Shechita

15th century depiction of Shechita

Shechita (Hebrew:שְׁחִיטָה; also transliterated shechitah, shehitah, shehita) is the ritual slaughter of mammals and birds according to Jewish dietary laws.[1] The act is performed by severing the trachea, oesophagus, carotid arteries and jugular veins using a super-sharp blade ("chalef"), and allowing the blood to drain out.[2]

The animal must be killed with respect and compassion [3] by a shochet (ritual slaughterer), a religious Jew who is duly licensed and trained. The animal can be in a number of positions; when the animal is lying on its back, this is referred to as shechita munachat, in a standing position it is known as shechita me'umedet.

If the hindquarters of kosher mammals are to be eaten by Jews, they must be 'porged' - stripped of veins, chelev (caul fat and suet)[4] and sinews[5] in accordance with a strict procedure.[6] Because of the expense of porging and the skill required to properly separate out the forbidden parts, a large portion of the meat of kosher mammals slaughtered through shechita in the United States winds up on the non-kosher market.

Contents

Preparation

The animal must be kosher (i.e. mammals that chew their cud and have cloven hooves, or birds that are not birds of prey and for which there is an established tradition that the bird is kosher or similar to one that is).

Before slaughtering, the animal must be healthy, uninjured and viable. The animal cannot be stunned by electronarcosis, captive-bolt shot to the brain, or gas, as is common practice in modern animal slaughter, for this would inflict such injuries to the animal rendering the shechita invalid. After shechita the shochet may feel the area around the lungs, for scabbing or lesions, which would render the animal not kosher.

Shechita's source in the Oral Torah

Though referenced in the Torah, (Deut. 12:21) none of the basic practices of shechita are described in this place, or anywhere else in Torah (Five books of Moses). Instead, they have been handed down in Judaism's traditional Oral Torah, and codified in halakha in various sources, most notably the Shulchan Aruch.

Duties of the Shochet

In order to fulfill the basic law of shechita, the majority of both the trachea and esophagus (windpipe and food pipe) of a mammal, or the majority of either one of these in the case of birds, must be incised with a back and forth motion without violating one of the five major prohibited techniques, or various more detailed rules. The five major forbidden techniques include: Pressing, Pausing, Tearing, Piercing, or Covering. A shochet must have studied these laws and demonstrate a thorough understanding of them, as well as have been carefully trained, before he is allowed to 'shekht' meat unaided.

Pressing is accomplished when the shochet pushes the knife into the animal's throat, chops rather than slices, or positions the animal improperly so that either its head presses down on the blade as it expires or the shochet must push the knife into the throat against the force of gravity. There are those who feel that it is forbidden to have the animal in an upright position during shechita due to the prohibition of pressing. They feel that the animal must be on its back, lying on its side, suspended upside down by a rope or chain, or - as is done in most commercial slaughter houses - placed in a barrel like pen that restrains the animal's limbs while it is turned on its back for slaughter. However, an expert shochet can slaughter the animal while it is upright without pressing the knife. This method is employed in most smaller operations in America.

Pausing is performed by the shochet if he stops the slaughtering process after either the trachea or esophagus has been cut but before they have been cut the majority of the way through. Pausing can happen accidentally if muscle contractions in the animal's neck pull one of these organs out of contact with the blade. The latter case is especially common in turkeys.

Piercing is the result of stabbing the animal in the throat, slicing the trachea or esophagus with a serrated knife, slaughtering with a rusty knife or one that has an imperfection that rises above the blade's surface, burning the animal's throat, or slaughtering with a knife that is so hot it would cause a person to not touch it. Burning is always considered piercing in shechita, regardless of the motion of the knife.

Tearing is caused by using a knife with an imperfection on the blade, such as a scratch or nick, that causes a section of blade to be lower than the surface of the blade.

Covering is accomplished by either cutting into the animal's throat so deeply that the entire width of the knife disappears in the wound, using a knife that is too short so that the end disappears in the wound, or by having a foreign object fall over the knife so the shochet loses sight of the incision.

Giving of the Gifts

Once the animal has been checked and found to be Kosher, it is a Mitzvah for the Shochet to give the foreleg, cheeks, and abomasum to a Kohen. Beit Din -in terms of the root of the obligation, has the Halachic authority to excommunicate a Shochet who refuses to perform this Mitzvah. In any case it is desired that the Shochet himself refuse to perform the Shechita unless the animal's owner expresses his agreement to give the gifts.

