Deconstructing Kosher Slaughter: Part 1 - Setting a Higher Bar

8/8/2013

It often amazes me how little most of us know about what is entailed in killing animals, and even more so, how little even well-versed Jews know about kosher slaughter (aka shechita). This lack of understanding often leads to either idealized or vilified views of kosher and other forms of slaughter. In order to eat animals ethically, it is essential that we understand the end of our animals’ lives. Therefore, I will attempt to explain and demystify this topic in many of my coming posts.

The laws of shechita are based almost entirely on the Oral Torah, which was originally only passed down verbally, but because of the fear of losing the oral tradition, it was eventually written down and is now comprised of such books as the Mishna, the Talmud, and the Shulchan Aruch, and their commentaries. This is opposed to the Written Torah, which is composed of the Five Books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings. According to Jewish tradition, the oral and the written Torah were both handed down to Moses on Mt. Sinai, they are perfectly complementary and cannot be separated from one another. While the laws of kosher slaughter comprise teachings from the oral tradition, the Rabbis identified chapter 12, verse 21, in the book of Deuteronomy as the written source of these laws.

“If the place which HASHEM your God shall choose to put His name there [the holy temple] becomes too far from you, then you shall slaughter of your cattle and of your sheep which HASHEM has given you, and you shall eat within your gates after all the desire of your soul, all this shall you do as I have commanded you.”
כִּי-יִרְחַק מִמְּךָ הַמָּקוֹם, אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר יְי אֱלֹקיךָ לָשׂוּם שְׁמוֹ שָׁם, וְזָבַחְתָּ מִבְּקָרְךָ וּמִצֹּאנְךָ אֲשֶׁר נָתַן יְי לְךָ, כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִךָ--וְאָכַלְתָּ, בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ, בְּכֹל, אַוַּת נַפְשֶׁךָ.

This beginning of the verse, “If the place . . . (the holy temple) becomes too far from you,” establishes that the slaughter and consumption of animals should ideally only occur at the holy temple, a place that one must reach complete psychological and spiritual purity to enter. This indicates that the killing of animals is a sacred act and must involve the highest levels of care and consideration, as were all acts performed in the holy temple. But just as the temple might be too far from us physically, the emotional and spiritual level that the temple represents often “becomes too far from us.” So in order to facilitate holiness and care while providing nourishment for others in the everyday world, we have been given the laws of shechita, as is indicated by the end of the verse, “Then you shall slaughter of your cattle and of your sheep . . . all this shall you do as I have commanded you.” From this, we learn that the core reason for shechita is to help humans strive to kill and eat animals with the utmost holiness, care, compassion and respect.

4 Comments

Ami Silver

8/9/2013 12:18:39 am

Hi Yadidya. Great to see this. Yasharkoach in your holy work of tikkun. Have you seen the Kli Yakar on that pasuk from Re'eh? He basically says that when we become distanced from Hashem/the Mikdash we can only eat meat as we would "a deer or a gazelle" which need to be hunted, trapped, skinned, salted, etc. He says that the personal danger and effort it takes to do this makes it something we would only do once in a while and we would not become habituated to eating meat as we would a domesticated animal in our backyard. This is why Yitzchak asked Esav to go hunt him a meal because he was upholding this deal way of meat consumption. I don't know if he held this lehalacha, it's consequences would transform the way that meat is eaten, but it's an interesting piece nonetheless. Here's part of it:
כי ירחיב ה' א=להיך את גבולך ואמרת אוכלה בשר. הורה שאין האדם הומה אחר התאוות כי אם מתוך הרחבה יתירה, ואין ארי נוהם כי אם מתוך קופה של בשר )ברכות לב א(. לכך אמר כי ירחיב ה' את גבולך וזה יביאך לידי הסרת מסוה הבושה מעל פניך עד שתאמר בפה מלא אוכלה בשר, ודומה זה קצת לפריקת עול מלכות שמים... אמנם כי ירחק ממך המקום גורם לך שרחוק ה' מכליותיך על כן כל היום תתאוה תאוה גם בוש לא תבוש מלומר אוכלה בשר, הנני מתיר לך הדבר וזבחת מבקרך וגו' כאשר צויתיך לא בכל עת כי אם לפרקים בעת התגברות התאוה. וזה שאמר אך כאשר יאכל את הצבי ואת האיל כן תאכלנו, וכמו שנאמר )שם יח יג( כי יצוד ציד חיה או עוף, ואמרו חז"ל )חולין פד א( לימדך תורה דרך ארץ שלא יאכל אדם בשר כי אם בהזמנה הזאת. ביאור הדבר הוא שאם ירגיל האדם את עצמו לאכול מן הבהמות המצוין אתו בבית שור או כשב או עז אז כל היום יתאו&#

Yadidya Greenberg

9/22/2013 03:36:30 am

Okay sorry it has taken me so long to respond to this one. This brings up so many important issues that I could write 10 blog posts on everything it bring up but I will try my best to give a good if only a partial response.

In our modern age of such overabundance it is very easy to see meat as a te'avah (unholy earthly desire). But in the Kli Yakar's time as well as in much of the 3rd world today meat eating was and is an absolute necessity to maintain basic health. For many people in the developed world including pregnant/nursing, sick and generally weak individuals meat eating is often a necessity or at least a major aid in maintaining good health. I see our relationship with animals and meat consumption as something deep that penetrates into our very core. We eat animals because we rely on them and have so for thousands if not millions of years. They have come to make up much of who we are physically in the form of the many fats that make up our brains, and emotionally/societally in the many ways in which they have effected how our societies and families function and relate. We have also changed them to the core, making wolves into thousands of breeds of dogs, buffalo into cows, and Chinese jungle fowl into beautiful healthy chickens on one end and disgusting “frakenchickens” on the other. If we honor the power of this relationship and honor the animals as they deserve for giving us their lives than I think the lessons learned from the process greatly outweigh any te’avah an individual might have toward meat consumption. Of course society does not often honor its relationship with animals today and while the abuses might have been lees egregious in the past still society probably did not do nearly as well as it could have in the Kli Yakar’s time either. It seems clear to me that the Kli Yakar’s dvar torah did not affect how he held le halacha as it would have endangered the lives of many if followed as such in his time and would also obviously endanger the viability of many wild animals were Jews to hunt for all their meat. I also have several questions and counterpoints in how he reached his conclusion but all this would take much too long to spell out here. That being said I do definitely agree with the Kli Yakar in some respects but it would again take me much too long to get into the particulars here. In short I can say that I believe that the laws of kosher slaughter were in part intended to make meat processing and consumption something less convenient that would be treated with more respect which seems to vibe well with the Kli’s general message.

Shmuel Simenowitz

8/9/2013 03:35:31 am

Ami - funny you should bring that down - I ran into that Kli Yakar quite by accident last week and it helped me to respond to a college student who wondered about the current kosher meat debacle (I actually had come to a similar conclusion based on an article in the NYT about shopping on line and how it has gone out of control since we have lost that "friction" - the hassle of going to the store, etc. - not every experience in life should be seamless

11/21/2013 01:32:04 am

Your ending sentence says it all:
"From this, we learn that the core reason for shechita is to help humans strive to kill and eat animals with the utmost holiness, care, compassion and respect."
I agree!

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