Monday, November 20, 2006
Beitza 25b - eating before checking for treifos
Tosafos asks how the gemara can say that it is only an eitza tova to search for treifos before eating from the animal, when just a few lines later the gemara will state that the laws of orlah should serve as a lesson for butchers who eat before checking for treifos, strongly implying that it is forbidden to eat before checking and not just an eitza tova? The Mishkenos Yakov (Yoreh Deah #16 in a teshuva to Rav Efraim Zalman Margalios) suggests an interesting answer: It is certainly prohibited for a butcher to eat before skinning and checking the animal. However, this prohibition is only for "a butcher" who does this on a consistent basis. A regular person who does this once can rely on the chezkas kashrus of the animal. It is different for a butcher because statistically speaking, if he keeps on pushing his luck eventually he will eat a treifa. The Mishkenos Yakov compares this to what some rishonim say that when two kosher pieces of meat get mixed with one non-kosher piece, the same person can't eat all three because eventually he will be eating an issur. (Even those who do allow it in that case only allow it because "issur nehepach l'heter" as opposed to our case where there is no bitul).
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2 comments:
I didn't want to include this in the actual post, but this sevara is similar to what bothers Rav Schachter about contemporary milk consumption. While each cow has a chazaka that it is not a treifa and one can drink its milk, the statistics that 30% of milking cows are in fact full of sirchos forces you to say that if the milk from a thousand cows are all being mixed together, you have 30% treifa milk. (Essentially the statistics are a ruba d'leisa kaman that this is the case.) This is even worse than the Mishkenos Yakov who lichora should say that you can't even drink milk from one cow at a time if you continue to drink from many cows one after the other. (I wonder what the Mishkenos Yakov would say about milk. Perhaps it is different when it is impossible to check...).
regarding the machlokes rishonim if one eats without checking the lungs if it is asur b'dieved, rashi that is lenient brings a proof from the fact that we drink the milk without checking the lungs, but the ones who argue must hold there is a diference, am i making sense? i dont know much about y"d just saw a little in the pnei yehushua.
Shkoyach r' aryeh
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