Zevakhim 72 Annulment of forbidden items in a mixture

Yesterday we began the eighth chapter of our massekhet. It introduces the concept of annulment of mixtures when it comes to sacrificial animals. The Mishnah on TB Zevakhim 70b begins “All the offerings that were intermingled with animals from which deriving benefit is forbidden, e.g., sin offerings left to die, or with an ox that was sentenced to be stoned, even if the ratio is one in ten thousand, deriving benefit from them all is prohibited and they all must die.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Even though these principles of annulment here in our Gemara deal with sacrifices, they have real life application today in the realm of kashrut. I thought I would give you a crash course of the different ratios of annulment  (בִּיטוּל)

When taste is involved, the ratio of annulment is 60:1. For example: if you’re cooking a large part of meat chollent and some milk accidentally spilled into the pot, if there is 60 times more chollent in the pot than milk, then you can consider the milk annulled and you can serve the chollent without violating the law of mixing milk and meat together. (Nevertheless, you still have to kasher the pot afterwards.)

When the mixture is terumah (the tithe given to the kohanim) ratio is 100:1.

When the mixture is kelayim (prohibition against eating the fruit of a tree during the first three years after its planting) or orlah (prohibition of diverse kinds planted in a vineyard) the ratio is 200:1.

In a case of a mixture where involved taste, terumah, kelayim or orlah is not involved, all you need is a simple majority for annulment.

There are some cases where the sages completely block the concept of annulment. One such opportunity a blockage is found on our daf TB Zevakhim 72. When the items are considered extremely important (חָשׁוּב), the items are never annulled in a mixture. There are two subcategories of this type of blockage.

1.    חֲתִיכָה הָרְאוּיָה לְהִתְכַּבֵּד-something that is suitable to give honor with it by placing it before guests. For example, an expensive cut of a steak.

2.    דָּבָר שֶׁבְּמִנְיָן-Something that is sold by count. For example, eggs. In a supermarket you can only by a dozen eggs, 18 eggs, or 24 eggs. You can never ever just by one egg.

The sages limit importance to these items. “And they are: Nuts with brittle shells, and pomegranates from Badan, and sealed barrels of wine, and beet greens, and cabbage stalks, and Greek gourd. Rabbi Akiva adds: Loaves of a homeowner are also in this category.” (Sefaria.org translation)   

The Gemara quotes Rabbi Meir saying, “Rabbi Meir would say: Any item whose manner is to be counted renders its mixture prohibited, as it is considered significant and cannot be nullified.” (Sefaria.org translation)   According to Rabbi Yokhanan, only those things that are exclusively counted renders the mixture prohibited. Reish Lakish holds that Rabbi Meir definition is more expensive. According to him, only those things that are generally sold by count can render the mixture prohibited.