The Rishonim point out that the Shochet cannot claim that since the animal does not belong to him he cannot give the gifts without the owner's consent. On the contrary since the average Shochet is reputed to be well versed and knowledgeable in the laws of Shechitah ("Dinnei Shechita") Beith Din relies on him to withhold his Shechita so long as the owner refuses to give the gifts;

The obligation of giving the gifts lay upon the Shochet to separate the parts due to the Kohanim. Apparently, the reasoning is that since the average Shochet is a "Friend", since he completed the prerequisite of understanding the (complex) laws of Shechita and Bedikah. It is assumed that he -as well- is knowledgeable in the details of the laws of giving the gifts, and will not put the Mitzvah aside. This, however, is not the case with the animal's owner, since the average owner is an Am ha-aretz not wholly knowledgeable in the laws of the gifts -and procrastinates in completing the Mitzvah
—Shulchan Gavoha to Yoreh Deah 61:61

Minor rules

The animal's blood may not be collected in a bowl, a pit, or a body of water, as these resemble ancient forms of idol worship. If the shochet accidentally slaughters with a knife dedicated to idol worship, he must remove an amount of meat equivalent to the value of the knife and destroy it. If he slaughtered with such a knife on purpose, the animal is forbidden as not kosher. It is forbidden to slaughter an animal in front of other animals, or to slaughter an animal and its young on the same day, even separately. This is forbidden no matter how far away the animals are from each other. An animal's "young" is defined as either its own offspring, or another animal that follows it around, even if of another species.

The knife

The knife used for shechita is called a hallaf by Ashkenazim or a sakin (Hebrew: סכין) by all Jews. By biblical law the knife may be made from anything not attached directly or indirectly to the ground and capable of being sharpened and polished to the necessary level of sharpness and smoothness required for shechita. The Minhag now is to use a metal knife. Anything but a metal knife today would render the animal unfit to eat except in certain narrow circumstances.

The knife must be minimally 1.5 or 2 times as long as the animal's neck is wide, depending on the species of animal and the number of strokes needed to slaughter the animal, but not so long that the weight of the knife exceeds the weight of the animal's head. If the knife is too large, it is assumed to cause pressing. The knife must not have a point. It is feared a point may slip into the wound during slaughter and cause piercing. The blade may also not be serrated, as serrations cause tearing.

The blade may not have imperfections in it. All blades are assumed by Jewish law to be imperfect, so the knife must be checked before each session. The shochet must run his fingernail up and down both sides of the blade and on the cutting edge to determine if he can feel any imperfections. He then uses a number of increasingly fine abrasive stones to sharpen and polish the blade until it is perfectly sharp and smooth. After the slaughter, the shochet must check the knife again in the same way to be certain the first inspection was properly done, and to ensure the blade was not damaged during shechita. If the blade is found to be damaged, the meat may not be eaten by Jews. If the blade falls or is lost before the second check is done, the first inspection is relied on and the meat is permitted.

In previous centuries the hallaf was made of forged steel, which was not reflective and was difficult to make both smooth and sharp. The Baal Shem Tov, fearing that Sabbateans were scratching the knives in a way not detectable by normal people, introduced the Hasidische Hallaf. The Hasidische Hallaf differs from the previously used knife in that it was made from molten steel and polished to a mirror gloss in which scratches could be seen as well as felt. The new knife was controversial and was one of four reasons listed in the Brody Cherem for the excommunication of the Chassidim.

Today the Hasidische Hallaf is the only commercially available knife for shechita and is universally accepted.

Carcass preparation

Bedikah

An animal must be checked again after it has been shekhted to see if there were any internal injuries that would have rendered the animal unhealthy before the slaughter, but were simply not visible because they were internal. The inspector must check certain organs, such as the lungs, for any scarring which would render the animal treif (not kosher).

Glatt

Glatt means "smooth" in German and Yiddish. In the context of kosher meat, it refers to the smoothness, or lack of blemish, in the internal organs of the animal. In the case of a scab or lesion on a cow’s lungs specifically, there is debate between Ashkenazic customs and Sephardic customs. Ashkenazic Jews hold that if the patch can be removed and the lungs are still airtight (a process that is tested by filling the lungs with air and then submerging them in water and looking for escaping air) then the animal is still Kosher, while Sephardic Jews hold that if there is any sort of scabbing or lesion on the lungs, then the animal is not kosher. “Glatt” meat would literally mean that the animal has passed the stringent Sephardic requirements, although today the word is rarely used in that context.

Porging

After the animal has been thoroughly inspected, there are still steps that have to be taken before the animal can be sold as kosher. The Torah prohibits the eating of certain fats and organs, such as the kidneys and intestines, so they must be removed from the animal. These fats are typically known as “chelev”. Chelev prohibition only applies to domesticated animals, such as cows and sheep. For wild animals, such as deer, this prohibition is not applicable. There is also a biblical prohibition against eating the sciatic nerve (gid hanasheh) so that too, must be removed. The removal of the chelev and the gid hanasheh is considered complicated and tedious, and hence labor intensive, and even more specialized training is necessary to perform the act properly. While the small amounts of chelev in the front half of the animal are relatively easy to remove, the back half of the animal is far more complicated, and it is where the sciatic nerve is located.

