Authors’ abstract: We present Chapman-Enskog and Hilbert expansions applied to the \(\mathcal O(v/c)\) Boltzmann equation for the radiative transfer of neutrinos in core-collapse supernovae. Based on the Legendre expansion of the scattering kernel for the collision integral truncated after the second term, we derive the diffusion limit for the Boltzmann equation by truncation of Chapman-Enskog or Hilbert expansions with reaction and collision scaling. We also give asymptotically sharp results obtained by the use of an additional time scaling. The diffusion limit determines the diffusion source in the isotropic diffusion source approximation (IDSA) of Boltzmann’s equation [M. Liebendörfer, S.C. Whitehouse and T. Fischer, “The isotropic diffusion source approximation for supernova neutrino transport”, Astrophys. J. 698, No. 2, 1174–1190 (2009; doi:10.1088/0004-637X/698/2/1174)], [H. Berninger et al., ESAIM, Proc. 38, 163–182 (2012; Zbl 1329.85003)] for which the free streaming limit and the reaction limit serve as limiters. Here, we derive the reaction limit as well as the free streaming limit by truncation of Chapman-Enskog or Hilbert expansions using reaction and collision scaling as well as time scaling, respectively. Finally, we explain why limiters are a good choice for the definition of the source term in the IDSA.