The Briefest Introduction to the Cutheans

So, we're moving along in the beginning of Maseches Chullin discussing the very first line of the Masechta, "Akol shochtin ushchitatam ksheira." Specifically, "Hakol lasuyei mai." We saw six different shittos amongst Amora'im. "Lasuyei tamei, lasuyei Kuti, lasuyei mumar ochel neveilos u'shkuteiha." "Lasuyei mumcheh she'eino muchzak, muchzak she'eino mumcheh." Additionally, we want to digress a little bit may inyan l'inyan very much b'ei se'inyan to talk a little bit about the lasuyei Kuti, to talk a little bit about the lasuyei mumar ochel neveilos u'shkuteiha. Today's daf is going to go back to the lasuyei Kuti. In fact, today's daf is not just going to discuss Kutim as it relates to shechitah, but today's daf is an insight. It's a daf that requires an asterisk in terms of understanding klalei haShas. And that is today's daf is going to give us the rest of the story in terms of how it is that Chazal treated the Kutim. I think it's kedai just to give a very brief introduction to the Kutim. This is something that we've gone through b'chaburah at length several times. We talked about it a little bit even here in the beginning of Maseches Chullin. But being that the primary topic of today's daf are the Kutim and the historical placement of the Kutim, it's kedai just to refresh our memory and b'ezras Hashem hopefully segue smoothly into the daf. So, the Kutim were a group of people that were brought by Shalmaneser, king of Ashur, during the time of the first Beis Hamikdash from the land of Kutha to Eretz Yisrael. The background was Shalmaneser was the infamous king who had exiled the Asaras Ashvatin. And he felt that to leave the whole northern part of the country vacant was not smart. So, he felt that he didn't want the Jews there, but at the same time, he had to replace them with other people. So, he gathered people from different lands, like the Novi says, and he brought them there. One of the places from where he took people was from Kuta, and apparently they were a massive component of this group of people to the point that all these people became known as the Kuta. Now, the Kutim came from different lands. They were pagans. They were [snorts] ovde avoda zara. However, the Novi says that at some point their lives started becoming at a point of great risk. Specifically, the lions. This is very old school that came and started eating people up. And they took it as a sign of from God, we're living in the land of the Jews, which means that we have to worship the God of the Jews. And they took it upon themselves to convert to Judaism. They became gayrim. Now, there was a big machlokes amongst the tanoyim and even later amongst amoyim, whether or not this gayris was a sincere gayris or was it not a sincere gayris. On the one hand, they were megayer, but then again, they only did it because they were afraid of the lions. So, were they gayre emes or they were gayre arayis with an aleph? They were only gayre machmas yira, and as a result, it wasn't sincere. And it's for that reason, when you learn the sugias of Kutim throughout shas, it's always a little bit confusing because in some sugias, the Kutim are yedim, in some sugias, they're not yedim. And always the first question you have to ask yourself anytime you see the word Kuti, this manda amra, this braysa, this mishna, this sugia, is it of the opinion that the Kutim were Gerim, in which case the Kuti that we're talking about is a Yid, or maybe it's of the opinion that they were Gerim, or Ger Aryos, which means the Kuti de Ger is really not a Yid, he's really an Ani Yehudi. Now, one thing is clear, whether the Kutim were Gerim or Ger Aryos, to a very large degree, they did their own thing. Ad de daycha, they did their own thing. They actually fabricated and created their own little Masada. >> [snorts] >> It evolved to the point where if you were going to generalize it from a high level, they said that we accept the fact that Hakadosh Boruchu revealed himself at Har Sinai to all the Yidden Mitzrayim, and that he appointed Moshe Rabbeinu as a Shliach to be his messenger, and that the Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu taught the Yidden was miSinai. However, only the Torah sheb'ksav, and not the Torah sheb'al peh. Which meant that from a pure customary perspective, the way the Kutim lived their lives, despite the fact that according to many they were Gerim, they were Yidden, but it was very, very different from the way that the rest of Klal Yisrael lived their lives, which puts the Kutim into another unique pocket, and that is a sect of Yidden that believed in the Torah sheb'ksav and not the Torah sheb'al peh. The most notable of that sect are the Tzedukim and the Baytusim, and years later in the times of the Geonim and the Rishonim u've'Reshonim, the Rambam, the Karaim, and that's why the Kutim, they come up in the Sugyos of Gerus, were they Gerim or were they Ger Aryos, and they also come up in the Sugyos of the people that were Machchish the Torah sheb'al peh, because really that's another one of the hats that they infamously wore. So, they're part of that group of Tzedukim, Baytusim, and Anan, the Karaite, and they fall into that category as well. Just to mention two interesting nuances that relate to the Kutim. Number one, their ksav is ksav Ivri and not ksav Ashuris. So, we know that when the Torah was given in the chatchila, it was given in ksav Ivri. But the Gemara says in Sanhedrin daf 21, "Ruya hu se Ezra she tini nothing Torah al yado. V'af al pishli nitna Torah al yado, nishtana hakstav al yado." And Ezra was the one that introduced ksav Ashuris, the ksav the way we have it today. Well, the Kutim weren't mekabel the mesorah from Ezra and as a result, they still had what the ksav was in the days of Menashe ben Chizkiyahu and that's why they maintained, they always kept the ksav Ivri. Another big point which is going to feature in today's daf that made the Kutim unique is that they believed that the holiest city in Eretz Yisrael is not Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh, but rather it's the area of Shechem. And the holiest place within the holiest city is not the Har Habayit, it's not the Har Hamoriah, but rather it's Har Gerizim. And the reason they were even able to entertain such a possibility is because as we discussed at length during the Yarchei Kallah, the Torah