Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Everyday Judaism Podcast.

00:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, good morning everybody. Welcome back to the Everyday Judaism Podcast. It is so wonderful to be here today. We are going to continue part two of the laws of salting. Last week we discussed the first half of the simmon, simmon number 36. And what we discussed was the very basic idea that every animal, every kosher animal that is slaughtered according to halacha and the way the Torah tells us to slaughter an animal, after it's slaughtered it needs to be checked to ensure that it is indeed kosher and that there weren't any defects and any type of blemishes internally that would render it non-kosher. So it's a kosher animal slaughtered properly. You checked it, everything is fine.

01:00
Now comes the process of extracting the blood, which is what we call salting. So we have kosher salt, which is a little bit more coarse than regular, the fine salt and what we do is it's a very simple process First it needs to be soaked in warm water for about a half hour and then, not more than 24 hours we said that because that would lock it in Not more than 24 hours. We said that because that would lock it in and then, after the half hour, you wash off the entire piece of meat or chicken and then you salt it finely on all sides, thank you so much. And then you rinse it off after the salting process is done, and then you can. And how long did we say? Anybody remember how long does it need to be salted? For? No, it needs to be salted. Yes, for a half hour. Right, for one hour. Right, one hour is the appropriate If someone's in a rush. Then they said 24 minutes, I believe it was. Yes, a half hour at least. Right, one hour. Right, one hour is the appropriate If someone's in a rush. Then they said 24 minutes, I believe it was 24 minutes, but 26. 26 minutes, okay, very good, thank you. So it's supposed to be for an hour. And that way it extracts all the blood and then you rinse off the entire, all the salt. You rinse off all of the areas that have any remnants left.

02:29
Okay, now we're talking about different parts of the body. Last week, a question came up in the Ask Away about what do we do with the heart? What do we do with the brain? What do we do with the brain? All these different parts that are densely blood-filled need to be to answer that question. They need to be cut in all of the chambers, in all of the areas that have blood. It needs to be drained in a way that it will pull out and then it's salted both on the outside and in the inside. Okay, usually in chicken it doesn't need to be, all you know, the outside and the inside. This needs to be in the outside and the inside. A piece of meat, a regular meat from a cow, doesn't need to be salted in the inside. There is no inside, it's one big block of meat.

03:26
Okay, we are up to halacha number 15. Harosh, the head must be cut into pieces before it is soaked. Tzrichen l'chotcho kodem shuria v'likach ha-samach, and to take the brain, v'likra ha-sakrum sholav, and to tear the membrane that is on it, which is the outer layer, and it needs to be soaked and salted by itself, separately from the head. The head needs to be salted both inside and outside. The head needs to be salted both inside and outside. וִיִּחֹלֶן לְמֹלְכֹוּ גַם אַל הַסַּעָרְוֹש. It can also be salted on the ears. You don't need to pluck out the ears in order to salt it. You can salt it on top of the ears.

04:17
Halacha, number 16. Number 16. עַצ Number 16, if a bone has marrow within it, if the bones are still attached to the meat, then you may salt them as is, together with the meat. But if the bone was separated from the meat, you should salt them separately. This means the bone should be salted separately and you should not remain alongside the meat while in the salt. Okay, so you put it in a separate area. Halacha number 17.

05:05
Ragli behemos, tzvichim lachtoch, rashi atlafim atlafayim kodem hashiria. When salting the legs of the animal, one must cut off the tips of the hooves before soaking them. Leman yuchal adam lozov mehem, so that the blood can drain out from them. As we mentioned in other areas, in other parts of the animals, the person who's doing the salting has to position them in a manner that will enable the blood to drain out. And again, you can consult them with the legs, even with the hairs still attached to the leg. That's fine. Yud Ches.

05:55
Halacha number 18. Chaylev Tzrichim likra kodam ashria sheyetz yihadam mimeno. One must tear open the heart. Sorry, not chaylev halayev. Open the heart, sorry, not chileb the heart. The heart must be cut open before soaking so that the blood should come out of it. And this is again we're going to see the common theme with all different parts of the animal's body. Before they are salted, they need to be opened so that it can drain out the blood Again.

06:26
The Torah prohibits us. The Torah in Leviticus, chumash VeYikra. The Torah tells us you cannot eat the blood, any blood, not human blood, not animal blood and therefore we're so cautious in our simon here to learn exactly how this is done. Now, before you go ahead and do this in any specific situation, make sure that you ask halakhic authority for practical advice in exactly how this is done. The kitzer here gives us a very abridged general outline, just so we have the concepts. We may not know how to operate our day-to-day lives from the Kitzer here, but we're at least getting concepts. And that's what we want to do. We want to open up our minds to the ideas of what's going on.

