Chullin 131-137: Ha-Tzenu’im Withdraw Their Hands

by R. Gidon Rothstein

Tzenu’im Don’t Push

Chullin 133a tells of R. Meir’s decision not to accept matnot kehunah, the parts of animals or sacrifices given to kohanim. He always knew it wasn’t right to ask for them, but he thought it was fine to accept if offered. He stopped even accepting when he learned a baraita, which says ha-tzenu’im, a word we will have to figure out, withdrew their hands, where the gargeranim, ones of great appetite, would take all the shares.

Other than Erev Yom Kippur, when he made sure to take matanot, to remind everyone he was a kohen.

[Side note: compare this use of tzanu’a to how the word is used today, almost solely regarding women’s dress.]

Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De’ah 61;11 accepts R. Meir’s idea, says a kohen should never grab these parts of the animal (the foreleg, jaw, and stomach, as we saw last time), only accept them if given in a respectful way. With many kohanim present, tzenu’im withdraw their hands. Unless no one knows he’s a kohen, where he should take to establish that fact.

If I had to define ha-tzenu’im based on this one case, it would be people who choose not to get all that could be coming their way if it will require pushing or jostling for it.

No Use Fighting for Food with No Value

A similar case arises in Yoma 39a, where the Gemara lists contrasts between the time of Shim’on Ha-Tzaddik and after. One was in how much each kohen would receive from various grain offerings (the Omer, Shetei Ha-Lechem of Shavu’ot, or the Lechem Ha-Panim, the weekly twelve loaves on the Table in the Beit Ha-Mikdash). After Shim’on’s time, when there was only a bean’s worth for each one, the tzenu’im would refrain.

Rashi says they saw it would not fill them up anyway, and in Kiddushin 53a says it was because it would not accomplish anything. Tosafot Yeshanim to Yoma and others, R. Yehonatan of Lunel, Ran to the Rif, explain that had they received a ke-zayit, eating it would fulfill the mitzvah to eat offering, so they would have taken their share. With only a bean, there was no mitzvah, so they did not.

Meiri adds that if it had been enough to satiate them, they also might have taken it. Similarly, although much later in history, Tzitz Eliezer 1;10 agreed with his correspondent that we do not say ha-tzenu’im regarding terumah, because each act of eating is a mitzvah, even less than an olive’s worth.

A tweak: the tzenu’im do not take contested food unless it has mitzvah value.

Expanding Our Care About Eating

Divrei Chamudot, a commentary on Rosh by R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, the author of Tosafot Yom Tov on Mishnah, has two other cases, unrelated to the ones we’ve seen, where the phrase is used. In Chullin 7;19, he notes Rashba in Torat ha-Bayit, tzenu’im would only eat meat if were sure the person who did the nikur had been qualified, well-trained to remove the sciatic nerve and its surrounding fats. He adds that Hagahot Ashri said the same thing, then quotes Hagahot Ashri, who used the phrase ba’al nefesh, what I could have imagined was slightly different.

For Tosafot Yom Tov, apparently, being tzanu’a equates to being a ba’al nefesh, decidedly careful about one’s observance.

A chapter later, Chullin 8;5, Tosafot Yom Tov has the view of Terumat Ha-Deshen, in his glosses to Sha’arei Dura, on the widespread practice to wait to eat dairy for only one hour after a meat meal. He cannot object, he writes, because Tosafot and Ravyah allowed waiting from one meal to another, and these people end their meal, say the grace, then start a new one.

Still, said Terumat Ha-Deshen, ha-tzenu’im wait for six hours. In both cases, tzenu’im are no longer in competitive situations, they refrain from any questionable eating, not only if there are others striving for it.

R. Ovadyah Yosef seems to have agreed. InYabi’a Omer2 Orach Chayyim 19, he urges those who host a kiddush in their home to be sure to have mezonot food, because we are supposed to recite kiddush where we have a meal. If the hosts offer only non-mezonot foods—meats, fruit, vegetables–he thinks ha-tzenu’im would not eat.

Same word inYabi’a Omer 5; Orach Chayyim 22, where he discusses the Zohar’s opposition to eating before morning prayers even if the person woke up before the break of dawn (when it is impossible to pray anyway). While many eat then, ha-tzenu’im do not.

Moving Away From Eating

It’s not only in food, though.

Shelah, Massechet Ta’anit, Perek Ner Mitzvah 13 bemoans the loss of care about ways to keep the Destruction of the Temple in mind, such as by serving one dish fewer than would have been expected. Nevertheless, he has seen important people who decorate their homes for weddings, and leave a space on the wall empty of any such decoration.

There was a similar prescription for women’s jewelry, to leave something out, to not be fully decorated, another practice that has fallen into disuse, but closes by saying ha-charedim, those who tremble before God, ve-ha-tzenu’im, still hold these standards.

Tzenu’im don’t take improper pleasures of non-food varieties, either.

Not Even to Perform a Mitzvah

Mishpetei Uzziel shows us where Magen Avraham invokes the phrase. Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayyim 53;22 prefers a paid chazzan to a volunteer, Ba’er Heitev says because the person being paid will be more careful to do a good job. Rema adds that whoever leads should only do so if the community wants him to.

As Magen Avraham understands, Rema means even if some people supported him, if there was any controversy about it, better not to. Magen Avraham then generalizes, we should never fight over any mitzvah, as we see with the tzenu’im, who forewent their right to eat Lechem HaPanim, the showbread from the Table, to avoid contention.

Shu”t Divrei Yatziv Yoreh De’ah 235 gives an excellent example, someone with yahrzeit on a Shabbat or holiday (a time when the chazzan matters more than usual). He knows of shuls with a blanket rule to exclude a yahrzeit leading, to avoid having to tell certain people their voice isn’t good enough. He has seen those who insist on their right to lead even when there are better options in voice, in Torah knowledge, and in good deeds (note R. Halberstam’s assumed proper qualities of a chazzan).

In situations like these, tzenu’im withdraw their hands.

Where Even Tzenu’im Don’t Stay Away

To close with where tzenu’im do participate, despite a worry, Yabi’a Omer 2 Orach Chayyim 18 notes Shu”t Lev Chayyim, 3;102, a Torah scholar should not refrain from teaching in public for fear it will inflate his ego. He must try to avoid any conceit, to do it only for the sake of Heaven, but should do it either way. R. Yosef calls for tzenu’im to do this here, to help those who need the Torah, and sustaining one soul is like sustaining a whole world.

Who Are Tzenu’im?

Expanding out from a food focus, we see tzenu’im are those alert to reasons to step back rather than push forward. Not every pleasure, not every right, needs to be had or exercised, and where there are competing values, of peace, of getting along, the tzenu’im forego what was legitimately theirs, for the higher value of not contributing to strife or other problems.