Mesechtas Beitzah

Mesechtas Beitzah is a tractate dealing with the laws of Yom Tov, containing approximately 5 chapters and 39 pages in the Gemara.

At the conclusion of the tractate, it states that "we do not water or slaughter wild animals," meaning that although slaughtering is permitted, one may not slaughter wild animals, but we may water and slaughter domesticated animals.

The Rebbe's Explanation's

The Laws of Shechita

At the end of the masechta it is stated, "We do not water and slaughter the wild animals," meaning, despite it being permitted to slaughter, one should not slaughter wild animals, but we may water and slaughter domesticated animals.

The Gemara asks about the lengthy expression "watering and slaughtering," and explains that the innovation is that one must water the animal before shechita. The Rebbe explains that there are two reasons for this:

1. So that it will be easier to skin, and the hide will not stick to the meat.
2. So that if there is a sircha (adhesion) on the lungs, it will detach, thus avoiding having to declare the animal treif.

Prohibition of Techumin on Yom Tov

The Gemara states:

"The Rabbis taught: These are domesticated and these are wild animals - wild ones are those that go out to pasture in Nissan and graze in the meadows and enter inhabited areas in the first rainfall; and these are domesticated ones - all that go out to graze outside the techum but sleep within the techum."

The Rebbe derives from here that the permission to slaughter applies only to animals within the techum, but one may not go out and take animals from outside the techum to slaughter them.

The Chasam Sofer's Resolution

The Rebbe asks: just as they permitted melachos for food preparation on Yom Tov, they should also permit the prohibition of techumin. He brings the Chasam Sofer's resolution that the prohibition of techumin is not included in the category of melacha, but rather is a new and separate prohibition, and therefore the permission of food preparation does not apply to it.

The Rebbe further asks that apparently the prohibition of techumin was stated regarding Shabbos - "Let no man leave his place on the seventh day" - so from where do we know that it exists on Yom Tov as well? The Rebbe explains the Chasam Sofer's reasoning: since this verse was stated regarding the manna, which did not fall on Yom Tov either, necessarily "the seventh day" is not specific.

Duplicate Mishna

The Rebbe asks why it's necessary to write in Tractate Beitzah that one must water the animal before shechita, when this law is already written in Tractate Tamid: "They watered the Tamid with a golden cup," and vice versa. He resolves this with two distinctions:

1. The need to write it in Tractate Tamid - because in mundane matters one can do as they wish, even things that aren't necessary, unlike in kodshim where unnecessary work is forbidden. Therefore, one might think this isn't considered part of the service, and thus forbidden on Yom Tov.
2. The need to write it in Tractate Beitzah is because specifically with kodshim there is special care that all the meat should go to the mizbeach and all the hide to the kohanim, which is not the case with mundane animals. Also, in the case of a sircha, one shouldn't ruin the animal from being offered on the mizbeach, even though in truth it wasn't attached and one would be needlessly ruining kodshim and destroying its form.

Additional Explanations from The Rebbe

• 39a: One who drew water from an ownerless pit on Yom Tov. Shaarei HaMoadim Part 1, page 180 (page 171)
• 40a: We do not water or slaughter wild animals. Toras Menachem Vol. 34 5722 Part 3, page 251 (page 362)
• 40a: Rashi's explanation regarding "because of the adhesion of the skin." Likkutei Sichos Vol. 6, page 152 (page 153)