07:14
In the background of halacha Areya, which is the lungs, noagim gamkein l'chotcha. It is customary to cut the lungs as well before salting them and to open up its larger tubes Before soaking it. Halacha number 20. The liver, and we know the liver has the most blood. There's a lot of blood, there's a lot of blood inside the liver. This is halacha number 20.

07:54
Therefore, initially, it cannot be made fit for cooking by the salting process alone. Rather, it must be roasted over a fire, but it needs to be cut very well first ולהניחה בחיתוך על האש, and have the cut parts open on top of the fire למען ישה ועש היטב כל אדם שבו, so that the fire beneath draws out all of the blood that's in it. ומדיחן עושה קודם, שמניחן עושה. And one must על העש. And one must rinse the liver really well before placing it over the fire. When it's on the fire, open with the cuts facing the fire, you salt it really well while it's placed over the fire and you roast it until it is fit for being eaten. Afterwards one rinses it well to clean it from the blood eaten. V'achakach meidichin osa yafe min adam shepolta. Afterwards one rinses it well to clean it from the blood that has been extracted or discharged. V'yesh li'zor lehadich ha'gim ha'pa'amim. And one should be very careful to rinse it three times. Again, there's a lot of blood there, so you've got to really rinse it well. V'achakach y'chol l'levashla. And after which one may cook it as he wishes. Okay, those who enjoy eating liver, it's very particular in halacha how the liver must be roasted before it is ready for to be. It's different than any other part of the animal because it's so rich with blood.

09:44
Now, this interesting thing this has nothing to do with our topic. Nothing to do with our topic, but it's interesting. I have a friend who's a pilot and he does medevac. And what is medevac Basically? Either transporting sick patients or transporting organs, and he has asked me on numerous occasions to travel with him. And on one occasion what he does is he picks up here in Houston. He'll take either the doctor and the nurse or the team and we'll fly to wherever we need to go and pick up the organ. They'll go into the operating room, pick up the harvested organs, bring them back to Houston or wherever it needs to go, and it'll be put in within 90 minutes into the recipient.

10:34
So we went once we traveled to Austin to pick up a heart for a patient. It's interesting, there was also a different aircraft that came, also coming back to Houston, for I think it was the liver. I don't know why they didn't just send it with one. I'm not judging, I'm not asking any questions, but either way. So we came to get the heart and you know I'm an EMT. So I asked the crew can I join you in the operating room? I've never done this before. I've never done it since either. But it was quite a sight to see because this was sadly, it was being harvested from a 15 year old boy who jumped who did cliff jumping into a lake and hit his head on a rock and he was out. So all of his organs because he drowned, his lungs were not able to be, you know, used for another person, but his heart and his liver and his kidneys were all taken for different teams Either way.

11:44
I was there in the room and I stood by the anesthesiologist, which is by his head, and I was looking over the sheet and looking at and seeing this whole unbelief. So the first thing was the hand of Hashem, of how Hashem created our bodies so perfectly, so beautifully, how everything fits so it's perfection on such an amazing level. It's just like this is not talking about a human body, of how everything fits in so perfectly. It's unbelievable To see it from the inside was just absolutely amazing. And then they took out the heart. My team was the heart team and I was watching what they were doing the entire time. So after they took out the heart, it's like it's a heart of a human being and it's soon going to be within 90 minutes. It's going to be in another person's body, a heart in. It's just, it's an amazing thing, the transplant about, you know, it's just a miracle. Either way, one of the things they needed to do before they transport this heart is they need to drain all of the blood out, and by the time they were done, they poured a lot of ice and it basically looked like a piece of chicken. It really did Like, you know, you look at a piece of raw chicken, that's what the heart looked like and they put it into this ice and then boom, we were out back on the plane back to Houston and it was put into another person's heart.

13:20
Now, that's one side of the story. The other side of the story, not the same story, not the same incident. I get a phone call one night at 11.30, 11.45 at night. I get phone calls at crazy hours, but not always after 11 o'clock, and I get this phone call from a friend of mine and he says to me Rabbi, I need you to pray for me. He said I just got a phone call, I'm getting a new heart. He says I have a half hour to be at the hospital. I'm on my way to the hospital Apparently, some donor cyclist motorcyclist I call him donor cyclist and he was in an accident and he has a fresh, young heart.

13:58
And he has a fresh, young heart and I think it's a very, very special thing that he was able to get a fresh, young, new heart. But that's the. You know, I saw what it would look like, you know, before transplant and it's really. It's an amazing, amazing thing to be part of such an experience. I was shooken up for a few days and I came here. Actually, we have some videos online where we talked about it. I was shooken up for a few days and I came here. Actually, we have some videos online where we talked about it.

