daf yomi arcade · chullin 88 · 2026-07-27
וְאָנֹכִי עָפָר וָאֵפֶר
"And I am but dust and ashes" — Genesis 18:27, quoted at Chullin 88b:10
The Torah says cover a slaughtered wild animal or bird's blood "with earth" — but what actually counts as earth? The mishna lists real substances: some grow plants, some don't; some are technically dust, some only look like it. Sort sixteen of them into the right bin, then get stranded without any earth at all — once in the desert, once on a ship — and see what the Sages let you use instead.
before you sort
🩸 kisui hadam
"And he shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth" (Leviticus 17:13) — the mitzva to cover the blood of a slaughtered undomesticated animal (chaya) or bird (of) with earth.
🌱 RSbG's rule
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel's principle in the mishna: a substance in which plants grow may be used to cover the blood; a substance in which plants don't grow may not.
📖 the drash
"And cover it" is read as a broad term (any substance); "with earth" narrows it back down to things that are a min afar — a type of earth — even if they aren't literally soil.
🩹 dam hanitaz
Blood that spurts onto the wall of the pit, or that remains on the knife. The daf opens with a three-way machloket about exactly how much of it you must cover.
warm-up · whose blood counts? — Chullin 88a:4–6
A baraita: blood that spurts onto the wall of the pit, or that stays on the knife, must be covered too. Three sages read the word damo ("its blood") differently, and disagree about when you're exempt:
the Rabbis
damo = all its blood. Cover every last bit, spurted or not, no matter what else you've already covered.
Rabbi Yehuda
damo = even a part of its blood. Covering any blood fulfills the mitzva — spurted blood only needs its own covering if it's the only blood there is.
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel
damo = the special blood — the dam hanefesh, the life-blood of slaughter. Cover that, and you're exempt from the rest.
Case A: You already covered the main dam hanefesh. Then you notice a few more drops that spurted onto the wall of the pit. Must you cover those too?
Case B: No blood flowed at the slaughter site at all except a few drops that spurted onto the knife — that spurted blood is the only blood there is. Must you cover it?
activity 1 · sort the covering — Chullin 88a:7–88b:1
The mishna and the baraita that follows it: some substances count as "earth" for covering the blood, some don't. Tap each item, then choose the bin. Every item is real — nothing invented.
מכסין — covers the blood
אין מכסין — does not cover
activity 2 · stranded without earth — Chullin 88b:5–9
Two baraitot describe travelers who need to cover blood but have no earth on hand. What do the Sages say they should do?
🏜️ Scene 1 — the desert. You're walking through the wilderness and slaughter an undomesticated animal. There's no earth here fit to plant in — nothing sprouts in this sand. You have no dirt to cover the blood. What do you do?
🚢 Scene 2 — the ship. You're crossing the sea and slaughter a bird for a meal. There's no earth anywhere aboard. What do you do?
capstone · Avraham's two mitzvot — Chullin 88b:10–11
Rava: as a reward for Avraham Avinu saying to the angels, "And I am but dust and ashes" (Genesis 18:27), his descendants merited two mitzvot built from those very words.
learn the real daf
88a opens by finishing off 87's topic of liquids that issue from ritually impure bodies — a zav's fluids are impure by rabbinic decree since people don't naturally avoid him, while a corpse's fluids (besides its blood) are not, since people do naturally keep away (88a:1–3).
Then the daf turns to dam hanitaz — blood that spurts or stays on the knife — and the three-way machloket between the Rabbis, Rabbi Yehuda, and Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel over how much of it must be covered (88a:4–6). The new mishna follows: what substances may and may not cover blood, capped by Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel's grows-plants principle (88a:7).
The Gemara defines fine vs. thick sand, then a baraita expands and narrows the list via "and he shall cover it" (broad) and "with earth" (narrow), arguing over the correct hermeneutic and landing on "a type of earth" as the real test (88a:8–88b:3). Rav Nachman bar Rav Chisda's grows-plants rule for a chaya or bird's blood gets called nonsense by Rava — until the desert-and-ship baraita defends it, followed by the Beit Hillel/Beit Shammai fight over whether ash counts as earth, a short list of extra substances (coal dust, stibium, chiseling shavings, and some say arsenic), and Rava's closing aggadta about Avraham's "dust and ashes" (88b:4–12).