In countries such as America, where there exists a large non-kosher meat market, the hindquarters of the animal (where many of these forbidden meats are located) is sold to non-Jews so as to simplify the process. This tradition goes back for centuries[7] where local Muslims accept meat slaughtered by Jews as consumable; however, the custom was not universal throughout the Muslim world, and some Muslims (particularly on the Indian subcontinent) did not accept these hindquarters as halal.[8] On the other hand, in countries like Israel, specially trained men are hired to prepare the hindquarters for sale as kosher.

Blood

The blood must also be removed from the meat, as there is a biblical prohibition against the eating of blood as well. All large arteries and veins are removed, as well as any bruised meat or coagulated blood. Then the meat has to be purged of all remaining blood (kashering). The process is generally done by letting the meat soak for around 30 minutes, covering it with salt and then allowing it to drain. In Sephardi traditions, one generally leaves the salt on for a full hour and then rinses the meat thoroughly. The meat is then considered kashered. However, if the meat has been left for more than three days after being slaughtered without being kashered, then the blood is considered to have “set” in the meat, and it is no longer salvageable to eat except when prepared through broiling with appropriate drainage.

Animal welfare controversies

The prohibition of stunning and the humane attitude towards the slaughtered animal expressed in shechita law limits the extent to which Jewish slaughterhouses can industrialize their procedures.

In the UK the Farm Animal Welfare Council alleges that the method by which kosher and halal meat is produced causes severe suffering to animals and has demanded that shechita without prior stunning should be banned - which would amount to a ban on shechita itself. According to FAWC it can take up to two minutes for cattle to bleed to death, thus amounting to animal abuse. Compassion in World Farming also supported the recommendation saying "We believe that the law must be changed to require all animals to be stunned before slaughter."[9][10] But successive UK governments have rejected FAWC's demand, agreeing with the Jewish representative bodies that the allegation that shechita is cruel is at best based on inconclusive scientific evidence. The successful campaign by the UK's Jewish communities against the FAWC recommendation has been authoritatively analysed by Professor Geoffrey Alderman.[11]

Reference has been made above to the argument that after shechita an animal remains conscious due to the vertebral arteries supplying blood to the brain, this is not true according to different studies.Chanoch Kesselman of Shechita UK writes that "It is well known that in vertebrate mammals, the brain is generously supplied with blood, mostly via the carotid arteries. The junction between the two carotid arteries and the vertebral arteries, forms a 'ring road' at the base of the brain. In cattle this junction is the rete mirabilis. In humans, this arrangement is the 'Circle of Willis'. The effect of having an arterial 'ring road' at the base of the brain is that if there is a blockage of one of the cerebral arteries, the brain region supplied by that vessel can still obtain adequate blood supply via one of the other vessels. However, this is not the case if the carotids are severed. In this case blood flow follows the route of least resistance so that blood which could reach the brain, now spills out from the cut ends of the carotid arteries. The brain is deprived of blood reaching it. Shechita does more than prevent blood from reaching the brain. It also ensures that any blood that is present in the brain empties out via the severed jugular veins at the moment of the incision resulting in immediate loss of pressure in the brain. Additionally the loss of cerebrospinal fluid pressure causes the brain to collapse completely and with it total loss of consciousness. This entire process occurs in less than two seconds. Professor HH Dukes of Cornell University, USA confirmed (in his study of blood pressure in the vertebral arteries of ruminant animals), that “consciousness will have been lost within two seconds of the incision”. This has also been confirmed by experiment by Rabbi Dr IM Levinger of Basel, Switzerland. Dr Stuart Rosen, consultant cardiologist at Hammersmith Hospital, London confirms these findings in “Physiological Insights Into Shechita” (2004)."

The organization shechitauk maintains "There is ample published scientific evidence to show that Shechita, the Jewish religious humane method of slaughter for food-animals, is not a painful method. Furthermore, there is no conclusive evidence to show that it is painful. The Shechita process ensures the rapid uninterrupted severance of major vessels which produces an instant drop in blood pressure in the brain. This immediate loss of pressure results in the irreversible cessation of consciousness and sensibility to pain within two seconds. As Shechita incorporates an effective and irreversible stun, followed by immediate death, it is a humane method." [1]

The United States´ Humane Slaughter Act defines Shehitah as a humane slaughtering method.

European history and Shechita: controversies and legislation

The first instance of anti-Shechita legislation occurred when obligatory stunning of animals was introduced in the Swiss canton of Aargau (Argovia) in 1850 with a dispensation for shechita that was rescinded ten years later. A ban was introduced in the Kingdom of Saxony. Later the Swiss ban in Aargau applied to the whole country after a referendum on the question; the Catholic cantons voted against and the Protestant cantons supported the ban.

