Chulin 4:4-5

Chulin 4:4

Let’s say that an animal was experiencing hard labor; the fetus stuck out a leg and someone cut it off, after which he slaughtered the mother. In this case, the severed limb is ritually clean. If he slaughtered the mother and then cut off the limb, then the fetus was in contact with a neveila (and is ritually unclean); this is the opinion of Rabbi Meir. The Sages say that the fetus was in contact with a slaughtered treifa. Just as slaughtering a treifa renders it ritually clean, it is likewise true that slaughtering the animal renders the severed limb ritually clean. Rabbi Meir disagreed with the Sages, saying that if the slaughter of a treifa renders its own body ritually clean, it does not necessarily follow that it renders clean a limb that is not of its own body. Furthermore, how do we know that slaughtering a treifa renders it ritually clean? An unclean animal may not be eaten and a treifa may not be eaten; slaughtering an unclean animal doesn’t render it clean so why should slaughtering render a treifa clean? The Sages replied that if one says this of an unclean animal, which was never fit to it, that doesn’t make it true of a treifa, which was once fit to eat. How do we know that slaughtering an animal that was born treifa renders it ritually clean? Rather, if one says this of an ritually unclean animal, to whom slaughtering is inapplicable, we cannot necessarily say it of a treifa, to whom slaughter is applicable. However, slaughtering a fetus born live after eight months (which is not considered viable) does not render it ritually clean since slaughter is not applicable to it.

Chulin 4:5

If a person slaughtered an animal and found a living or dead eight-month fetus inside it, or a dead nine-month fetus, he may tear it open and extract the blood. (The fetus may be eaten without slaughter but its blood may not be eaten.) If he found a live nine-month fetus, it must be slaughtered and is subject to the prohibition against slaughtering an animal and its young on the same day; this is the opinion of Rabbi Meir. The Sages say that slaughtering the mother renders it fit to eat. Rabbi Shimon Shezuri says that even if the fetus grows up to be eight years old and is plowing the fields, the slaughter of its mother renders it fit to eat without slaughter. If one tore open a cow and found a live nine-month fetus, it requires slaughter because its mother was not slaughtered.