Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, by D. A. Sola and M. J. Raphall, [1843], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER VII.

§ 1. The precept concerning the prohibition of eating the "sinew which shrank" [‏גיד הנשה‎] is obligatory in and out of the Holy Land, during and after the existence of the Temple, in animals slaughtered for profane use [‏חולין‎], and in respect also to consecrated sacrifices, and applies to wild and domestic animals, and to both the right and left thighs of the animal; it does not apply to fowl, since these have no "hollow in the thigh." It applies to a fœtus in embryo, 1 and its suet [‏חלב‎] it is permitted to use. 2 According to R. Meir, "The assertion of butchers in respect to their having removed the ‏גיד הנשה‎ is not to be relied on;" but the sages hold, "That they may be relied on in this respect, and in that of the removal of ‏חלב‎, or suet."

§ 2. It is lawful to send to a non-Israelite a thigh having the ‏גיד הנשה‎ yet within it, 3 because its existence is easily ascertained. In removing the ‏גיד הנשה‎ the whole sinew must be carefully cut out. R. Jehudah saith, "It suffices if enough was removed so as to fulfil the precept." 4

§ 3. A person who eats the quantity of an olive in size of a ‏גיד הנשה‎, incurs the penalty of forty stripes. Should a person have eaten the whole of that sinew, and it was under the mentioned size, he has nevertheless incurred the same penalty. If a person eat the size of an olive of the sinews of each hip, eighty stripes are to be inflicted on him; but according to R. Jehudah, forty stripes only.

§ 4. If a hip was boiled with the ‏גיד הנשה‎ within it, if that sinew was of sufficient size to impart a flavor to the hip, this latter may not be used. How is this to be calculated? In the same proportion as meat boiled with turnips. 5

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§ 5. When the Guid Anashé was boiled with other sinews, if that sinew can be recognised [it must be removed, and] the other sinews are prohibited, if it could have imparted a flavor to them. 6 But when it cannot be recognised, all the sinews are prohibited. The broth [or liquid in which it is boiled] may not be used if the Guid Anashé imparted a flavor to it; 7 and it is even so if a piece of Nebelah, or of a fish prohibited to be eaten, should have been boiled with other pieces of meat or fish allowed to be eaten: if the first mentioned pieces can be recognised, they are to be removed, and if they could have imparted a flavor to the other pieces, the latter may not be used. If they could not be recognised, all the pieces are prohibited; and thus in respect to the broth, which may not be used, if the flavor of the prohibited pieces could have been imparted to it.

§ 6. The prohibition of the Guid Anashé applies to clean animals, and not to unclean ones. R. Jehudah saith, "It must be observed also in respect to unclean animals;" for he argued thus, "The Guid Anashé was prohibited since the time of the sons of Jacob [i.e. before the promulgation of the law], when it was not yet prohibited to use unclean animals as food." 8 The sages replied, "This precept was first promulgated at Sinai, but it was written [incidentally] in its place." 9

Footnotes

343:1 Found full grown in the matrix of the dam, and which it was desired to use as food.

343:2 Commentators of this Mishna differ whether this permission to use the suet applies to that on the ‏גיד הנשה‎, or to that of the fœtus.

343:3 It need not be apprehended that he might sell it to an Israelite, who, knowing that it originally came from an Israelite, might suppose that the sinew had been removed.

343:4 It suffices to cut out the upper part, without cutting into the flesh to remove the smaller filaments.

343:5 That is, the Guid Anashé must be considered as if it were meat, and the hip p. 344 as the same quantity of turnips if the sinew was of a size that the same quantity of meat would impart a flavour to the turnips, the hip may not be used. The Halacha is not according to this Mishna, for it is held that the Guid Anashé cannot communicate any flavor whatever.

344:6 See the last sentence of the preceding note.

344:7 That is, if it was of sufficient size to impart a flavor to the proportion of liquid in which it was boiled.

344:8 And as there was thus no distinction between clean and unclean animals, the prohibition must apply to both kinds.

344:9 Namely, in the relation of the event of the wrestling of Jacob with the angel (Gen. xxxii. 33), the occasion from which this precept arose is mentioned.