Today’s daf asks: If a non-Jew slaughters an animal in a kosher manner, but has in mind to use its meat to worship idols, is it still kosher? Unsurprisingly, there is a rabbinic difference of opinion.
Rabbi Yohanan says: The slaughter is not valid and deriving benefit from the animal is forbidden.
Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says: The slaughter is valid and deriving benefit from the animal is permitted.
The Gemara explains their positions further.
Rabbi Yohanan says: The slaughter is not valid because one transfers intent from one sacrificial rite to another sacrificial rite. Therefore, Rabbi Yohanan holds that we derive the halakhot of non-sacred slaughter outside the Temple from the halakhot of slaughter of sacrificial animals inside the Temple.
The disagreement between these two hinges on one specific point: Can we extrapolate a law learned in connection with ritual slaughter in the Temple to kosher slaughter for everyday consumption outside the Temple? Rabbi Yohanan says that we can. And since improper intent during ritual slaughter invalidates the meat, the same should apply to non-sacred meat. On the other hand:
Reish Lakish says: The slaughter is valid, and deriving benefit from the animal is permitted. He holds that one does not transfer intent from one sacrificial rite to another sacrificial rite. And Reish Lakish holds that we do not derive the halakhot of non-sacred slaughter outside the Temple from the halakhot of slaughter of sacrificial animals inside the Temple.
Reish Lakish opines that even if idolatrous thoughts would invalidate sacrificial meat, regular meat slaughtered properly is valid regardless of the slaughterer’s intent, because we do not learn one type of halakhah from another.
The two continue their back-and-forth down the page. Ultimately, the halakhah follows Rabbi Yohanan: Idolatrous intent invalidates an otherwise kosher slaughter. (Mishneh Torah, Ritual Slaughter 2:15; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 4:1)
But let’s take a step back and recall that Rabbi Yohanan and Reish Lakish are not just colleagues and study partners; they’re famously brothers-in-law and best frenemies.
Readers may recall their “meet cute” from Bava Metzia 84a, in which Reish Lakish — at the time not a rabbi but a brigand — sees the silhouette of the famously gorgeous Rabbi Yohanan bathing in the Jordan and, smitten, jumps in. When he discovers it is not a maiden he is pursuing, but in fact a (male) rabbi, he’s disappointed. But all is not lost: Rabbi Yohanan suggests that Reish Lakish marry his equally beautiful sister and, for good measure, invites him to study with his rabbinic colleagues in the Galilee. They become best friends and study partners. Reish Lakish becomes a sage.
Over time, their debates grow less collegial and more antagonistic, until one day, in the middle of a discussion about various tools and their susceptibility to ritual impurity, Rabbi Yohanan takes the proverbial gloves off:
Rabbi Yohanan said: It is from when one fires these items in the furnace.
Reish Lakish said: It is from when one scours them in water, after they have been fired in the furnace.
Rabbi Yohanan said to Reish Lakish: A bandit knows about his banditry.
As the kids say, “ooh… burn!” Rabbi Yohanan has left the realm of legal argumentation and resorted to shaming by bringing up Reish Lakish’s unsavory past. This causes the latter such heartache that he becomes ill and dies. Rabbi Yohanan, for his part, is bereft. The Talmud records:
Rabbi Yohanan went around, tearing his clothing, weeping and saying: “Where are you, ben Lakish?! Where are you, ben Lakish?!” Rabbi Yohanan screamed until he lost his sanity. The rabbis prayed and requested Divine mercy on him so he would not continue to suffer, and Rabbi Yohanan died.
In this story, it is actions, not intent, that lead to the devastating outcome. Rabbi Yohanan did not mean to devastate Reish Lakish in the way he did, and yet his words inflicted irreversible harm.
Even though he did not have the winning position today, perhaps we should take Reish Lakish’s view to heart more broadly: Outside the realm of kosher slaughter, it’s our actions, not our intentions, that matter most.
Read all of Chullin 39 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on June 8, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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