What About The Blood
‘They Were Not Really Babylonians…’
(Menachos 100a)
In the Beis Hamikdash, a sa’ir was offered as a communal chattas on Yom Kippur. Its meat had to be eaten by kohanim within a day and night of it being offered. Since eating and cooking on Yom Kippur is forbidden, the kohanim had to wait until Yom Kippur ended before they could cook and eat it. They then had to finish eating it by dawn.
A Friday Yom Kippur
Before the set calendar of Hillel, when the new moon was sanctified based on the testimony of witnesses, Yom Kippur would sometimes fall out on Friday. If it did, the kohanim had limited options. They couldn’t cook or eat it on Friday, but they also couldn’t cook it the following day, which was Shabbos. R. Yose (mishnah, 99b) said the Babylonians (i.e., kohanim of Babylonian descent) were not very particular and used to eat the korban meat raw. Rashi (100a s.v “u’mitoch she’son’in…”), though, writes that eating raw meat is gluttonous.
Takes Offense
Rabbi Yehuda, who was of Babylonian descent, took offense at R’ Yose’s statement maligning his ancestors as gluttons. The Gemara (100a) writes that these kohanim were not really Babylonians but Alexandrians; since, however, there was ongoing enmity between Bnei Eretz Yisrael and Bnei Bavel, the Alexandrians’ objectionable behavior was attributed to Babylonians.
Tosafos (s.v ‘she’son’in…’) finds it difficult to believe that kohanim doing a mitzvah would be viewed as gluttons. After all, considering the time restraints (the korban had to be eaten within a day and night), the kohanim had no choice but to eat the korban raw. If they didn’t eat it, the korban would become nosar.
Tosafos, therefore, explains that the deragatory remark was not directed at their behavior on Yom Kippur. It was directed at their general, all-year-round habit of eating raw meat.
Rinsing And Salting
The Torah (Vayikra 3:17) states: “vechol dam lo sochelu – and all blood you shall not eat.” The Mechaber (Yoreh De’ah 69:1), based on this injunction, rules that a person must first rinse and then salt meat before eating it in order to rid it of blood.
Is this also the din for raw meat? The Mechaber (supra 67:2) rules, based on Tosafos (Chullin 14a s.v “ve’nasbin”), that one can eat raw meat after rinsing it. There is no need to salt it as long as all veins with blood have been removed. Blood that remains in its original place, inside the animal’s organs, is permitted for consumption.
The Rambam (Hilchos Ma’achalos Asuros chap 6:12) disagrees with Tosafos and rules that one must first salt even raw meat before eating it.
Biblical Or Rabbinical
The Shibolei Ha’Leket (Hilchos Issur v’Heter siman 12), citing Rabbenu Avigdor Hakohen, adduces proof to Tosafos’ position from our mishnah, which says that the Babylonian kohanim used to eat the communal chattas on Shabbos night raw when Yom Kippur fell out on Friday. Since heavily salting raw meat on Shabbos is forbidden, evidently the kohanim ate the raw meat unsalted.
The Tosafos Yom Tov in defense of the Rambam (based on the view cited by Tosafos, Shabbos 75b, s.v “ein ibud b’ochlin”) argues that the Biblical law of salting only applies to dressing hides, not to eating meat. The latter is only a rabbinical violation, which was overridden in the Temple when necessary.
