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5 [1] According to the Oral Tradition, we learnt that [the intent of] the Torah's statement "Do not partake of the soul together with the meat" [is to] forbid a limb cut off from a living animal. With regard to a limb cut off from a living animal, it was said to Noah [Genesis 9:4]: "But flesh, together with its soul, its blood, you may not eat."
The prohibition against [partaking of] a limb from a living animal applies to kosher domesticated animals, wild beasts, and fowl, but not to non-kosher species. [2] The term *ever* [translated as "limb"] applies both to a limb that has flesh, sinews, and bones, e.g., a hand or a foot, and to an organ that does not have a bone, e.g., the tongue, the testicles, the spleen, the kidneys, the heart, and the like. [There is, however, one difference.] When an organ does not possess a bone, the prohibition [against partaking of] a limb from a living animal applies whether one cut off the entire organ or only part of it. When, by contrast, a limb possesses a bone, a person is not liable [for violating the prohibition against] a limb from a living animal unless he separates it in its complete state, with its flesh, sinews, and bones. If, however, he only removes flesh from the living animal, he is liable for [the prohibition against partaking of] a *trefe* [animal] as explained, and not because of a limb from a living animal. [3] One is liable for lashes only for partaking of an olive-sized portion of a limb from a living animal. Even if one eats an entire limb or organ, if it is the size of an olive, one is liable; if not he is exempt.
If one cut off a olive-sized portion of flesh, sinews, and bones from the limb according to its natural form and ate it, one is liable, even if it possessed only the smallest amount of meat. If, however, one separated a limb which he tore off from a living animal and detached the flesh from the sinews and the meat, he is not liable for lashes unless he eats an olive-sized portion of the meat alone. The bones and the sinews are not included in the olive-sized portion since he changed [the limb's] natural form. [4] When one divides this organ and eats it bit by bit, he is liable if there is an olive-sized portion of meat in what he ate. If not, he is exempt. If he took an olive-sized portion of a limb with flesh, sinews, and bones according to its natural form and ate it, he is liable, even though it became divided inside his mouth before he swallows it. [5] When a person rips a limb from a living animal and causes it to become *trefe* when doing so, he is doubly liable for partaking of it: once for [partaking of] a limb from a living animal and once for [partaking of] a* trefe*. Both of these prohibitions take effect at the same time. Similarly, if one rips fat from a living animal and partakes of it, he is doubly liable: for [partaking of] a limb from a living animal and for [partaking of] fat. If he rips fat from a* trefe* [animal], he is liable for [the violation of] three [negative commandments]. [6] [The following rules apply when] meat is disjoined from an animal and an organ is hanging from it. If it is impossible that this meat will again become a living part of the body, it is forbidden, but one is not liable for lashes for it. [This applies] even though it was not separated [from the animal] until after it was slaughtered. If the animal dies, we consider [the limb] as if it fell off while [the animal] was alive. Therefore one receives lashes for [partaking] of it, because of the prohibition against [partaking of] a limb from a living animal. If, however, the limb could again become a living part of the body and the animal is ritually slaughtered, it is permitted. [7] If one pulled an organ [from its natural position], crushed it, ground it, e.g., one crushed testicles or pulled them from their place [and then slaughtered the animal, the organ] is not forbidden according to Scriptural Law. [The rationale is] that it possesses a trace of life - as evidenced by the fact that it does not decay. Nevertheless, it is forbidden to partake of it as a result of a custom followed by the entire Jewish people from previous generations. For it resembles a limb separated from a living animal. [8] [The following laws apply when an animal's] bone was broken: If the flesh or the skin covers the majority of the thickness of the broken bone and the majority of the circumference of the fracture, it is permitted. If the bone emerged outside [the skin], the limb is forbidden. When the animal or the fowl is slaughtered, one should cut off [the limb] at the place where it is broken and discard it. The remainder of the limb is permitted.
