Take One Daf Yomi Menachot 56 and 57 - Half-Cooked
Mar 9, 2026
The daf shifts from leavened offerings to tricky laws about cooking and roasting on Shabbat. A halachic standard emerges for meat cooked just enough to count as roasted. Scholars debate the identity of Ben Derosai — outlaw, rebel leader, righteous gentile, or mythic wild man. Vivid images of a towering, nearly raw meat eater bring the Talmudic discussion to life.
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One-Sided Roasting Is Not Cooking
- Talmudic law treats meat roasted on one side as non-cooking, but meat roasted on both sides counts as cooking on Shabbat.
- The Gemara uses the example of Ben Derosai's half-roasted meat to illustrate the one-side versus two-side legal distinction.
Ben Derosai As Outlaw On The Run
- Leah Libowitz recounts historical interpretations that Ben Derosai was an outlaw who ate meat half cooked to stay on the run.
- Rashi and some historians link Ben Derosai to a bandit or to Durtus, a rebel executed by Romans in 52 CE.
Ben Derosai As Rebellious Leader
- Leah Libowitz describes an alternate theory identifying Ben Derosai with Durtus, a Jewish leader who fashioned a quick oven and was executed by Romans.
- Historians use this to explain the quick-cooking practice as practical necessity during persecution.
