Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah Siman 99

This section of the Jewish code of law contiues our exploration of mixtures of kosher and non-kosher food. This is siman 99, and the subjects of mixtures continues to occupy the Shulchan Aruch until siman 119, so we've got just over 20 simanim to go!

This siman will be dealing with the issue of bones in the issur: how are these considered when determining bittul. The rather unrealted topic of the prohibition to perform bittul a priori is also discussed.

Note: To review this content with the primary sources, see my associated source Sheet on Sefaria.

For a list of terminology to support reading of this admittedly rather dense material see Food Mixtures – Principles and Concepts.

Contents

• Se'if 1 Dem bones

• Se'if 2 Are the bones raw or cooked?

• Se'if 3 The entire piece becomes non-kosher

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Se'if 1 Dem bones

This se'if introduces a new element into the discussion of mixtures: bones.

Before we jump into the knotty halakhic details, here is a brief introduction to bones:

There are different types of bones in a portion of meat.

• Hard bones: these bones are not edible, but they do absorb taste from the dish in which they are cooking.

• Soft bones: these bones are edibe. Many of them surround the brain and are found in the head of the animal, assuming that this is also being cooked.

• Animal's brain: it seems that this was quite a delicacy and might well fall into the pot as part of the chunk of issur. The commentators discussed below all treat the brain as part of the issur, presumably because it is edible.

• Pot: While we are dealing with elements of the issur that are inedible, the pot, which is in close contact with the mixture in a similar way to the bones, is also considered as a possible factor in the calculation of bittul.

The commentators disagree regarding how to treat bones when it comes to bittul.

• The Mechaber treats all of the bones in the issur, whether hard or soft, as inedible. However, he points out that as they absorb taste from the dish in which they are cooking, they therefore absorb permitted permitted taste and are all included in the volume used to calculate bittul. However, the brain, if that is part of the issur meat that fell into the pot, is included with the issur.

• The Taz agrees with the Mechaber and explains his reasoning. "As the mixture is cooking", he says, "the bones swallow up taste. Hence they also swallow up taste of the heter and are included in the volume that is used to cancel the issur." He also deals with a contradictory opinion that seems to treat the bones as equivalent to an earthenware pot the swallows up forbidden taste but dismisses this opinion. * We'll follow up this discussion in a separate blog post.

• The Shach adds a further halakhic distinction: hard bones as opposed to soft bones. The soft bones, he says, are considered as part of the issur and this is because they surround the brain, which is an edible part of the issur. However, he agrees with the Mechaber and the Taz that the hard bones are inedible but join with the heter as they absorb its flavour.

Rema's gloss

Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles), as is his wont, suggests that one should take the more stringent view: he points out that there are those commentators who say that one should not include the bones in the issur in the volume of heter used to calculate bittul. He then relents slightly and affirms that where following this stringency will lead to a large monetary loss, one is permitted to follow the approach of the Mechaber.

Se'if 2 Are the bones raw or cooked?

The Mechaber qualifies the previous se'if. The bones of the issur are calculated as part of the heter for the purposes of bittul only if the forbidden piece meat and bones) that fell in is raw.

However, if the forbidden piece (meat and bones) that fell in was already cooked, then the bones of the issur now combine with the issur when calculating bittul. The assumption here is that the issur has now already been cooked, and the bones of the forbidden meat have already absorbed the taste of the issur, hence in this situation these become transmitters of forbidden flavour rather than absrobers of permitted flavour.

Se'if 3 The entire piece becomes non-kosher

I have translated Chaticha nasseit neveilah (Hebrew abbreviation, chanan) as "the entire piece becomes non-kosher". Let's explore this concept.

All the poskim agree that chanan applies to mixtures of milk and meat. Under the principle of chanan, if a drop of milk falls on a piece of meat and the drop of milk is big enough to be one sixtieth the volume of the piece of meat, then the entire piece of kosher meat becomes non-kosher and requires kosher food sixty times its volume in order to cancel it out.

The following diagram, shows the implications of this law. A single gram of milk that accidentally falls on a piece of kosher meat of mass 59g, causes the entire piece of meat to become non-kosher. In order to nullify it, 59 x 60 = 3540 g of kosher meat needs to be added. Wow, that's a lot of meat!

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In this short se'if, the Mechaber and the Rema discuss whether chanan applies to meat and milk mixtures only, or to all mixtures in general, not just milk and meat. The following table summarises this difference of opinion.

