daf yomi arcade · chullin 77 · 2026-07-16
סְמוֹךְ מִיעוּטָא דְּנִדְמֶה לְמֶחֱצָה דִּנְקֵבוֹת
A slaughtered ewe turns out to be carrying a placenta. Was there a lamb no one saw? A firstborn drops its afterbirth before the birth itself is witnessed — is a hidden, sanctified newborn hiding inside it? The mishna never checks. It counts. Jewish law follows the majority — so the whole question becomes: which bucket is the herd really in? Rav Ika bar Rav Ami does the arithmetic on 77b. Today, you do it with your hands.
The page opens still inside yesterday's sugya: are the sinews on a snapped leg-bone counted as covering "flesh"? Rav Pappa corners Rabba with Reish Lakish's stricter view and Rabba goes silent — until the Gemara explains that Rabbi Yoḥanan himself backed down: ״אַל תַּקְנִיטֵנִי, בִּלְשׁוֹן יָחִיד אֲנִי שׁוֹנֶה אוֹתָהּ״ — "don't provoke me, I teach it as a lone opinion" (77a:4).
Then a real case: a bone broke and poked through the skin, with one splinter (kurtita) missing. It sat on Abaye's desk for three pilgrimage festivals before he had Sages enough on hand to rule. Rava, whose "knife was sharp," disposed of it in one line: ״מָה לִי נְפַל, מָה לִי אִיתֵיהּ?״ — what difference does it make if the splinter fell out or stayed put? — either way, if flesh still covers most of the bone, the baraita already permits it (77a:5–6, citing 76b).
Ravina wasn't satisfied. He kept pushing on how little "flesh covering the bone" can mean:
Only the ring-cut made it to a verdict — the rest stand exactly as Ravina left them, אִיבַּעְיָא לְהוּ, open questions on the daf itself.
the mishna · חוּלִּין ע״ז א
Found after slaughter
A "hearty soul" may eat it. It carries no impurity at all — not food-impurity, not carcass-impurity — unless someone actually intends to eat it, which activates food-impurity only.
Chullin 77a:11
Partly emerged first
Forbidden outright — a placenta beginning to emerge is סִימָן וָלָד, a sign the fetus's head may already have "been born," which the slaughter can no longer permit.
Chullin 77a:12
Firstling or hekdesh?
A firstling's placenta: toss it to the dogs. A consecrated animal's: it must be buried. Never at a crossroads, never hung on a tree — that's דַּרְכֵי הָאֱמוֹרִי.
Chullin 77a:13
the scale · play it yourself
One rule runs the whole mishna: אָזְלִינַן בָּתַר רוּבָּא — go after the majority. Sort a hundred births into a bucket that would carry a concern and one that wouldn't. Whichever bucket is bigger, that's how the whole herd is treated.
Any number here is a genuine מִעוּט (minority) — the Gemara never puts a figure on it. Slide anywhere in range and watch what happens to the bucket below.
one more line, before the burial
Why is burying a placenta at a crossroads, or hanging it on a tree, forbidden as דַּרְכֵי הָאֱמוֹרִי — the ways of the Amorite — while burying it plainly is not? Abaye and Rava give the rule that decides it, and every case after: כׇּל דָּבָר שֶׁיֵּשׁ בּוֹ רְפוּאָה אֵין בּוֹ מִשּׁוּם דַּרְכֵי הָאֱמוֹרִי — anything with a real, reasoned purpose behind it is not superstition, even if it looks like it (77b:15). The Gemara immediately tests the rule on a tree that keeps shedding its fruit — red paint and a load of stones — and the argument is still running when this side of the daf ends (77b:16). It's picked back up, and resolved, on the next daf: the Sealed Dockets game.
Chullin 77 closes out the sinews-and-tereifa sugya that began the day before, then opens a new mishna on placentas found inside a slaughtered animal. The Gemara traces every ruling to its root: a verse (Deuteronomy 14:6) that includes the placenta in "you may eat," a dispute between Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Yoḥanan over whether a placenta found alongside an actual fetus still carries the concern for a second, unseen one, and finally Rav Ika bar Rav Ami's rov/miut arithmetic — the same move this page hands you the controls for.
Part of the Daf Yomi Arcade — a new game from every daf. Texts and links via the Sefaria API.