The Prohibition of Eating Blood - Rabbi Binyomin Cohen shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 As we know, eating blood is forbidden. The Torah says, “You shall not eat any blood.” The question comes up when blood is found in a chicken egg. What is the status of the egg? There are three approaches in halacha. The Shulchan Aruch distinguishes between blood found in the white and blood found in the yolk. If the blood is in the yellow part, the yolk, the entire egg is forbidden and must be thrown away. If it is in the white, only the blood is removed, and the egg is permitted. That is how the Beis Yosef rules in the Shulchan Aruch. The Rema writes that the custom is to be stringent about any blood found in an egg, whether in the white or the yolk. In other words, the second opinion says that whenever blood is found in an egg, the egg is forbidden, regardless of where the blood is. There is a third opinion, cited by contemporary halachic authorities, which argues that today’s eggs are not fertilized by a rooster. There are laying houses that contain only hens for egg production. Since these eggs are not fertilized, blood found in them is not considered blood for this purpose: only the red spot needs to be removed, and the rest of the egg is permitted, whether the spot was in the white or the yolk. Of course, this is a very lenient opinion, but some halachic authorities rule this way. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef rules this way, and some people follow his ruling. The common practice, though, is to distinguish between the white and the yolk: if the blood is in the white, the blood is removed and the egg is permitted; if it is in the yolk, the entire egg is thrown away. Someone eating a hard-boiled egg does not need to open it to check whether it contains blood.

03:00 Speaker 2 They may eat the egg as it is, without opening it to look for blood. But if someone cracks an egg to bake a cake, make an omelet, or the like, they do need to look. In other words, when eating a boiled egg, we rely on the fact that most eggs do not contain blood, so there is no need to check. But when we crack an egg to make an omelet or a cake, or to eat it in some other way, we do need to check whether there is blood and, if so, whether it is in the white or the yolk. If someone has beaten eggs for a cake or something similar and then notices a spot, but cannot tell where it came from, we can also take into account the opinion that eggs today are not fertilized. Usually, several eggs have already been mixed together. The person can remove the blood and the area around it, and the rest of the eggs are permitted. We do not forbid the whole mixture because there are two doubts: first, whether the blood was in the white or the yolk; and second, even if it was in the yolk, perhaps the halacha follows the opinion that unfertilized eggs do not present a problem. Although we do not follow that opinion from the outset, we can use it here in support of the other consideration. This is called a sfek sfeika, a double doubt. When there are two doubts, there is room to be lenient. We do not forbid the entire mixture, whether it is for baking a cake, making egg salad, or the like.

05:23 Speaker 2 In general, there is a difference between white-shelled and brown-shelled eggs. Blood is more commonly found in brown-shelled eggs than in white-shelled ones. Even so, if the eggs are hard-boiled, there is no need to open and check them. Checking is required only when we crack an uncooked egg. So someone who does not want to get into these questions is better off choosing white eggs. If there are cartons to choose from, they should take white eggs, in which blood is much less common—almost never found—rather than brown-shelled eggs, in which it is more common. Suppose someone has a hen in their yard that laid an egg. Again, it depends on whether there is also a rooster. If there is a rooster, the matter is more stringent, and according to the Rema, one must be stringent even if the blood is in the white. If there is no rooster, and there are only hens laying eggs, the eggs are like store-bought eggs: if the blood is in the white, one may remove it and use the egg. But if the blood is in the yolk, the entire egg is forbidden. Although an egg comes from a chicken—a hen lays it—the egg itself may be eaten with milk. There is no prohibition against eating eggs with milk. When the Gemara wants to give an example of something plainly permitted, it says, “Like an egg in kutach.” Bei’asa is Aramaic for egg. Kutach is a dairy food; to compare it to something today, it is a kind of yogurt mixed with pieces of bread, something like cottage cheese. The Gemara uses an egg in kutach as an example because eating an egg with a dairy food is plainly permitted. It is an expression for something whose permissibility is simple and clear. Today, slaughterhouses sometimes receive roosters—hens, rather, that had been used for egg laying.

