Study Bekhorot folio 6B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
הכי קאמר: דבר הבא ממעלי הגרה וממפריסי הפרסה לא תיכול, תלמוד לומר: ״גמל... טמא הוא״ — הוא טמא, ואין טמא הנולד מן הטהור טמא אלא טהור.
This is what it is saying: You should not eat a being that comes from one of those animals that chew their cud and have split hooves if it itself does not have the signs of being kosher. To counter this, the continuation of the verse states: “The camel…is impure for you” (Leviticus 11:4). This indicates that a camel itself is non-kosher, but a non-kosher animal that is born from a kosher animal is not non-kosher; rather, it is kosher.
רבי שמעון אומר: ״גמל״ ״גמל״ שני פעמים, אחד גמל הנולד מן הגמלה, ואחד גמל הנולד מן הפרה.
R' Shimon says it is stated: “Camel” (Leviticus 11:4), “camel” (Deuteronomy 14:7), teaching the term two times with regard to the prohibition of consumption. This teaches that both a camel that is born from a camel and a camel that is born from a cow are non-kosher. According to R' Shimon, a non-kosher animal born to a kosher animal is forbidden for consumption, in contrast to the ruling in the Mishnah.
ורבנן, האי ״גמל״ ״גמל״ מאי עבדי ליה? חד לאסור עצמו, וחד לאסור חלבו. ורבי שמעון, לאסור חלבו מנא ליה? נפקא ליה מ״את הגמל״. ורבנן, ״אתים״ לא דרשי.
The Talmud asks: And as for the Rabbis in the baraita, who disagree with R' Shimon, what do they do with this repetition of “camel,” “camel”? The Talmud answers that one of the verses is written to prohibit the camel itself and one is written to prohibit the female camel’s milk. The Talmud asks: And as for R' Shimon, from where does he derive that a camel’s milk is forbidden? The Talmud answers: He derives it from the phrase “the camel [et hagamal].” The verse could have stated just the term “hagamal.” The addition of the word “et” teaches that the prohibition applies also to its milk. And the Rabbis do not interpret instances of “et” as a means to derive new halakhot; they consider it to be an ordinary part of the sentence structure and not a source for exegetical exposition.