Avodah Zarah 035

1:
We now come to the last mishnah in this chapter. Mishnah 5 was concerned with foodstuffs that come from a non-Jew which not only may a Jew not eat but from which he may not derive any material benefit either. Mishnah 6 was concerned with foodstuffs that come from a non-Jew which a Jew may not eat but from which he may derive material benefit. Our present mishnah is concerned with foodstuffs that come from a non-Jew but which a Jew may eat.

2:
The first item in the list is milk. Milk that has been milked from a kosher animal may be drunk and used by a Jew provided that a Jew was in attendance during the milking process. The Gemara [AZ 39b] explains that it is not necessary that the Jew who is supervising the milking process be actually standing next to the non-Jew who is doing the milking; it is sufficient that he be near enough for the non-Jew to know that he can be observed at any moment. The reason for the need for supervision is, of course, to ensure that the milk comes from a kosher animal and not from one that is prohibited.

3:
Honey is, of course, permitted, and needs no explanation. The Gemara [AZ 39b] is surprised that the subject need even be mentioned; for even if a non-Jew were to add something to the honey that he had derived from the bees it would debase the honey.

4:
The Torah [Leviticus 11:34] states:

Our mishnah teaches that if a cluster of grapes was so ripe that its juice was exuding from the grapes, even if the juice dripped on some foodstuffs that were in a jar or bowl beneath them the juice would not render that foodstuff liable to become ritually impure if something ritually impure were to come into contact with it. The juice is not considered liquid for this purpose. (Concerning ritual impurity see our discussions in Tractate Yadayyim.)

5:
The Gemara [AZ 39b] gives an additional reason why one might have been wary of such grapes. Even though they may drip we do not suspect that a non-Jew may have sprinkled them with wine to give the desired appearance. (Wine, we recall, that has been handled by a non-Jew is forbidden.)

6:
A Jew is permitted to eat any vegetables pickled by a non-Jew if it is not customary to add to those vegetables wine or vinegar.

7:
Herrings pickled by a non-Jew may be eaten if they have not been minced. It is simple to ascertain whether the fish is of a permitted variety or not when the fish is still whole – or if there is still enough of it to make such identification possible. The same reasoning applies to brine in which the fish used to create it is still visible.

8:
Concerning asafoetida see AZ 034. The Gemara [AZ 40a] is surprised that the matter should even be mentioned. What can possibly be wrong with the leaf of a plant? The answer given is that as long as the leaf is whole and fresh there is no problem. But if there are drops of asafoetida-juice on the leaf we might think that a non-Jew had cut them with his knife which had also been used for who knows what other purpose. Therefore our mishnah informs us that we may assume that any drops on the leaf are natural.

To be continued.

In AZ 034 I identified the fish indicated by the Hebrew word tarit as 'herring'. (I did so in this shiur too.) Nurit Reches writes:

I believe that 'tarit' is sardine and not herring.

I respond:

Nurit believes this because in modern Hebrew the word tarit has been adopted to identify the sardine. However, there is no reason to believe that the identification was valid also in Talmudic times. I first checked with the great dictionary of Marcus Jastrow who makes no attempt at all to identify the fish and just describes it as a fish-brine. However, Ĥanokh Albeck, in his modern commentary to the mishnah, in a footnote identifies the fish (in English!) as herring. Similarly, Philip Blackman in his translation of the Mishnah into English identifies the fish as herring.

This led me to try to find out why there should be such a discrepancy. I checked with Wikipedia. There I found the following:

So, it seems that sardines are a branch of the herring family. We have no way of knowing today whether the mishnah is referring to herrings or to sardines. I am not sure that it matters any more!