14:21
I mean, the miracle we say, the blessing that we recite is after we use the restroom For our body to function right, is a miracle and we take it for granted because we only realize when it's not functioning right, when it's not perfect, and we're like well, I have an ache, I have this, this is hurting, this is making noise, this is doing that. This is like. Suddenly we realize the miracles that we live by every single day and it's really we should dance and sing every day. That we live by every single day and it's really we should dance and sing every day that we have a functional body. Thank Hashem. We should sing His praise every single day. Thank he can. Let's continue quickly.

15:00
Halacha number 21 one must be careful to roast the liver only over a fire and not in a shoveled out oven, like an oven that has had coals cleared out of it. Also, one should not wrap it up in paper. It's not like a brisket. You know brisket, you have butcher paper. You don't do that for liver. You must roast it unwrapped, and even poor quality paper, okay. It should not be wrapped like that. Halacha number 22. Be wrapped like that. Halacha number 22. Aval ein limloch kovet kodem atzliya kideruch shemoham basa. However, one may not salt the liver before roasting it like we do for other meats. W'mikol shekein she ein limloch kovet im basa b'yachad. And certainly one should not salt liver together with other meat, because what's going to happen? The salt the one should not salt liver together with other meat, because what's going to happen? The blood is going to go from the liver onto the other meat. Halach number 23.

16:18
Hatchol the spleen Dino k'sharbasa has the same rules that are applying to it, like all other meat. Rak tzvichon lehaseh menu kodem shriya esakrum sha'aleo. But the only exception to it is that before you soak it you need to remove the membrane from upon it. As the membrane is prohibited because of the prohibition of which is the forbidden fats of the animals, you need to take off that membrane also. You need to take off that membrane. Gam tzrichim l'nakron mishom ha'gidin. Also, you need to purge it of the membrane.

16:56
Sinews no tel rosh ha'gid v'moshech hosai. He takes the top of the sinew and pulls it. V'nimshachim imo gimul chutin shebetochu. And three strands from within the spleen come along with it. ויצורך לזורך שלא יפסיק שום חוט. And you have to be careful that no strand of the membrane breaks. ואים נפסק צורך לשורש אחריו. And if it does break, you need to root it out. You need to take out those membranes. החלחולס.

17:25
Halacha, number 24. The chalcholes is the rectum, ושארum and the rest of the intestines. One salts them on the outer side where the fat adheres to it. If you want to learn more about that, you can look in the Shulchan Aruch in section Yoredaya, semen, number 90.

17:53
Halacha, number 25. Keiva the stomach of the calf. If the calf has in the stomach some milk, before you soak it pour out the milk that is in its stomach and then it is treated like all other meat. Halacha number 26 what's if they found eggs inside of the bird after they slaughtered it? Regardless of whether they are very, very small or fully developed, including their shell, they require soaking, salting and rinsing. Also, do not salt them together with the rest of the meat that is being salted, together with the rest of the meat that is being salted. Rather, it should be placed in a place, in an area where the blood discharged from the meat is not going to be that is being salted is not going to flow onto them. These eggs, even the fully formed ones that were found inside the bird, may not be eaten together with milk. They have now a rule of being fleshics Meat and not dairy. Halacha number 27. B'asa she'shah ha'gimol me'eis le'eis. Meat that has sat for three full days, 72 hours, without being salted may not be cooked, even if it was subsequently salted, unless it was being soaked in the interim.

19:46
Halacha number 28,. The final halacha of the simon. It is the practice when preparing phal shel ha'acha shehi siru ha'no tzos me'havavin oson ba'ur, that after the feathers are removed, one singes the birds with fire lo ha'sir sanishor to remove the stubble that remains, u'tzrichim li'zor. And one must be very careful. Shelo le'havavan ki im b'shalheves sh'l'kash v'tevin. One has to be very careful not to singe them with any flame besides the flame of burning hay and or straw. Sh'lo yasur sh'l'heves go. It should not make a large flame. Bi'yizoru l'holi cha'ofos. Anah, anah l'bal yishamamu. And a person should be careful to move the birds back and forth within the flame so that they should not become heated and then it's going to lock up and not going to remove be able to remove all the blood from within it. So this concludes Semen number 36.

20:53
The next simmon we're going to discuss next week is the simmon of immersing utensils inside a mikvah. When you have utensils that are made by non-Jews, you need to dip them into a mikvah to ensure that idolatry is not involved in it and that the utensils are clean from a spiritual standpoint before we begin enjoying them. So this concludes Semen number 36 and part two of the laws of Salting. Now we are going to open the floor to your questions on the Ask Away number 22. For those of you who are live on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter or all the other platforms, thank you so much. Please don't forget to click subscribe. Don't forget to click like. Don't forget to click share and join us in our next episode that's going live in about two minutes. Thank you so much. Have a magnificent day everybody. Thank you so much.

22:00 - Intro (Announcement)
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