As we now know, a damaged windpipe renders an animal a treifa and prevents the animal’s meat from being kosher. The Gemara today is exploring what constitutes a disqualifying amount of damage:
Rav said: If one undamaged segment remains in the windpipe above the crack and one segment below it, the animal is kosher.
The sages said this statement (of Rav) before Rabbi Yohanan, who said: What is this segment and what is that segment that Rav says? Rather, say: Even if any amount remained intact in the windpipe above the crack, and any amount below, the animal is kosher.
According to Rav, a damaged windpipe does not prevent the meat from being kosher if there are two intact segments, one above the crack and one below it. Rabbi Yohanan is more lenient: As long as there is a single intact section (either above or below), the animal is kosher.
The Gemara then relates:
The sages said this statement (made by Rabbi Yohanan) was reported to Rabbi Yohanan in the name of Rabbi Yonatan. Rabbi Yohanan said: Our Babylonian friends know how to interpret in accordance with this explanation!
Rabbi Yohanan’s position is reported back to him in the name of a different rabbi, Rabbi Yonatan. He is not offended by the attribution. In fact, he responds positively — he is glad to have a colleague see it as he does!
Yet, the wording of his endorsement is puzzling. Rabbi Yonatan, as his title (rabbi rather than rav) suggests, is from the land of Israel. So why would Rabbi Yohanan praise “Babylonian friends”?
Curiously, a similar exchange is recorded on Gittin 78b. There, the Talmud is discussing what happens when a husband tosses a divorce document (get) to his wife. (Ideally, he would hand it to her nicely.) The mishnah says that if it fell closer to the woman, they are officially divorced, but if it fell closer to the husband, they are not. The Gemara takes up the less clear case in which the get falls midway between them:
Rav Shemen bar Abba said: This was explained to me personally by Rabbi Yohanan himself: If it is positioned so that he can guard it and she cannot, it is considered closer to him. If it is positioned so that she can guard it and he cannot, it is considered closer to her. If it is positioned so that the two of them both can guard it, or neither can guard it, it is considered midway.
The rabbis said this explanation (of Rabbi Yohanan) before Rabbi Yohanan in the name of Rabbi Yonatan, and Rabbi Yohanan said: Our Babylonian friends know how to explain in accordance with this explanation!
Once again, Rabbi Yohanan’s opinion is shared back to him, attributed to Rabbi Yonatan. And Rabbi Yohanan responds with the same excitement and even the same unusual response that the “Babylonian friends” agree with him. But again it is not clear to whom he is referring. Rabbi Yonatan is from the land of Israel and Rav Shemen bar Abba, who is Babylonian, lived a century later!
Rashi suggests a solution: Rabbi Yonatan, although ordained in the land of Israel, is originally from Babylonia. Rashi’s read helps us make sense of Rabbi Yohanan’s exclamation; Rabbi Yonatan is the Babylonian friend. Many of the Talmudic commentators, both traditional and modern, side with Rashi and the tradition regarding Rabbi Yonatan’s Babylonian origin was established.
Rabbi Yonatan appears on many pages of the Talmud. None include an origin story. The only reason we have to think that he is Babylonian comes from the commentators’ explanation of Rabbi Yohanan’s statement. This makes me wonder if Rabbi Yonantan was really from Babylonia or if we merely decided that he was to help decipher a difficult passage.
Read all of Chullin 45 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on June 14, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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