2,325. The Prohibition Against Eating Blood

Maachalos Assuros 5:15

If a person tore an animal open, or if he slaughtered an animal that was found to be a treifa, and a live fetus that had been carried for nine months was found inside, it must be ritually slaughtered in order to be permitted; the slaughter of the mother is not efficacious. If the fetus didn’t gestate to full term, it’s prohibited even though it was found alive in the treifa’s womb because it’s like one of the mother’s limbs. If a fetal animal stuck its head out and then returned it, after which the mother was slaughtered, the slaughter has no impact on the fetus. Rather, the young is considered to have been born and it requires ritual slaughter.

Maachalos Assuros 6:1

If someone intentionally eats an olive-sized volume of blood, he is liable to the penalty of kareis (spiritual excision); if he eats it accidentally, he must bring a sin offering. The Torah is explicit that one is only liable for eating the blood of a domesticated or wild animal, or a bird, be they of a kosher or a non-kosher species. Leviticus 7:26 says, “You may not eat any blood from a bird or an animal in all your dwellings.” A wild animal is included in “animal” per Deuteronomy 14:4-5, “These are the animals that you may eat: the ox... the gazelle, the deer....” One is not liable if he eats the blood of fish, locusts, creeping things, swarming things or humans. One is therefore allowed to eat the blood of kosher fish and locusts, even if he collects it in a vessel and drinks it. Blood from non-kosher fish and locusts is prohibited because it comes from their bodies like the milk from a non-kosher animal. Blood from creeping things is like their bodies, as was discussed in chapter 2.