Chulin

Embark on a journey of Jewish learning and discovery, exploring the depth of our Chulin resources, where tagged items including audio, programs, and podcast episodes await your exploration.

Chulin 142: Do You See What I See

Rabbi Jay Kelman

It is an amazing but all too common phenomenon that two people can witness the same event and yet “see it” very differently. This is the simplest explanation as to why Jewish law requires two witnesses to convict someone in a court of…
Article
Apr 22, 2019

Chulin 139: Where is Moshe?

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“Where is Moshe [mentioned] in the Torah?” It is hard to imagine a more—let's be gentle here—superfluous question. A better question would be where isn’t Moshe mentioned in the Torah. Who knows if without Moshe…
Article
Apr 18, 2019

Chulin 109: Can I Have Some Udder Please

Rabbi Jay Kelman

When I ask ba’alei teshuva what the hardest thing for them to give up is, the most common response I receive is "lobster". This should come as no surprise. Our Sages recognized that having enjoyed the taste…
Article
Apr 11, 2019

Chulin 105: Time for a Field Trip

Rabbi Jay Kelman

It is an often-cited truism that the Orthodox community, most ironically, tends to place much greater emphasis on kosher food than on kosher money. Of course, it is much easier to keep kosher than to ensure our monetary dealings are kosher[1]. This…
Article
Apr 3, 2019

Chulin 105: Can We Drink Milk Yet?

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“Mar Ukva said: I am, with regard to this matter, like vinegar, son of wine, with respect to Father. Father, if he were to eat meat at this time, would not eat cheese until tomorrow at this time. But as for me, only at this…
Article
Mar 27, 2019

Chulin 100: Torah at Sinai

Rabbi Jay Kelman

“Because of this the children of Israel, to this day, do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle” (Breisheet 32:33). The prohibition to eat gid…
Article
Mar 14, 2019

Chulin 97: It Tastes Great

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Rabbinic debates are not for the faint-hearted. They can be most intense, and sadly, can lead to tragic consequences. One of the most famous of Talmudic debates, that regarding the tanur shel achnai, led to the excommunication of Rabbi…
Article
Mar 7, 2019

Chulin 94: Let's Have Some Wine

Rabbi Jay Kelman

In our last post, we spoke about geneivat da’at, generating false goodwill, in the context of gid hanasheh. I imagine very few people reading this devar Torah have ever sent a cut-up thigh containing a gid hanasheh to…
Article
Mar 5, 2019

Chulin 94: What a Nerve!

Rabbi Jay Kelman

One would not normally associate the prohibition to eat the gid hanashe, the sciatic nerve, with issues of business ethics. But  related they are. The Mishna teaches that “One may send the thigh [of an animal] to an idol worshipper…
Article
Feb 28, 2019

Chulin 83: Cow and Calf

Rabbi Jay Kelman

One of most famous mitzvot of the Torah is that of shiluach haken, the obligation to send away the mother bird before taking her little chicks or even unhatched eggs. So important is this mitzvah that it is one of the very few in which we…
Article
Feb 21, 2019