08:04 Speaker 2 Once those hens stop laying the number of eggs expected of them, they are sent for slaughter. Their meat is tough and is generally not sold as chicken meat, but goes to food processing, for sausages and the like. It is quite common to find eggs inside these hens. When the hen’s abdomen is opened for kosher processing, one might find yolks by themselves, an egg with a thin shell, or an egg with a hard shell. Since consumers do not commonly encounter this, we will not go into the details now. But if someone does receive eggs like these, they should ask a rabbi. In some cases, the egg itself must undergo kosher processing. Again, since this is encountered mainly by people who work in slaughterhouses or receive such eggs, they should ask a rabbi what needs to be done with eggs found inside a hen, and how. Chickens sold for meat today do not have eggs inside them. They are broilers, about two months old, and have not yet reached egg-laying age. A hen starts laying eggs at around five or six months old. So this does not normally arise with those chickens, but rather with the laying hens we mentioned, or if someone raised a hen in their yard and later had it slaughtered. Eggs may be found inside it, in which case the laws concerning eggs found inside a hen apply. Some have a custom when boiling several eggs in a pot: before taking the pot off the burner, they light a piece of paper from the flame and throw it into the pot with the eggs. Why? We say that perhaps one of the eggs contains blood. To keep it from rendering the pot non-kosher, the taste should be impaired. Today

10:43 Speaker 2 Nowadays, since most eggs—almost all of them—are not fertilized, people are less particular about this. But some are still careful, even today, to put paper in the pot so that it counts as ash cooked with the eggs. There is another practice not to cook a single egg on its own, because if it contains blood, it could render the pot non-kosher. So people put in several eggs, so that the kosher eggs are in the majority. People are less particular about this nowadays as well, for the same reason: today’s eggs are generally not fertilized. The Gemara mentions that some had a practice not to cook an even number of eggs together, out of concern for various harmful things, witchcraft and the like. But in Eretz Yisroel they were not concerned about this. The Gemara itself says, “In the West, they were not concerned about pairs.” “The West” means the western side. The Gemara, the Babylonian Talmud, was written in Babylonia, and Eretz Yisroel was to the west of Babylonia. So when the Gemara wants to refer to Eretz Yisroel, it says “in the West.” In other words, in Eretz Yisroel they were not concerned about pairs. That is why, in Eretz Yisroel, people are not particular about this and cook an even number of eggs as well. They are not concerned about pairs, because, as our Sages say, the concern applied only outside Eretz Yisroel; in Eretz Yisroel there is no reason for it at all. Although we know that blood may not be eaten or drunk, blood between the teeth may be swallowed as long as it has not come out of the mouth. So if a person feels some bleeding between his teeth, he does not have to spit it out. As long as the blood is between the teeth, he may swallow it. But if it comes out—for example, someone eats an apple and, after taking a bite, sees a red stain on the part still in his hand, remnants of

13:11 Speaker 2 blood—he must peel off and remove the parts of the apple with blood on them. That is considered blood that has left the mouth. While the blood was between his teeth, he was permitted to swallow it. But once the blood has come out and is on the fruit—an apple or any other fruit, though usually an apple, because it is harder and blood is more likely to stick to its flesh—he must, of course, remove the part with the blood. He may not eat it, because this is blood that has left the mouth, unlike blood between the teeth, which may be swallowed. The prohibition against eating blood applies to birds and land animals, but not to fish. If there is some blood on a fish, strictly speaking it may be eaten. But there must be some visible indication, so that anyone who sees him eating the blood will know that it is fish blood and not the blood of another animal. There is also the mitzvah of covering the blood after slaughtering a wild animal or a bird. The blood of a domesticated animal is not covered. If someone slaughters a wild animal or a bird, he must cover the blood. The mitzvah falls on the shochet, but the shochet may give someone else the honor of performing it. Usually, at kapparos before Yom Kippur, the shochet gives the person who brings the chickens for slaughter the honor of performing the mitzvah of covering the blood and reciting the blessing over covering the blood with earth. Covering the blood is a mitzvah in its own right. Although it falls on the shochet, he may give someone else the honor. The verse says, “Whoever hunts a wild animal or a bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.” From this we learn that the mitzvah falls on the shochet, though he may also give someone else the honor.