daf yomi arcade · chullin 78 · 2026-07-17
אוֹתוֹ וְאֶת בְּנוֹ
הֲדַרַן עֲלָךְ בְּהֵמָה הַמְקַשָּׁה — a new perek opens today, and it opens with a table: twelve cases of an animal and its offspring slaughtered on one day — non-sacred or consecrated, outside the Temple courtyard or within it — each closed with the same drumbeat: וְהַשֵּׁנִי סוֹפֵג אֶת הָאַרְבָּעִים, the second absorbs the forty. The clerk's verdict stamps survived. The case files did not. You are handed seven sealed dockets: read the stamps, hear the witnesses, and set the four dials until your reconstruction matches the record.
Two animals — a mother and her offspring — were slaughtered on one day. Only these stamps remain:
Your reconstruction, live — flip the dials and the animals move.
וְהָאָב?
One question no docket in the ledger answers: every case says אוֹתוֹ וְאֶת בְּנוֹ — but is the father ever in the dock? On the daf's second side, Ḥananya says the prohibition binds males and females alike; the Rabbis say females only — learning it from the mother bird on the nest, and from the word itself: ״בְּנוֹ״ – מִי שֶׁבְּנוֹ כָּרוּךְ אַחֲרָיו — "its offspring": the one whose young clings to it — excluding the male, whose young does not cling to him (Chullin 78b).
the clerk's assessment
dockets sealed on the first stamp
You reopened seven. Here is the Mishna's complete table; every row links to its line.
| First animal | Second animal | First: verdict | Second: verdict | Line |
|---|
Every stamp above is straight from the Mishna on Chullin 78a, which opens the fifth perek, Oto v'et Beno: the prohibition of slaughtering an animal and its offspring in one day (Leviticus 22:28) applies in the Land and outside it, with and without a Temple, to non-sacred and consecrated animals — and then the Mishna works the permutations, docket by docket. Before the perek even begins, the daf finishes the previous chapter with a lovely detour: why may one paint a fruit-shedding tree with red paint, when marking trees was an Amorite practice? So that passersby will see it and pray for it — just as the metzora cries ״טָמֵא טָמֵא״ so the masses will seek mercy on his behalf (78a:1–3). The Gemara then digs under the Mishna's table: how do we know the prohibition covers consecrated animals at all, why the offspring of diverse kinds is included from the word ״אוֹ״, and — Ḥananya against the Rabbis — whether fathers are bound by it, or only mothers, like the mother bird on the nest.
Part of the Daf Yomi Arcade — a new game from every daf. Texts and links via the Sefaria API.