Bekhorot 7B

Study Bekhorot folio 7B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.

Text Excerpt

the non-kosher animal [min hattamei], one can infer that any type [min] of non-kosher substance is included. And these fluids, i.e., the urine of a donkey, are also a type of non-kosher substance, as they resemble the milk of a donkey, which is forbidden.

And there are those who say there is a different version of the discussion about the urine of a donkey: With regard to the urine of horses and camels, the students of Rav Sheshet did not raise the dilemma, because people do not drink it. When they raised the dilemma it was with regard to the urine

Rav Sheshet said to them: You learned the answer to your dilemma in the Mishnah: That which emerges from the non-kosher animal is non-kosher and that which emerges from the kosher animal is kosher, and these fluids also come from a donkey, which is non-kosher. Therefore, they are forbidden.

The Talmud raises an objection from a baraita: For what reason did the rabbis say that the honey of bees is permitted? It is because they bring the nectar from the flowers into their body, but they do not excrete it from their body as a bodily excretion. So too, the urine of a donkey is not an excr

The Talmud answers: Rav Sheshet stated his answer in accordance with the opinion of R' Ya’akov, who says that with regard to honey, God permits it as an exception to the principle that a substance that emerges from a non-kosher animal is non-kosher.