TORN — an animal killed by a predator rather than properly slaughtered, from taraf, 'to tear.' Its partner nevelah (see that entry, fixed at Leviticus 11:39) covers an animal that simply died; trefah covers one that was killed by something else. Both disqualify the meat regardless of species, and both carry the same 'unclean until evening' consequence for anyone who eats one (17:15). The word is the direct ancestor of the Yiddish and modern Hebrew 'treif,' still the standing term for anything not kosher — though its sense here is narrower than its later career, naming one specific manner of death rather than the whole category of forbidden food that word now covers. → first discussed at Lev 17:15