We rule that [the limb] is forbidden until the flesh is healed [in all the following situations]: the bone broke, the flesh covers the bone, but that flesh was crushed or decayed like flesh which a doctor would remove, it is scattered in many different places, there were many perforations within the flesh, the flesh was cracked or pierced like a ring, the flesh was rubbed off from above until only a [thin] peel remained, or the flesh decayed from below around the broken bone to the extent that the flesh surrounding the bone does not touch it. If a person partook [of the limb] in any of these [circumstances], he is liable for stripes for rebellious conduct. [9] When a person inserts his hand into the inside of an animal, cuts off the spleen, one of the kidneys, or the like, but leaves [the severed organ] inside the animal, and then slaughters it, the pieces cut off are forbidden as organs from a living animal although they remained within the animal's womb. If, however, he cut away [a portion of] a fetus within the womb, but did not remove it, and then slaughtered [the mother], the pieces or limbs of the fetus are permitted because they did not emerge [outside the mother].
When a fetus sticks its foreleg or hind leg out of the womb, that limb is forbidden forever, whether one cuts off [the limb] before he slaughters the mother or afterwards. Even if it returns the limb to the womb of the mother and afterwards, [the mother] was slaughtered or the fetus was born and lived for several years, that limb is forbidden as a *trefe*. [The rationale is that] all meat that emerged from its natural position is forbidden as flesh that was separated from a living animal.
[This is derived from the phrase (Exodus 22:30 :] "Meat [from an animal that was] mortally wounded (*trefe*) in the field." [Our Rabbis extrapolated:] When meat comes out to a place that is like a field for it, it becomes *trefe*, as we explained. [10] [When the fetus] sticks out a portion of a limb and a portion remains within, even if it is only the minority of it, the portion which emerged is forbidden and that which remained within is permitted.
If he cuts off the portion of the limb that emerged after it was returned within the animal and the animal was slaughtered, only that portion is forbidden, the remainder of the limb is permitted. If he did not return it to the womb and it remained outside and he cut it off there, the place where he cut it off - i.e., the place on the limb open to the air after the limb was cut off - is forbidden. He must afterwards cut off this portion as well. [This applies] whether he [originally] cut off the portion of the limb before [the mother] was slaughtered or afterwards. [11] Whenever a limb emerges and is cut off before the animal is slaughtered while it is outside, it is considered as a limb from a living animal and one is worthy of lashes for partaking of it. [This applies] even if the fetus dies before [the mother] is slaughtered. If it is cut off after ritual slaughter, one who partakes of it is not liable for lashes, even if it dies. If [the mother] dies and then one cuts off this limb, one who partakes of it is liable for lashes for the prohibition against partaking of a limb from a living animal. [12] [The following rule applies when] a fetus sticks out a limb and that limb becomes forbidden and then the fetus is born. If it is female, we are forbidden to drink its milk because of an unresolved halachic question. For the milk comes from all of the animal's limbs and it has a limb which is forbidden. Hence, it is comparable to milk from a *trefe* animal that becomes mixed with milk from a kosher animal. [13] When a person slaughters a kosher animal that is pregnant and discovers a fetus - whether live or dead - within it, the fetus is permitted to be eaten. Even the placenta is permitted to be eaten.
[The following rules apply if] a portion of the placenta emerged and then one slaughtered the mother. If the placenta was attached to the fetus, the portion which emerged is forbidden and the remainder is permitted. If it is not attached to the fetus, it is forbidden in its entirety, for perhaps the fetus that was in this placenta disappeared and maybe the placenta of the fetus that is found in the womb disappeared. Needless to say, if a fetus is not found in the womb at all, the placenta is forbidden in its entirety. [14] If one finds a living fetus [in the womb of a slaughtered animal] - even though it has been carried for nine months, and it is possible that it will live, it does not require ritual slaughter. Instead, it is acceptable because of the slaughter of its mother. If it steps on the ground, it requires ritual slaughter. [15] If a person ripped open an animal or slaughtered an animal that was *trefe* and found a live fetus that had been carried for nine months, [that fetus] must be ritually slaughtered to be permitted. The slaughter of its mother is not effective.
If the period [of gestation] was not completed, it is forbidden even though it is alive in the womb of the *trefe* animal. [The rationale is that] it is considered as one of the mother's limbs. Whenever an animal thrust its head [out of the womb] and then returned it and [only] afterwards its mother was slaughtered, the slaughter of its mother has no bearing on it, it is considered as if it was born and it must be ritual slaughtered [to be permitted].
Version: Mishneh Torah, trans. by Eliyahu Touger. Jerusalem, Moznaim Pub. c1986-c2007
Source: https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_ALEPH001020101/NLI
License: CC-BY-NC