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Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, by D. A. Sola and M. J. Raphall, [1843], at sacred-texts.com
§ 1. The prohibition against slaughtering an animal and its young on the same day [Lev. xxii. 28], is obligatory in the Holy Land, and out of it, during and after the existence of the Temple, with respect to animals slaughtered for profane use [i.e. to eat them], and to those slaughtered as consecrated sacrifices, as follows. When a person slaughtered an animal and its young [on the same day] without the temple-court [not as holy sacrifices, but] as animals slaughtered for profane use though both animals are Cashér, yet in slaughtering the second, he incurred the penalty of the forty stripes. 1 Should he have slaughtered them outside the temple-court as holy sacrifices, he has incurred the penalty of utter excision [כרת] for the slaughter of the first. Both animals are Pasool, and he has moreover incurred the penalty of forty stripes for the slaughtering of each animal. Should he have slaughtered them as חולין [i.e. for profane or ordinary use] within the temple-court, both animals are Pasool; and for the slaughter of the second, he incurred the penalty of forty stripes. If both were consecrated sacrifices, and were slaughtered within the temple-court, the animal first slaughtered is a valid sacrifice, and the person who slaughtered it has not incurred any penalty for so doing; but he incurred the penalty of the forty stripes for the slaughter of the second animal, and that animal is unfit for sacrifice.
§ 2. If the animal first slaughtered was חולין, and the other a consecrated sacrifice, and they were slaughtered outside the temple-court, the first animal is Cashér, and the person who slaughtered it has not incurred any penalty; but for the slaughter of the second he incurred that of the forty stripes, and the animal is an unfit sacrifice. If the first animal was consecrated, and the second חולין, and both were slaughtered outside the temple-court, he who slaughtered the
first incurred the penalty of utter excision, and the animal is an unfit sacrifice; the second animal is Cashér, and for the slaughtering of each, the penalty of the forty stripes has been incurred. If the first animal was חולין, and the second a consecrated sacrifice, and they were slaughtered inside the temple-court, both are Pasool; and for the slaughter of the second, the penalty of forty stripes has been incurred. If the first animal was consecrated, and the second חולין, and they were slaughtered within the temple-court, the first animal is Cashér, and the person who slaughtered it has not incurred any penalty but that of the forty stripes for the slaughter of the second, and that animal is Pasool. If both animals were חולין, and one of them was slaughtered outside, and the second inside the temple-court, the first animal is Cashér, and he who slaughtered it has not incurred any penalty but that of the forty stripes for the slaughter of the second, and that animal is Pasool. If both animals were consecrated sacrifices, and one of them was slaughtered outside, and the second inside the temple-court, the person who slaughtered them has incurred the penalty of excision for the slaughter of the first [both animals are Pasool], and that of the forty stripes for the slaughter of each. If both animals were חולין, and one of them was slaughtered within, and the second without the temple-court, the first animal is Pasool, and he who slaughtered them has not incurred any penalty but that of the forty stripes for the slaughter of the second, but that animal is Cashér. If both were consecrated animals, and one of them was slaughtered inside, and the other outside of the temple-court, the first animal is Cashér, and the person who slaughtered it has not incurred any penalty but that of the forty stripes for the slaughter of the second, and that animal is an unfit sacrifice.
§ 3. When one of the animals was found to be Terefá, or that one had been slaughtered for idolaters, or that one is a cow of a sin-offering, or an ox condemned to lapidation, 2 or a calf whose neck was to be struck off, 3 R. Simeon absolves [the person who slaughtered the second animal on the same day] from any penalty; but the sages hold "That he incurred that [of the forty stripes]." 4 When one of the animals becomes Nebelah by being improperly slaughtered; or when it was killed by a knife being thrust up its nostrils; or that the trachea and œsophagus were forcibly torn off, the law against slaughtering an animal and its young on the same day is not
applicable: When a cow and its calf were bought by two persons, one buying the cow and the other the calf, the first buyer has a right to slaughter his purchase first; but if the other buyer anticipated him in slaughtering his, he has acquired his right. 5 Should a person have slaughtered a cow and her two calves on the same day, he has incurred a penalty of eighty stripes; but if he slaughtered the two calves first, and then the cow, he has only incurred [one] penalty of forty stripes. If he slaughtered [on the same day] a cow and its young, and the calf of that young cow, eighty stripes shall be inflicted on him. If he slaughtered [on the same day] a cow, then the calf of its young, and lastly the young itself, the forty stripes shall be inflicted on him. Symmachus, 6 in the name of R. Meir, saith, "eighty [stripes]." At four periods of the year a seller of cattle is bound to inform the buyer that he had sold the dam or leer young on the same day for the purpose of being slaughtered, viz. on the day preceding the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, on those preceding the first day of Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and of the New Year; and according to R. José the Galilean, also on the day preceding the Day of Atonement in Galilee. R. Jehudah saith, "When is he bound to give that information? Only if there should not be a day's interval between the sale of one of the animals and that of the other; but if there was such an interval, the mentioned information is not required from the seller." Yet R. Jehudah admits, "That in case he sold the dam to a bridegroom, and the young to his bride, he is bound to inform them thereof, because it is to be supposed that both animals will be slaughtered on the same day."
§ 4. On the mentioned four periods [or days], a butcher can be compelled to slaughter cattle against his will. 7 Even if he had an ox worth a thousand dinars, and there was a purchaser for only a single dinars worth of meat, he will be compelled to slaughter it. Hence, should the animal die meanwhile [naturally], the loss 8 falls on the purchaser; but it is not so at other times, for when the animal then dies of itself, the loss falls on the seller [or butcher].
§ 5. The expression of the law, "One day," when treating of the prohibition of slaughtering an animal and its young in one [and the same] day, is to be understood, that the day and the night which
preceded it are to be reckoned together [as forming one day]. For thus was it expounded by R. Simeon ben Zomah, "The term 'one day' is used in the History of the Cosmogony, and also in the precept relative to the prohibition of slaughtering an animal and its young [on the same day], to teach us, that even as in the first instance, the night and the day which followed it made 'one day,' 9 thus also must it be understood in the second or present instance."
338:1 For transgressing the law (Lev. xxii. 28).
339:2 See Exodus xxi. 29.
339:3 Deut. xxi.
339:4 For transgressing the precept, Lev. xxii. 28.
340:5 And the first buyer must wait till the next day to slaughter his.
340:6 Original, סומכוס.
340:7 This treats of a case where a butcher received deposit-money, and agreed to furnish meat.
340:8 Of the deposit-money.
341:9 See Genesis i. 5.