Chullin, Chapter 10, Mishnah 1. This chapter turns to the matanot, the priestly gifts that a person owes from an animal he has slaughtered. Until now the masechet has dealt largely with the laws of shechitah itself and what may be eaten; here the focus shifts to what the kohein receives once the animal has been slaughtered.
Its source lies in a verse of the Torah, which lays down what the kohanim may claim from the people. Anyone who slaughters an animal, whether it comes from his herd or from his flock, owes a portion to the kohein, and the verse names three such portions: hazero'a, vehalechayayim, vehakeivah. The Torah labels this entitlement the mishpat hakohanim, the due that belongs to them by right.
So when a person slaughters an animal from his cattle, his sheep or his goats, three separate portions of that animal belong to the kohein:
- Hazero'a, the foreleg, specifically the right foreleg.
- Halechayayim, the jaw.
- Hakeivah, the stomach. An animal that chews its cud has four stomach chambers, and it is the fourth of them that goes to the kohein.
All three are handed over to the kohein as part of the matanot, the gifts assigned to the kohanim.
Where and when the obligation applies
Our mishnah opens by mapping out how far this obligation extends. The three gifts are "nohagin ba'aretz uvechutz la'aretz": they are owed from an animal slaughtered within Eretz Yisrael, and just as much from an animal slaughtered anywhere beyond it. They apply as well "bifnei habayit" and equally when there is no bayit: the kohein's claim holds while the Beit Hamikdash stands, and it holds after its destruction too.
Then comes a limitation: "bechullin aval lo bemukdashin" - the matanot are taken from chullin, ordinary unconsecrated animals slaughtered for eating, but not from mukdashin, animals that have been consecrated as korbanot.
The logic that would have argued otherwise
The mishnah anticipates an objection: "shehaya badin", by rights the opposite conclusion should have been reached, and consecrated animals should have been included in these gifts as well. Here is the reasoning.
The mishnah lays out the comparison. "Umah im hachullin she'einan chayavin behachazeh uvashok chayavin bematanot": an ordinary animal is treated with a measure of leniency, since its owner owes the kohein neither the chazeh (the breast) nor the shok (the thigh), and even so the zero'a, the lechayayim and the keivah remain due. "Kodashim shechayavin behachazeh uvashok, eino din shechayavin bematanot": a consecrated animal is held to a stricter standard, for from it the breast and the thigh do go to the kohein, so surely the three matanot should be owed from it as well.
This is essentially a kal vachomer. If the lighter category, chullin, from which the breast and thigh are not taken, nevertheless carries the obligation of matanot, then the weightier category, korbanot, from which the breast and thigh are taken, should surely carry it as well. (The chazeh and shok are given from kodashim kalim; from kodshei kodashim they are not given in this manner, so the comparison is drawn specifically with kodashim kalim.)
The verse that closes the argument
The verse that closes the argument
"Talmud lomar": Scripture blocks this line of reasoning. Speaking of the breast and thigh taken from consecrated animals, the Torah says "va'eten otam le'Aharon hakohein ulevanav lechok olam", that these portions were assigned to Aharon the kohein and to his descendants as a permanent entitlement.
Everything turns on the word otam, "them." A grant worded that way points at the items just listed and refuses to reach past them. So the mishnah rules that the kohein may claim no more than "mah she'amur be'inyan", only what that passage itself spells out, and what it spells out is the chazeh and the shok. The zero'a, the lechayayim and the keivah were never folded into that gift at all.
The effect is to limit what the kal vachomer could otherwise have produced. The owner of a korban owes the kohein the breast and the thigh, and nothing beyond that: not the foreleg, not the jaw, not the stomach.
We are left with two distinct obligations. From a korban the kohein receives the chazeh and the shok. From chullin, an ordinary animal slaughtered for food, he receives the zero'a, the lechayayim and the keivah. Each set of gifts belongs to its own category of animal, and neither is imported into the other.