Eduyos 2:2-3

Eduyos 2:2

Rabbi Chanina the deputy kohein gadol said that he never saw an animal’s hide being taken to the place of burning. Rabbi Akiva inferred from this that if one skinned a firstborn animal and it was found to be unfit, the kohanim could still benefit from its hide. The Sages say that failure to see something is not proof that it never happened. Rather, they say, such a hide is taken to the place of burning.

Eduyos 2:3

Rabbi Chanina also testified regarding a small village near Jerusalem where a certain old man would lend money to all the residents, write the promissory note in his own handwriting, and the witnesses would sign it. The practice was brought to the Sages’ attention and they permitted it. Incidental to this we learn that a wife may write her own get and her husband may write his own receipt because a get is only validated by the signatures of the witnesses. Finally, Rabbi Chanina testified that if a (ritually-unclean) needle is found in a sacrifice’s meat, the knife and one’s hands are ritually clean but the meat is unclean; if the needle was found in the animal’s dung (in its intestines), everything is clean.