Meilah 16B

אמר רב יהודה, אמר רב: אכילת שרצים ⁠– לוקה עליו בכזית. מאי טעמא? ׳אכילה׳ כתיב בהו.

§ Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: With regard to eating creeping animals, one is flogged for eating an olive-bulk of them. What is the reason? It is because the term “eating” is written in the Torah with regard to them. The verse states: “And every creeping thing that swarms upon the earth is a detestable thing; it should not be eaten” (Leviticus 11:41). The term “eating” is invariably referring to consuming an olive-bulk.

והתני רבי יוסי בר רבי חנינא קמיה דרבי יוחנן: ״והבדלתם בין הבהמה הטהרה לטמאה ובין העוף הטמא לטהר ולא תשקצו את נפשתיכם בבהמה ובעוף ובכל אשר תרמש האדמה אשר הבדלתי לכם לטמא״⁠ – פתח הכתוב באכילה, וסיים בטומאה.

The Talmud raises a difficulty. But didn’t R' Yosei bar R' Ḥanina teach the following baraita before R' Yoḥanan: The verse states: “You should separate between the kosher animal and the non-kosher, and between the non-kosher bird and the kosher; and you should not make your souls detestable by animal, or by bird, or by anything that swarms on the ground, which I have set apart for you as impure” (Leviticus 20:25). The verse opens with eating creeping animals, in the phrase “You should not make your souls detestable,” and it ends with the ritual impurity of creeping animals: “Which I have set apart for you as impure.”

מה טומאה בכעדשה, אף אכילה בכעדשה. וקלסיה רבי יוחנן, וקשיא לדרב!

The baraita explains: This teaches that just as the carcass of a creeping animal imparts ritual impurity through contact when it is the volume of a lentil-bulk, so too, one is liable for the prohibition of eating a creeping animal when it is the volume of a lentil-bulk. And R' Yoḥanan praised [vekilseih] R' Yosei bar R' Ḥanina for citing this baraita. And this poses a difficulty to the opinion of Rav, who maintains that one is flogged only if he eats an olive-bulk of creeping animals.