Chullin, Chapter 3, Mishnah 1. With this chapter the Masechet takes up a fresh subject: the kosher animal that bears a wound or a defect. The Torah writes, "uvasar basadeh tereifah lo tocheilu," and flesh torn in the field you shall not eat. The straightforward case the verse pictures is a beast of prey that has mauled a domestic animal and left it wounded.
We are not speaking here about an animal that died of its wounds. Such an animal is a neveilah, a carcass. Our subject is a tereifah: an animal that sustained a fatal injury and is forbidden even though it was still alive when it was slaughtered and the shechitah was performed perfectly. Because the wound was one from which it was destined to die, the meat may not be eaten.
The cause of the injury makes no difference. It may have come from an attack, it may be a defect the animal was born with, or it may be the result of disease. The measure is the same: if the animal could not have survived a full year with that condition, it is a tereifah.
Our mishnah, together with the one that follows, records the list of tereifot, and that list is definitive and closed. The Chachamim in the Gemara explain and expand on each item, yet they establish a clear principle: whatever appears on this list remains a tereifah even if it no longer seems fatal according to the science available to us, and whatever science tells us is fatal but is not on the list is not added. We follow the halachah exactly as the mishnah sets it down.
"Eilu tereifot babehemah"
"Eilu tereifot babehemah." With these words the mishnah opens its list, and it goes on to enumerate eighteen conditions that give an animal the status of tereifah. The corresponding laws for birds are taken up in a later mishnah.
1. The esophagus
"Nekuvat haveshet," one whose food pipe is perforated. The veshet is the soft tube, the esophagus, running from the mouth down to the stomach, and it is built of two layers. Only if both layers are pierced is the animal a tereifah; a hole in one layer alone does not disqualify it.
2. The trachea
"Upsukat hagargeret," one whose windpipe is severed. The gargeret is the tube that carries air from the mouth down to the lungs. The cut spoken of here is a deep one, passing entirely through the wall and across more than half of the inner space of the windpipe.
3. The membrane of the brain
"Nikav krum shel moach," the membrane of the brain was perforated. Two coverings surround the brain, one lying inside the other. Should the inner covering be punctured, the animal is a tereifah, even when the outer one has suffered no damage whatsoever. Damage confined to the outer covering leaves the animal permitted.
4. The heart
"Nikav halev leveit chalalo," the heart was perforated through to one of its chambers. The heart has two sides, a right and a left. Should a puncture pass through the heart's wall and open into either of those hollows, the animal is a tereifah. The law is identical for a puncture in the major vessels attached to the heart, the aorta and the pulmonary artery, through which the blood is pumped out of it.
5. The spine and spinal cord
"Nishberah hashidrah venifsakah chutsheilah," the backbone was fractured and the cord running through it cut. What determines the ruling is the sheath around the spinal cord: once that has been severed, the animal is a tereifah.
6. The liver
"Nital hakaved," the liver was taken away, "velo nishtayer heimenu kelum," with not the least bit of it left behind. The liver cleanses the blood and manufactures bile, without which food cannot be digested, and no animal survives without this organ. Read the wording carefully: the status of tereifah applies only when the organ is gone completely. Should even a sliver of liver be left in place, the animal is kosher.
7. A perforated lung
"Harei'ah shenikbah," the lung was perforated. The lung too is wrapped in membranes, an inner one and an outer one. If both are pierced so that air escapes and the lung cannot hold it in, the animal is a tereifah. If only one membrane is pierced, the animal remains kosher.
8. A missing portion of the lung
"O shechasrah," or the lung is missing one of its lobes. This too renders the animal a tereifah.
"Rabbi Shimon omeir," and his position is: "ad shetinakeiv leveit hasimpnonot." In his view a punctured lung is a tereifah only when the puncture reaches the passages that branch off where the windpipe ends. The gargeret runs down into the lung and divides into narrower channels, the bronchi, which distribute air throughout the lung's sections. Rabbi Shimon requires that the hole open into those principal branches at the base of the gargeret; a puncture anywhere else in the lung tissue leaves the animal fit.
9. The keivah
"Nikvah hakeivah," the fourth stomach was perforated. A ruminant, a cow or a sheep for instance, digests its food by means of four stomachs, each one with its own function in the process, and the keivah is the last of the four.
10. The gallbladder
"Nikvah hamarah," the gallbladder was perforated. This applies to a hole on the side that is not covered by the liver. But if the hole is on the side pressed against the liver, so that nothing can leak out at all, the animal is not a tereifah.
11. The small intestines
"Nikbu hadakin," the small intestines were perforated. Again the question is whether the contents will leak. Where the intestines fold over one another they cover and seal each other and hold everything in place. A hole in a spot that is not so covered, where leakage will result, makes the animal a tereifah.
12 and 13. The rumen
"Hakeires hapenimit shenikvah," meaning the inner stomach, the first of the animal's stomachs, was perforated, "o shenikra rov hachitsonah," or the greater part of the outer covering was torn. Each of these two conditions is a tereifah.
Concerning that tear in the muscular layer over the stomach, a second view is recorded. "Rabbi Yehudah omeir," and his measures are: "hagedolah tefach, vehaktanah berubah." In a large animal Rabbi Yehudah requires a tear of a tefach in that muscle before the animal is a tereifah; in a small animal the status takes effect once the muscle wrapping the stomach has been torn through the greater part of it.
14 and 15. The third and second stomachs
"Hameises uveit hakosot shenikbu lachuts," a hole opening outward in the third stomach or in the second. These are the fourteenth and fifteenth items on the list, and they forbid the animal only when the puncture lies on an exposed surface, not on the side facing the neighboring stomach. In the hidden place the two organs lie tight against one another and close off the opening, so nothing escapes, no harm follows, and the animal stays kosher.
16. A fall
"Nafelah min hagag," it fell from the roof. An animal that fell from a roof or another high place may look completely unharmed and yet have sustained internal injuries that render it a tereifah. Only a full examination can remove it from that status.
17. Broken ribs
"Nishtaberu rov tsalo'oteha," the majority of its ribs were broken. An animal has twenty two ribs. When most of them are broken, it is a tereifah, since we assume that it can no longer breathe properly.
18. Clawed by a wolf
"Uderusat haze'eiv," an animal struck by the claws of a wolf. We suspect that venom entered the body through those claws, and the animal is therefore a tereifah. With this, the count of eighteen is complete.
Qualifying the law of clawing
Rabbi Yehudah draws a distinction based on the size of the predator: "Derusat haze'eiv badakah," and then, as a separate case, "uderusat ari bagasah." The wolf is a relatively small beast, and the venom in its claws is potent enough to render a tereifah only in a small animal. The lion is a large beast, and its clawing carries venom enough to render even a large animal a tereifah. The two situations are thus kept apart.
The identical division applies among birds: "Derusat hanetz ba'of hadak," and then "uderusat hagas ba'of hagas." A hawk's claws carry venom sufficient to render a tereifah only in a small bird, while the claws of a large bird of prey carry enough to do so even to a large bird.
"Zeh hakelal"
The mishnah closes with a general rule: "Zeh hakelal: kol she'ein kamochah chayah, tereifah." Any condition found in a slaughtered animal such that a living animal with the same condition could not survive twelve months renders the animal a tereifah.
This rule is not merely a summary. It comes to include additional tereifot that the mishnah did not spell out: the Gemara enumerates seven such cases. And the Bartenura adds that there are four further types of tereifot, likewise not stated explicitly, that are covered by this general rule.