The Samaritans are a group in northern Israel who follow the Torah but reject some of the authority of rabbinic law. They still exist today, but their numbers were larger (at least, relatively speaking) in antiquity. The early rabbis thought of the Samaritans as pseudo-Jews. In some cases — such as preparing matzah — they were trusted to be following rabbinic Jewish law, and are thus treated like Jews. In other cases — perhaps most famously with regard to the center of worship — they were not. This means that with regard to many areas of law they’re treated the same as gentiles. In our previous pages, Abaye suggested that our opening mishnah was discussing the validity of slaughter performed by a Samaritan. A beraita on today’s daf continues that discussion:
The sages taught in a beraita: The slaughter performed by a Samaritan is permitted. In what case is this statement said? Where there is a Jew standing over him. But if the Jew came and found that the Samaritan already slaughtered the animal, the Jew cuts an olive-bulk of meat and gives it to the Samaritan to eat. If the Samaritan ate it, it is permitted for the Jew to eat meat from what the Samaritan slaughtered. But if the Samaritan did not eat the meat, it is prohibited to eat from what the Samaritan slaughtered.
Similarly, if the Jew found a string of birds in the possession of a Samaritan, he severs the head of one of them and gives it to the Samaritan to eat. If the Samaritan ate it, it is permitted for the Jew to eat the meat from what the Samaritan slaughtered. But if the Samaritan did not eat the meat, it is prohibited to eat from what the Samaritan slaughtered.
The rabbis say that if a Samaritan is being observed by a Jew at the time of slaughter, the meat they’ve slaughtered is completely fine. But if we simply find them with a slaughtered animal, we cannot be sure. Why? The Samaritans were believed to be scrupulous for themselves, but unconcerned with the prohibition on causing others to sin. Therefore, while they couldn’t be trusted to warn the Jew that the meat was improperly slaughtered, they themselves wouldn’t eat it if that were the case.
The Gemara also wonders whether the Samaritan eating the bird’s head would be proof that they’ve all been properly slaughtered. Maybe he only slaughtered that one and it had a distinguishing mark! The Gemara answers that we’re referring to a case where the Jew crushed the head, so it would be indistinguishable from others. Now it raises a different challenge:
And perhaps the Samaritans hold there is no source for the slaughter of a bird in the Torah.
Perhaps the Samaritan ate the bird head not because the birds are properly butchered, but because they believe birds, unlike mammals, don’t require kosher slaughter! The Gemara responds to this challenge rather derisively:
And according to your reasoning, interrupting the slaughter, pressing the knife, concealing the knife, diverting the knife, and ripping the signs, are they written in the Torah?
All of these inscrutable phrases are shorthand for actions that invalidate a kosher slaughter, and we will learn them in time. But for our purposes here, the Gemara points out that none of these details regarding the rabbinic conception of kosher slaughter are written in the Torah, even with regard to land animals! If we really thought the Samaritans only went by what was written in the Torah, none of their slaughter would be trustworthy.
Rather, once the Samaritans embraced those disqualifications, they embraced them. Here, too, although the requirement of ritual slaughter for a bird is not written in the Torah, once the Samaritans embraced the mitzvah of ritual slaughter, they embraced it.
The Samaritans are not exactly like the Karaites, who emerged centuries after the Talmud and deny all rabbinic law. The Samaritans do follow rules that are not written in the Torah. There are some areas of halakhah where they weren’t believed to follow rabbinic law, but other areas where they practiced identically to rabbinic Jews. In those areas, such as slaughter, the Samaritans’ standards could be trusted. In fact, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel even goes on to say that with regard to the mitzvot the Samaritans embraced, they were more exacting in their observance than Jews! However, we’ll see in the coming pages that their presumed status of fitness in some matters changed during the Talmudic period.
Read all of Chullin 4 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on May 4, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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