Q&A: Veterinarians and Terefot
Veterinarians and Terefot
Question
Hello Rabbi,
A question occurred to me in the chapter “These Are the Terefot.” The Amoraim discuss the question of when an animal is deemed a tereifah—whether by a majority condition, or by a perforation, and so on. It isn’t clear to me: what does this have to do with the study hall? Why not ask a veterinarian? After all, the question is whether it will live or not, isn’t it? (I mean in their times, not the question of what happens in modern medicine.)
Thank you,
Elad Kutner
Answer
A veterinarian can give an assessment of whether the animal will die, but he cannot give a categorical determination. So someone looking for a categorical determination cannot get it from him. But I completely agree that it is not correct to investigate this in the study hall. One should ask professionals, and all we can arrive at is the best possible assessment. Certainty will not be obtained in the study hall either.
However, Maimonides wrote (Laws of Shechitah 10:13) that regarding terefot in animals, unlike terefot in humans, one does not ask a doctor; rather, this is a law given to Moses at Sinai. According to that, of course, the question does not arise in the first place. There are sources for this in the words of the Sages, but I very much doubt whether they really received a closed list there (for after all, there are disputes regarding terefot, like the one you mentioned). I seem to recall that Rabbi Rabinovitch has an article about this (I think as part of an article on Torah and science).