Commentary on al-Fāsī: On the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Ḥullin

Chapter 2

It was taught, one who wishes to eat from a living animal cuts off an olive-size piece of flesh from the place of slaughter and salts it well and washes it well and then waits for it [i.e., the animal] to die, and eats it; both non-Jew and Jew are permitted to do this. [b. Ḥullin 33a]

If someone asks: How is eating this item you mentioned permissible? And how can one not acknowledge that this saying was inserted by one of your opponents?

The answer is: As for our opponents, they are not capable of inserting anything in our transmitted traditions, since all of our sages agree that nothing can be added to the Oral Torah, as they examine all the things to which additions might be added, and nothing remained unknown to them from among revealed and hidden things.

As for permitting this item against which you raise objections, it has already been said at the beginning of these Laws [of al-Fāsī] that an animal is considered prohibited until the method of its slaughtering becomes clear, and if it was slaughtered [properly], it is considered permitted until it becomes clear that something [else] made it prohibited. This is an established ruling, which is not called into question.

If someone would [then] ask: If that is the case, what is the meaning of the following: “Both Jews and non-Jews are permitted to do this”? Who prohibited it for the non-Jews? We see that they do even more serious things to their animals! Some of them take [flesh] from sheep while they are still walking. And some of them cut off a limb and take from that, and what remains [of the animal] is screaming. And some of them eat [a piece of] the animal raw, while it is still alive, and these are those who castrate the animals. So how can you say: “He waits for it to die, [and eats it; both non-Jew and Jew are permitted to do this]”?

The answer is: All those [cases] that you have mentioned [actually] violate the law, since when the sons of Noah were commanded to observe the seven laws, this was one of them, namely, that they shall not eat flesh torn from a living animal, and everything [you have mentioned] falls under this category of law.