Shechita was banned in Finland when it was part of the Russian Empire, but the ban was lifted once Finland became independent as a result of the Communist Revolution. By 1936, shechita was only banned, within Europe, by Switzerland and Saxony. In proposed legislation in 1937, the Swedish Riksdag argued for a prohibition of the practice based on its offensive appearance to the non-Jewish population:

"Regardless whatever the case may be concerning the degree of suffering inflicted on the animal, there are other circumstances which support a schächten ban. Thus, we cannot disregard the fact that schächten makes a more disgusting and brutal impression on the observer than does slaughter by stunning. (...) Not only that, we have to take into consideration that, undoubtedly, for large sections of our population, it appears offensive to them that this kind of slaughter is legally permitted. [...]"[12]

Nazi Germany and shechita

In Germany post 1880 the Tierschutz ("Animal Protection," 'animal welfare' in English) movement protested shechita together with vivisection; this and the related Völkisch ("Folkloric") movement met little support in the German Empire but were embraced by the Nazis. Nazi animal-welfare laws established after 1933 put substantial restrictions on shechita (see the 1940 movie The Eternal Jew for an example of this), and even today, animal welfare remains controversial in the Jewish community in Germany due to its association with the Nazi regime.[13]

The Nazi conquests of Poland and other regions and countries saw the extension of their shechita ban; Mussolini likewise forbade shechita in Italy. The Allied governments lifted these bans, together with other race laws, after the liberation of Europe in 1945.

Current laws

The Swedish government commissioned a report from the Veterinary College in the 1920s that concluded that shechita could continue, but this was ignored in later Swedish legislation (although in Swedish law it is legal to slaughter fowl for private consumption). Shechita slaughtering is also prohibited in Iceland, and since 1929 in Norway.

The United Kingdom forbids shechita munachat (slaughter of the animal while it is lying on its back), on animal welfare grounds.[14]

New Zealand's Agriculture Minister struck down the exemption of shechita from animal cruelty laws on May 27, 2010, effectively banning the practice. New Zealand's Jewish leadership has indicated its willingness, should political avenues fail, to seek legal recourse to reinstate shechita's status as a form of legally-humane slaughter.[15]

Shechita has been an emotional issue in the European Union; there were strikes of slaughterhouse workers in Germany and in Malmö, in southern Sweden, protesting that shechita was permitted at all.

Significance in Jewish tradition

The laws of shechita are not given in the text of the Torah. Rather, the Torah only writes that the slaughter shall be "as I have instructed you." (Deut. 12:21) In Orthodox Judaism this is taken as a proof that Moses received an Oral Torah along with the text,[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Deut. 12:21, Deut. 14:21, Num. 11:22
  2. ↑ http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/222240/jewish/What-is-Shechita.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/jewishethics/animals_1.shtml
  4. ↑ Mishneh Torah Kedushah, Forbidden Foods 8:1
  5. ↑ Mishneh Torah Kedushah, Forbidden Foods 6:1
  6. ↑ Eisenstein, Judah David (1901-1906). "PORGING". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York. LCCN:16014703. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=453&letter=P. Retrieved 2006-07-23. 
  7. ↑ Nikkur achoraim
  8. ↑ HalalPAK comparison between halal and kosher
  9. ↑ BBC: Should Halal and Kosher meat be banned?
  10. ↑ BBC: Halal and Kosher slaughter 'must end'
  11. ↑ G. Alderman,`The defence of shechita: Anglo Jewry and the `humane conditions' regulations of 1990', New Community, 21(1) (Jan. 1995), 79-93.
  12. ↑ Judd, Robin. The Politics of Beef: Animal Advocacy and the Kosher Butchering Debates in Germany Jewish Social Studies - Volume 10, Number 1, Fall 2003 (New Series), pp. 117–150
  13. ↑ Hanna Rheinz, Kabbala der Tiere, Tierrechte im Judentum, in Tierrechte, eine interdiszinplinäre Herausforderung (Animal Rights in the Jewish Tradition), Hrsg IATE, Heidelberg 2007, S. 234-252
  14. ↑ Judd, Robin. The Politics of Beef: Animal Advocacy and the Kosher Butchering Debates in Germany Jewish Social Studies - Volume 10, Number 1, Fall 2003 (New Series), pp. 117-150
  15. ↑ http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/06/27/2739782/new-zealand-jews-plan-to-fight-for-shechitah
  16. ↑ Aryeh Carmell: Masterplan: Judaism, its program, meanings, goals. Chapter 27 Shehitah, the Torah's painless method of slaughter. p.103

External links

Further Reading

Arnold Arluke and Boria Sax, "Understanding Animal Protection and the Holocaust" in Anthrozoös, vol. V, no.1 (1992), pp. 6–31.

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