Bitul: The Concept of Nullification - Rabbi Shlomo Cohen

[Music] in today's class I want to explain to you a very important principle in the laws of caches and that is the principle of what's called little bittle means a nullification we have a rule in all Jewish law that we follow the majority we go after the majority it's true in our based in and it's also true in the kitchen if things get mixed up together we follow the majority they say that the great review kita agar once met a priest and the priest said them there's a rule in your Torah that you go after the majority if so we the Christians we're the majority so you should be following us and doing what we're doing said Rebecca Vega when do we follow the majority when there's a doubt when it's a question then we have to follow the majority opinion but where there's no question that we don't follow the majority we go after what we know to be the truth if the majority were to come and tell me now that the sun is shining and it's the middle of the night I don't follow the majority because I know that it's not the day right now so this rule of following the majority is wherever we have a case of a doubt therefore let's go in based it right when base enough to make a decision it's three Diane him day to have one opinion and one has a dissenting opinion the dine with a dissenting opinion has to be me battle his opinion and follow the ruling of the two that there's the two other dynam that are with it with him because they are the majority so the same works in the kitchen but in the kitchen we have an extra protection we want to know that there is 60 times the Izza in order for it to be nullified what does that mean let's say I have a pot of chicken soup cooking on the fire and a little kid comes along and sprinkles a few drops of his milk into that chicken soup so if the chicken soup is six the volume of the chicken soup is 60 times the volume of the milk that fell into it then we say that the milk is nullified in the mixture it's Battelle in the mixture and you can drink the soup the soup is kosher there's no problem of meat and milk but if the amount of milk that fell in if you don't have 60 times the volume of the amount of milk that fell into the chicken soup then the chicken soup will become awesome it'll be a mixture of meat and milk and it'll be awesome to eat that so it's so a big question would arise in any case of bikal because in the case a let's let's take a case where I have a milky pot a milky pot which is a been yomo a been youma means it was used in the last 24 hours for cooking milk and i by mistake cook my chicken soup in that milky pot so now as I'll tell us that the taste of the milk that was absorbed in the walls of the pot is going to come out into the chicken soup and make it also make it a mixture of meat and milk because Tom ke car the taste of the milk that's absorbed in the sides of the pot is like milk itself and therefore the mixture is going to be a mixture of meat and milk together but maybe the amount of milk that's absorbed in the side of the pot may be the amount that's going to come out into my chicken soup it's less than 60 times the volume of the chicken soup that's cooking in the pot and therefore maybe it would be nullified so the rule is that thing is really we have no idea how much taste is absorbed in the size of the milky pot we presume that the whole volume of the walls of that milky pot is absorbed with milk and the mathematicians will tell you that it's not possible to have a pot where the contents of that pot will be 60 times the volume of the pot itself the thing is not possible it is possible but the walls of the pot would have to be very very thin it's certainly something that we wouldn't find in any of our normal pots and pans all our pots you can presume that the void the inside volume of the pot is less than 60 times the volume of the walls of the pot and therefore in any case were you were to cook for example chicken soup in a milky pot that was Avignon mo the chicken soup is going to become austere and we wouldn't say that no the taste that came out is nullified is Battelle in the chicken soup only where we have the case I mentioned before a drop of milk for example is poured into chicken soup that's cooking on the fire accidentally in such a case if wind can see that the chicken soup the volume of the chicken soup is 60 times the volume of the milk that fell in then we would say that that milk is nullified it's Bikel and you'd be able to drink the soup and if it's more than we wouldn't even have a mixture of meat and milk but there are certain cases which we have to know where the rules of bittle the rules of analysis don't apply those cases are for example one of the cases is you're not allowed to do this you're not allowed to be in the battle is a letup Hillier in the case that we spoke about before you have the chicken soup cooking on the fire and someone dropped a bit of milk in let's say that the volume of the chicken soup is less than 60 times the volume of the milk that was spilt in so now maybe if I take