	Milk and meat	Other mixtures
Mechaber	Yes	No
Rema	Yes	Yes

The Shach explains that when chanan does not apply, this means that if the permitted food (for example, the piece of meat) is not 60 times the volume of the issur, then the mixture is forbidden under the rules of shishim. However, the mixture can be rendered kosher by the addition of kosher meat to a volume 60 times of the issur only, not 60 times the volume of the original kosher piece of meat.

An example: 20g of forbidden fat falls into a pot of kosher meat soup whose weight is 1 kg. The soup is now non-kosher fat taste in a ratio of 50 to 1 has been mixed into it; hence more kosher meat soup is needed to cancel out the absorbed non-kosher fat taste. If we follow the Mechaber, who says that chanan does not apply to general mixtures, then only 200g extra kosher soup is needed for the buttul. However, the Rema would say that the entire original pot of soup is now non-kosher (1.02 kg) and therefore 59 x 1.020 = 60.18 kg of extra kosher soup is not needed for bittul.

Se'if 4 What counts towards the 60 times volume

Another dense se'if, so as usual we'll start with definitions.

Rotev: gravy, the liquid part of the food, if the main part is solid.

Kipa: sediment, spices and other bits that end up at the bottom of the pot.

K'mo sheba lefaneinu: Literally, " as it appears before us". In the context of the scenario presented here, the meaning of this phrase isIn the context of the scenario presented here, the meaning of this phrase is "once the food has been cooked".

Omed yafe: this expression could be translated as "a good, or reasonable, estimate ".

1) מְשַׁעֲרִים בָּרֹטֶב וּבַקִּיפָה (פֵּרוּשׁ הַדַּק דַּק שֶׁל בָּשָׂר וְתַבְלִין הַמִּתְאַסֵף בְּשׁוּלֵי קְדֵרָה) וּבַחֲתִיכוֹת. וּמְשַׁעֲרִין הַהֶתֵּר וְהָאִסוּר כְּמוֹ שֶׁבָּא לְפָנֵינוּ, אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁהָיָה בַּהֶתֵּר יוֹתֵר מִתְּחִלָּה וְנִתְמַעֵט בְּבִשּׁוּלוֹ וְנִבְלַע בַּקְּדֵרָה. וְהָנֵי מִלֵּי בְּמִין בְּשֶׁאֵינוֹ מִינוֹ

2) אֲבָל אִם הוּא מִין בְּמִינוֹ מְשַׁעֲרִין גַּם בַּמֶּה שֶּׁבָּלְעָה הַקְּדֵרָה, וְעוֹמֵד בְּדָפְנֵי הַקְּדֵרָה. וּמְשַׁעֲרִים זֶה בְּאֹמֶד יָפֶה, וְרוֹאִין אוֹתוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא בְּעַיִן, אֲבָל מַה שֶּׁכָּלָה וְאָבַד מֵחֲמַת הָאוּר אֵינוֹ מִצְטָרֵף, שֶׁזֶּה כָּלָה לְגַמְרֵי.

According to the Shulchan Aruch are two clearly defined cases here.

The first case is where we have a mixture of permitted food into which forbidden food of a different type was accidentally dropped, in other words, min shelo bemino. In this case, the ratio is 60 to one based on Torah law. In this scenario, that means that we calculate the  60 to one ratio once the food is cooked and we don't consider the extra amount of permitted food that we had prior to the beginning the cooking. That food has been absorbed into the walls of the cooking pot or has evaporated into the air depending on whether or not we covered the pot.

The second case is a mixture of food of the same types. For example, a small piece of non kosher chicken might have fallen into a chicken stew containing pieces of chicken, the gravy in which the chicken is being cooked and sediment and spices, which go to the bottom of the pot. As this is a mean binor mixture, buy Tova law. The requirement for cancellation is only a majority. The 60 to 1 requirement is robbinic law. Only hence, according to the Aruch there is space for being lenient. One can estimate the amount of permitted food at the beginning of cooking time, and use that amount as a perimeter. How much forbidden food can be added, and it all still to take place . Clearly, in this case, there will be space for more forbidden food, so this is a more less restrictive. Hello ha.

Following the Shach, Ashkenazim, do not adopt this approach. They take the more stringent approach formulated by the Maharshaha who says that we cannot make rough estimates of of the sort required in the second case, and that we always calculate based on the amount of permitted and forbidden food present once cooking has taken place. Hence the first case always applies.