Chullin 27: Slaughtering Birds

Today’s daf begins Perek II of Masechet Chullin.  Our first Mishna teaches that the slaughter is valid if one cuts one siman (either the windpipe or the gullet) of a bird, or two simanim (both the windpipe and the gullet) of an animal.  Cutting the majority of a siman is like cutting the entire siman.  Rabbi Yehuda teaches that the slaughter is not valid unti the chaveridin, veins, are cut.  If one cut half of one simon in a bird or one and a half simanim in an animal, the slaughter is not valid.  If one cuts the majority of one siman in a bird or the majority of two simanim in an animal the slaughter is valid.

The Gemara begins by discussing the tense of the word “slaughter”.  If it is past tense, are we referring to allowing an action after the fact? Next the rabbis consider the word “bends”, and whether it might imply that the part of the animal cut must be a part through which the blood of the soul is spilled.  This might be the neck, or it might be the tongue, the rabbis argue. The rabbis believe that “you shall slaughter” may refer to the head never being severed from the body of a slaughtered animal.  Aaron and his sons were instructed to deal with the animal parts based on a whole, not broken, animal.  The Gemara compares birds to animals; it compares birds to fish.

Our daf ends with a discussion about the origin of birds.  Were they formed from mud?  Or from water?  The rabbis share a number of prooftexts to bolster their different claims.  Rabbis wonder if birds need to be slaughtered at all. Instead, the blood of birds could be spilled indiscriminately.  Would that be enough?   The rabbis consider the particulars of slaughtering birds and other undomesticated animals.