Kosher parchment TB Shabbat 108

Have you ever seen the scrolls that are inside the tefillin? Written on the parchment are verses from the Torah commanding the mitzvah of tefillin, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, Exodus 13:1-10, and Exodus 13:11-16. One probably assumes that all parchment is made out of cowhide, but that is not correct. Today’s daf TB Shabbat discusses which animals may be used to make the parchment.

“The Sages taught: One may write phylacteries on the hide of a kosher domesticated animal, and on the hide of a kosher non-domesticated animal, and on the hides of their unslaughtered carcasses [neveilot], and on the hides of animals with a condition that will cause them to die within twelve months [tereifot]. And one may wrap the parchment with the hair of these animals and sew them with their sinews; and it is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai that the parchment of phylacteries may be wrapped with the hair of these animals and sewn with their sinews. But one may not write on the hide of a non-kosher animal, or on the hide of a non-kosher undomesticated animal, and it goes without saying that one may not write on their skins when they are neveilot or tereifot. And one may not wrap the parchment with the hair of non-kosher animals, nor may one sew them with their sinews.” (Sefaria.org translation) Any kosher animal no matter how it died may be used! I have seen a Torah made out of parchment from a deer’s hide. The color of the parchment was much darker than what we are used to seeing.

The Gemara teaches that other types of animals’ hides would be permissible as well. Although we don’t think of bird’s skin as hide, the khalakhah does. Consequently, one may use a bird’s hide to make parchment for tefillin. “Rav Huna said: One may write phylacteries on the skin of a kosher bird. Rav Yosef said: What is he teaching us with this statement? If he is teaching us that a bird has skin, we already learned that: One who wounds an animal or a bird is liable. Since there is liability only if a wound forms beneath the skin, apparently a bird has skin. Abaye said to him: He is teaching us many things, for if I had only learned from the mishna, I would have said the following: Since the skin of a bird has many holes from which the feathers grow, one should not be allowed to write sacred matters on it. Therefore, he teaches us as they say in the West, i.e., in Eretz Yisrael: Any hole over which ink passes and does not penetrate it, is not considered a hole that invalidates the writing.” (Sefaria.org translation) I’m guessing that we don’t use bird skin as parchment because it is not as durable as animal hides and writing on something that is so thin would almost be impossible and not worth the effort.

We might as well finish off the animal kingdom by asking “What about fish?” The answer is a qualified yes. Although the sages have determined that one could use the “hide” of the fish, writing tefillin on something that had such a strong foul odor was inappropriate. They wondered whether this order would pass are not. Since they could not come to a conclusion they said they would have to wait until Elijah the prophet will come and teach whether the foul odor of the fish ceases or not.