Avodah Zarah 028

1:
This mishnah follows on from the previous mishnah and clarifies one of its items. You will recall that the previous mishnah taught that

2:
Before we embark upon the explanation of our present mishnah let me present to you a question which I have received from Aryeh Abramovitz, which is pertinent to our discussion. After the previous shiur Aryeh wrote to me thus:

May I deduce from this that:

1. Use of rennet / calves stomachs to set cheese was generally accepted as kosher, and
2. Kosher shechita was not required for the source of the rennet, just that it wasn't the result of idolatry?

Even though it is very convoluted and needs a lot of explanation our present mishnah is, in fact, an answer to both of Aryeh's questions.

3:
First of all, if we read carefully the text of the previous mishnah as I presented it, we will notice that the prohibition under discussion is not only deriving material benefit but also something else. What the mishnah is saying is that in addition to to another prohibition, which is obvious and need not be mentioned, Rabbi Me'ir would also prohibit deriving material benefit from such cheeses; the rest of the sages permit material benefit but they still prohibit the other, unmentioned, obvious prohibition.

4:
What that other, 'obvious' prohibition is becomes clear from our present mishnah. Rabbi Yishma'el asks why non-Jewish cheeses are forbidden. This is a total prohibition. Thus we should understand the previous mishnah as saying that everybody agrees that all non-Jewish cheeses are forbidden, but Rabbi Me'ir would add that also deriving material benefit from them is forbidden, which the sages reject. The reason, therefore, why Bithynian cheeses are singled out is for the additional reason that not only are these cheeses forbidden because they come from non-kosher animals but also because the majority of animals in that area are also offered as pagan sacrifices, so they would be doubly unacceptable.

5:
It follows from the above that Aryeh's second query is also answered.

6:
Our present mishnah is a conversation between Rabbi Yishma'el and Rabbi Yehoshu'a. Rabbi Yehoshu'a was one of the greatest of the sages of the generation that came immediately after the end of the war against the Romans and the destruction of the Bet Mikdash in 70 CE. (You can learn of the biography of Rabbi Yehoshu'a from Avot 129 and the following shiurim.) Rabbi Yishma'el was a leading light of the next generation, a contemporary of Rabbi Akiva. (You can learn of the biography of Rabbi Yishma'el from Avot 187 and the following shiurim.) The relationship here, therefore, is clearly one in which the younger man is questioning the older.

7:
Rabbi Yishma'el asks Rabbi Yehoshu'a why the sages prohibited non-Jewish cheeses. Cheese is made from milk and milk is kosher if it comes from an animal that is intrinsically kosher. Surely, he implies, what happens to the animal after its milk has been retrieved and who owned the animal is immaterial to the kashrut of the milk itself. Rabbi Yehoshu'a replies that the reason for the prohibition is because they solidify the milk to make the cheese "with the stomach of a non-kosher animal".

8:
Actually, we have here a typical abbreviation of the sages. The solidifying agent was not the animal's stomach but what came out of it. When an animal that was suckling its young died – either naturally or unnaturally – they would remove the sour milk from the dead animal's stomach and add it to the fresh milk that was to be turned into cheese so that the sour milk would initiate the process of solidification.

9:
Rabbi Yishma'el does not accept this answer. Is the milk left inside a dead animal really not kosher? He seeks to prove that it is, indeed, kosher from his next query.

To be continued.

Today is the 13th anniversary, according to the Jewish calendar, of the burial of the late Prime Minister Yitzĥak Rabin. It is also, therefore, the thirteenth anniversary of the very first shiur in mishnah that was sent out from this study group which is named for him. May his soul rest in peace and may our study group go from strength to strength.