doesn't mention anywhere Yerushalayim. The Torah doesn't mention anywhere the Har Habayit. The Torah says that when you're going to come to Eretz Yisrael, there's going to be a makom asher yivchar and that place is going to be the place. Well, that's pretty open language and the Kutim believed that being in Parshas Ki Savo, Torah makes a very big deal about Har Gerizim and Har Eival. Har Gerizim is Har Bracha and Har Eival is the mountain of the Klalah. So, they had this understanding that what is the makom asher yivchar, it's one of those two mountains that are featured very prominently in the end of Devarim and specifically the Har Bracha, it's probably not the Har Klalah and that's why their inyan was very much associated with our reason. As a matter of fact, the more it says in that at some point they built a proper temple on our reason that was destroyed by Alexander Muktan. This is again something that the more it talks about in different places. But the bottom line is this is the very very brief origin of the story of the Kutin. Now it's interesting. The Mesha Kadaris, as we're going to see in today's stuff, the Hakham and got together and they decided that I know for years we couldn't get along on this topic. With the Kutin Gary MS or they Gary Aris. However, Nim Nuvagaru moving forward a Kutin will no longer logically be considered a Yid. So [snorts] that regardless of whether we took the position for a thousand years at the Kutin with Gary MS or whether we took the position they were Gary Aris. That was all here to four. But moving forward, you want to know how we're going to treat the Kutin with a sure going to treat them like any Yid. Now at first glance, kind of an shall how could you do that? What does that even mean? If the Kutin are Yidden, they're Yidden. Now after learning yesterday's stuff, which by the way is the segue into today's stuff, we can maybe hypothesize a little bit. Maybe being that the Kutin were not behaving properly, they were probably Machala Shabbos before Asia. It's you talking that they were Muma with the Kahavin. Could be they were even Muma with the Kahavin. Now we know all these people are Dinay of the Kahavin. And that would be the simplest answer to explain how the Kahavin would have a Gurech to do something like this. And that's going to be the partials in the Gumar that we're about to learn. We're giving it away. Spoiler alert. But the point is, as we'll see, that's for sure what this Indian was rooted in. But it doesn't satisfy the question. And the reason is cuz there are risers from shots that this that the Kutin from Khulan the [snorts] above forward were treated like any Yidden and was not just l'chumra, it was the kula as well. We took away their status as a Yid 100% bein l'chumra, bein l'kula. This idea that a mechallel Shabbos b'farhesia is treated like an eino Yehudi doesn't mean that all of a sudden he's a non-Jew, and if he [laughter] wants l'chatchila to go eat in a veil on Yom Kippur, this is something he can do. Because we know banka hu banka k'ri u'vanim, and we know af al pi chat'u Yisrael heim, and of course it just means in certain areas on a lower how we can't unfortunately treat him like he is, cuz you know what? He doesn't treat himself like he is. So, what are you supposed to do? But [snorts] at the same time, at the same time, my father, you want to know if he's a Yid, he's a Yid. But the Kutim were unique because a feel l'olam da amar Kutim geirei emes, but they were treated no longer as Yiddin, they were treated mamash 100% like ovdei kochavim, and that's takke pelah. So, the Maram B'kum to this is the Hilchos Sofer who said a a dover pelah. It's such a dover pelah that we once mentioned that Rav Moshe Feinstein in Divrei Moshe writes one of his shiurim, he says that he believes this is a tois. It was written by a talmid toyah. You have to be moichek it. Rav Moshe used to do that often kiyado. But the bottom line is Rav Moshe said that there's no way in the world that this is emes. What did the Chasam Sofer say? That in it it elicited this hergesh from Rav Moshe, it can't even be true. He said that the we know Chazal say that hefker beis din hefker. Now, what's the makor to hefker beis din hefker? So, the Gemara in Gittin brings two different makors. One of them is we learn it from the story of Ezra and Nechemia. The pasuk says that when the Yidden came to Eretz Yisrael after 70 years of galus Bavel, so it was Yom Tov in the vachin. They weren't behaving like Yidden. And Ezra said that in three days I want everybody to come to the town square, and we're going to make a new bris, a new covenant, where once again we're going to renew our vows with Hakadosh Baruchu. We'll bring korbanos, the par on davar sheb'tzibur, and through that we're going to somehow get ourselves out of this situation, and we're going to be able to find favor again in the eyes of Hakadosh Baruchu. And then he made a threat, did Ezra. He said, "V'chol ha'am any person that wasn't come within three days you Ezra said that whoever doesn't come in three days I'm going to take away all his money has has every right to take away all his money you see from here have to be have to be I'm sorry for that that read the next words of the you have to be you have to be you have to be the means will you bother me will you bother me will we're going to deport you right that's what it sounds like it sounds like we're going to revoke your citizenship it sounds like we're going to be you from the board but said the no will you bother me means literally and just like you see from this that Ezra any on the level of Ezra has an ability to be somebody's he also has the ability to take that person and be and say that even though you're we're not going to treat you like you get anymore and that said the is what happened and he says who is the one who is very much me how in the world is this even possible and this is the way you can understand what's going on over here that this idea that that the should no longer be treated like this was something that was done based on the same exact license that gave the men to employ a the which of course is a now when we went to all a few months ago we actually visited the believe it or not they're still a a share of plate of them not many as we saw but they're still doing out there and on some level they hold on to the it's a fascinating visit