Today, the Talmud continues its discussion of whether the evil Northern Israelite king Ahab properly observed the rabbinic laws of kosher slaughter.
To prove that Ahab observed these laws, the Talmud turns to a story involving the prophet Elijah. In 1 Kings 17, Elijah curses Ahab with a powerful drought. God then tells Elijah to flee to the desert, where he is to drink from the wadi and eat the food that ravens bring him.
“And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening” (I Kings 17:6); and Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: from the slaughterhouse of Ahab.”
The Talmud asks the very reasonable question: If these ravens are bringing Elijah meat, where are they getting it from? After all, ravens can’t properly hold a knife and perform the slaughter themselves? Rav answers that these very clever ravens were sneaking into Ahab’s slaughterhouse and taking it from there to Elijah. And since the rabbis assume that Elijah observed the rabbinic laws of animal slaughter (after all, we’ve seen the rabbis retroject rabbinic laws and institutions into the biblical past before), that means that Ahab’s butchers must have properly killed their animals.
Since he ate the meat according to the word (of God), the case of Elijah is different.
The Talmud rejects this proof for Ahab’s kosher slaughter. Elijah ate the meat not because he knew that Ahab’s kitchens were kosher, but because God told him to. And God’s direct commands override rabbinic ritual practices. While on the topic of Elijah in the desert, the Talmud next interrogates who exactly these ravens (orevim, in Hebrew) were. The rabbis offer potential answers:
What are orevim?
Ravina said: actual ravens.
Rav Adda bar Minyumi said to him: And perhaps two men whose names were Orev? Isn’t it written: “And they slew Orev at the Rock of Orev …” (Judges 7:25)?
Ravina said to him: Did the matter happen that the names of both of these were Orev?
The Gemara suggests: And perhaps after the name of their place of origin? … If so, Orevites [oreviyyim] should have been written.
Rav Adda bar Minyumi and the anonymous third voice both attempt to offer rational explanations: perhaps, in an unbelievable coincidence, two different people named Orev, or two people from the town of Orev, decided to feed Elijah bread and meat? But both possibilities are rejected — for being absurd and grammatically incorrect, respectively. Only Ravina’s answer is neither challenged nor rejected.
This Talmudic interaction offers us a very old example of how many readers today respond to the fantastical, the miraculous, and the weird in our sacred texts. When we read something that seems to subvert the laws of reality, we may look for a practical explanation or prefer to read it symbolically.
But Ravina reminds us that this rationalist approach limits our understanding of what this text meant to its original readers and writers. The biblical text says “ravens,” and we should take that seriously. If we explain it away, we don’t understand the fullness of how and why the prophet Elijah came to be one of the most important folkloric figures in Judaism, with stories from across the Jewish world recounting how he appeared and performed miracles, saved the righteous and, heck, visits every Jewish household on Passover.
Read all of Chullin 5 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on May 5, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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