can be fit for consumption. And the rabbis understand just how important such an act might be.
Read all of Chullin 37 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on June 6, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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