a little bit of more chicken soup and fold it in and spit it in so now that I do have 60 times the amount of milk maybe bittle can work no you can't do bit allaha kilobit elizabe da vida loca if a situation occurs then we look at the situation and we see if there is bittle if there's nullification if the ISA has disappeared but if something gets mixed in together and there is not bitl there is not 60 so to add in something like Attila and say na now it's Patel that were not allowed to do in such a situation the rules are rules of beetles don't apply another case where the rules of beetle don't apply is in the case of what's called a birria a whole creation of birria is literally a creation let's say God forbid a fly fell into your chicken soup while it's cooking on on the fire maybe you have this chicken soup is 60 times the volume of the fly but the fly is a whole creation it's a whole creation while that whole creation is somewhere in my chicken soup if I can't find it even though the volume of the chicken soup is 60 times the volume of that fly the whole chicken soup becomes awesome I have to look around and find the fly and take it out once I've taken the fly out then I can save maybe the volume of the chicken soup is 60 times the volume of that fly and even though there's a trace taste that's been absorbed into the chicken soup it would be allowed because of the rules of bittle but as long as the flies in there the rules of little don't apply that works not just with a whole creation like a fly also with a part of a fly a part of the creation if a leg a wing fell into the soup and it's still there then you have to get it out the world's rules a little wouldn't apply again even though the volume of the chicken soup sixty times the volume of that leg or wing of the fly by the way if you were to by mistake by a mistake puree that chicken soup and then everything was crushed and mashed up then you would be able to apply little bit again that wouldn't be allowed to do that in a hot killer if you did it by mistake you didn't realize it didn't know yet that the fly had fallen in and only after if someone told you then the soup would be allowed and you would be we would apply the rules of little another case where little doesn't apply is with what is in the case of what's called a hacky ha ha royally cabbage a respectable piece which in itself you would be able to serve to a guest ash little for example is a piece that in itself is fitting to honor a guest with a large meatball is something that is fitting to honor a guest so if one of those was tray if you had a tray to meatball mixed in with kosher meatballs then we wouldn't apply the rules of bitl because there are pieces here there are big pieces here which are fitting to honor a guest with another rule another side rule if you like in the lockers of a hockey car oil it cabin where you have a piece that is fitting to honor someone with like we said the schnitzel or the meatball it has to be that that piece is awesome because of itself that means that the meat boys for example made of non kosher meat the meat baller got mixed in or the schnitzel is one that the schnitzel is itself not kosher meat but if the reason why this piece is also is not because of itself because if something else had got mixed in with it then we don't consider it as a hearty car oil in Quebec for example if you had the meatball one meatball a kosher meatball and some non kosher fat fell on that one kosher meatball and you don't have 60 times that piece of fat in the meatballs and now the whole meatball has become it's awesome that meatball were then to get mixed up with more than 60 other meatballs so they will all be they should be should be that they're all tres because that meatball is a bit is the cutter has a royal it Quebec the piece that you'll be able to serve to a guest by itself but seeing as here it's not also because of itself but because if something got mixed in together with it with it the rule doesn't apply and here it would be better the exception to this rule which is very important is meat and milk when meat and milk get Mick gets mixed together we consider it as if the piece is also because of itself and not because of something else that was mixed in and therefore if it's a respectable piece it would never be nullified even if you have more than 60 the example of this would be that meatball that a small piece of small amount of milk fell onto it you don't have 60 in the meatball against the milk so now the whole meatball becomes also because of bosses that I love because of meat and milk that are mixed together but it's not also because of itself it's because of the mixture if that meatball gets mixed into 70 other meatballs it's not battle even though against the amount of milk I do have 60 seeing as the meatball is also because of meat and milk that's mixed together it's considered as if it's also because of itself and therefore as it's the police that is royal iske bed it's fitting to honor a guest with it's never going to be nullified at all and if it falls into my seventy