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As we have learned (see above, daf 90), the gid ha-nasheh – an animal’s sciatic nerve – is prohibited based on the passage in Sefer Bereishit (32:33). Following his wrestling with an angel, Ya’akov limps back towards his camp and the Torah concludes “Therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew of the thigh-vein, which is upon the spoon of the thigh, unto this day; because he touched the spoon of Jacob’s thigh, even in the sinew of the thigh-vein.”
The Mishna on our daf limits the prohibition to kosher animals; Rabbi Yehuda disagrees, arguing that before the Torah was given – when Ya’akov’s children were still allowed to eat unclean animals – they refrained from eating the gid ha-nasheh. The response quoted in the Mishna is that the commandment prohibiting the gid ha-nasheh was given at Mount Sinai, where it was then placed in context in Sefer Bereishit. It does not indicate, however, that Ya’akov’s children kept this tradition prior to receiving the Torah.
In the Mishnah, Rebbi Yehudah and the Chachamim disagree about whether the Isur of Gid ha'Nasheh was given to Bnei Noach at the time of Yakov Avinu, or whether it was given only at the time the Torah was given at Sinai.
