This week we will learn about the laws of purity as they apply to food, focusing on the requirement that food be “prepared” through contact with one of seven liquids before it can become susceptible to impurity. We will then learn about the role of owner’s intent in designating something as food. The Gemara then discusses shechita performed for the sake of idol worship, with a dispute about whether one person can render forbidden an animal that belongs to someone else, and whether partial cutting of the simanim with idolatrous intent is sufficient to prohibit the animal.
