Once upon a time:
The boys sat around the table, enjoying birthday cake with their friend, Ephraim, who had just turned seven.
“This is a great birthday cake!” said his friend Yonatan. “What’s in it?”
Ephraim’s brother Avraham proudly spoke up. “It’s mainly vanilla, mixed with chocolate chips. I helped to make it. Oh my! That was a really weird chip that I just swallowed”.
“Avraham!” exclaimed Ephraim, “your mouth is bleeding!”
Avraham grabbed a napkin and touched it to his mouth, “I am! Omigoodness I think my loose tooth fell out!”
Yonatan grimaced, “Oh no, it wasn’t a chocolate chip that you swallowed, you probably swallowed your tooth!”
Ephraim held the napkin to his gums to help stop the bleeding. He couldn’t believe that he had swallowed his tooth!
Yonatan moved Avraham’s plate away, “I don’t think you’re allowed to eat that cake now. There’s a small drop of blood on it.”
“But it was the last piece of cake!” protested Avraham. “I don’t mind if there’s a tiny speck of blood on it. I’m already swallowing a lot more blood than that.”
“Actually, I don’t think you’re allowed to swallow your blood” said Yonatan. “I think you have to spit it out”.
Is it forbidden for Avraham to swallow his own blood? Can he eat his cake? What would you do?
Discussion
Q: What is the connection between our story and the parsha?
A: The parasha states וכל דם לא תאכלו “and you shall not eat any blood” (Vayikra 7:26).
Q Does Avraham have to spit out his blood?
A The prohibition does not include blood that is in one’s own body. If someone has a cut or sore in his mouth, he is allowed to swallow that blood because it has never left the body (Yoreh De’ah 66:10).
Q Should Avraham throw away his whole piece of cake?
A It is alright for Avraham to cut away the part of the cake that has the drop of blood on it and also a little part next to it, to make sure that none of the blood will be eaten (Yad Yehuda on Yoreh De’ah 96:5; Yoreh De’ah 66:10).
Q If Avraham hadn’t noticed the blood drop on his cake and it had all been crumbled together, is he still allowed to eat that bit of cake?
A Surprisingly, it IS okay to eat a food that has human blood mixed into it as long as the redness is not seen (Yad Avraham, Yoreh De’ah 66:10; Darkei Teshuvah 66:71).
Back to the story:
Avraham did not want the incident with his lost tooth to distract attention away from Ephraim’s birthday celebration. He left the dining room with his plate. After the bleeding stopped, he carefully removed the part of the cake where he could see the blood. He then returned to the dining room, and rejoined the celebration.
(Written by Josh and Tammy Kruger in collaboration with Rabbi Yehosua Pfeffer of the Institute for Dayanim, and based on an article by Rabbi Doniel Neustadt entitled “The Status of Blood in Halacha”: http://www.torah.org/advanced/weekly-halacha/5764/shlach.html)