other meatballs the whole mixture becomes awesome another place where we don't say the rules of bitl is in what we call a devotional material something which in the future is going to become permitted anyway an example of this would be let's say that someone cooked intentionally on Shabbat challans god forbid so that's Shalom the halacha love that cholent is that the person who cooked it is never allowed to eat it but someone else the / who didn't cook it even though it was maybe cooked for them that other person can eat that challans straight away after Shabbat as soon as Shabbat goes out they're able to eat that children that was made for them on Shabbat itself they're not allowed to but straight after what after Shabbat they are it's interesting there's a difference between whether a non Jew cook that food for you or whether a Jew cooked it for you if a non Jew cooked it for you then you have to wait after Shabbos for the time it would take to cook that food so you're not benefiting in any way from the work that the non Jew did for you but where a Jew did it for you you can eat it straight away after Shabbat why the difference the difference is that we're a non Jew does it for you seeing as we're very lenient sometimes with what non Jews can do for us on Shabbat we might come next Shabbat to tell the non Jew to do it for us again because we benefited from what he did that we were able to eat straight up with who eat straight away after Shabbat the food that he cooked therefore has out said no you have to wait the time it would take to the nandu to cook it after Shabbat but in the case of a Jew everyone knows you can't ask a Jew to to do something for you on Shabbat and so that with the Jew there's no problem and therefore has I didn't need to make that extra fine that you have to wait the time it would take to cook that food after Shabbat but let's get back to what we're talking about so this cholent that was cooked for you on Shabbat is something that right now you're not allowed to eat it but after Shabbat you will be able to eat it that's a devotional material so if that chante were to get mixed up with a kosher cholent of children that was cooked before Shabbat that it's supposed to be cooked so now even if you had 60 times the children that was cooked that is so that was made on Shabbat for you we wouldn't apply the laws of nullification we'll say no seeing as you can wait until after Shabbat and then the whole mixture will be permitted anyway so you wait till after Shabbat and we don't need to apply now the rules of nullification another example of a devotional material something that's going to become committed later on the gomorrah says is that is that is the egg that was laid on Yom Tov an egg that was laid on you on til you're not allowed to eat it on you on till it becomes moocs it's considered as mooks on Johnson even though you allowed to cook on Young Turk you wouldn't be allowed to cook that egg and eat it on Yonkers because it's no lad it's something that was just created on your back straight after Shabbat are still on til you are allowed to eat the egg again it's another example of a devotional material it's something that right now you're not allowed to eat later on you're going to be allowed to eat also here we don't apply the laws of nullification we don't apply the laws of Bittle and if that one egg where they get mixed up with other eggs even if you have sixty times the volume of that one egg we wouldn't apply the laws of Bittle and the whole mixture would be awesome you have to wait until after your to wear anyway the whole thing is going to become mutter the last example I want to tell you of the last case of a limitation to the laws of Bittle is what's called a mime it that's a stabilizing agent they're stabilizing agents which are mixed into foods of arts things like rennet which is mixed into cheese's which is a very very powerful powerful chemicals that come from the stomach of animals in its original source which are mixed in to make the cheese's come hard and give them different tastes a gelatine is also a type of stabilizing agent these things things they have a very powerful effect on the food that they get mixed up in even if you do have 60 times the volume of them they're never considered as battle as a sin alla fine and therefore rennet that was made from a non kosher animal makes the whole cheese non kosher gelatine also if it was made from a non kosher animal there's a big argument about gelatin there are types of gelatine than a kosher and types of gelatine that are not there are arguments about wedding whether whether a gelatine that was made from non kosher animals can can be kosher or not without getting into that gelatine that is not kosher is never going to become a nullified in a mixture it's not going to be battle ever because it's a powerful chemical agent stabilizing agent and even if you have sixty times its volume it will never be considered as being better so those agenda that that's a basic look at the the laws of nullification and when they are plaque thank you