WHAT IS KOSHER MEAT?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 19, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 25.

WHAT IS KOSHER MEAT?

The following extract from Chosen People gives some interesting facts in regard to the custom of the Jews in preparing meat for food. We quote the article entire:—

“God commanded the children of Israel not to eat blood. ‘For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood,’ Lev. 17:11, 12. ‘Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.’ Deut. 12:16. Hence the Jews kill cattle or poultry with a knife, so that the victim shall bleed freely, and the blood be poured out upon the earth, and none of it be absorbed by the members of the body, as is the case when animals are killed by blows. But the scribes and so-called wise men of old were not satisfied with this pure and plain command of God, and added to it hundreds of precepts of their own.”

TRADITIONS.

“Some of these traditions demand that a masculine expert, who is pious and obedient to the rabbi, shall do the killing. Moreover, this man, whom they call the ‘Shochet,’ meaning killer or slayer, must have separate knives for cattle and for poultry, each knife must be so long and so wide, so sharp and so smooth. In order that the animal’s death may be easy, there must not be the least indentation in the edge of the knife. The old rabbis stated that slaying with a rough knife made death very painful, and that it was as difficult to take thorns out of wool as for the spirit to depart from the body when killed in such a way. But the perfectly sharp and smooth knife made death as easy as drawing a hair from milk. Therefore the shochet must frequently bring his knives for inspection to the rabbi, who examines them by passing his finger-nail up and down the edge to discover the slightest cut or damage.”

“The origin of this custom came from the command, ‘Neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.’ Ex. 22:31. So they argued and reasoned that if an animal is killed with a rough knife, it is just as if it were torn of beasts, and hence becomes unfit for Israel’s consumption, and must be given to the dogs.”

WHAT IS TRAYFA?

“The Hebrew word for torn of beasts is trayfa. The rabbis of old called all meat which was not dealt with after their precepts, ‘trayfa.’ If the shochet has a perfect knife, and is an expert, and meets all the requirements of the law, which he has to study for years before he is given a diploma; and yet if he breaks the Sabbath by smoking a cigar, or doing the slightest work, the animal that he slays is trayfa. But if everything is all right, the meat is called kosher, meaning fit and right. If any one should use the meat of an animal which has not been slaughtered by the right shochet, in the right way, all his dishes would be rendered unfit for further use.”

“The Jews do not use the whole animal, even when kosher. They eat the forequarters only. The hindquarters, including the tenderloin and porter-house steaks, and all which seems best to a Gentile, is set aside, because of Gen. 32:32: ‘Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day; and as they can not extricate this sinew and its branches, they will not eat the meat.’”

THE LUNG EXAMINED.

“The shochet, after slaughtering the steer, opens it carefully against its lungs, and thrusting in his hand, which he moves with great perception and delicacy, he brings forth a lung. Then some one inflates it, and if any disease is discovered, or if there is the slightest aperture so that the air escapes, then the whole carcass is trayfa. Then again there are many laws about other members of the animal, such as, if both linings of the stomach are perforated, the beef is trayfa; or if the liver is smaller than an olive, or if there are any holes in some organs of the body, the meat is trayfa.”

FIVE CHIEF LAWS.

“There are in the code of laws sixty-seven chapters treating on Sh’chitah (slaughtering) and trayfa. These chapters contain 517 sections, besides many commentators’ opinions and by-laws, which the shochet must study. Still, he is not expected to know them as well as the rabbi, to whom all doubtful cases are referred. A shochet must practise for a long time, and must be skilful, active, and brisk, in order to be fit for this work; he must be strong in mind and in nerve, his hand must be steady, and he must be careful in every particular.”

“The chief laws require that as he draws his knife twice over the throat of an animal, he must sever the gullet and windpipe; he must not stop, he must not press down the knife; nothing must be above the knife; the gullet and windpipe must not be out of their proper places while being severed, and the cut must be in the middle of the throat.”

“There is one large slaughterhouse in New York,—the Gouverneur Slip Slaughterhouse,—where these rules are observed, and where there is an authorized

rabbi in attendance to examine the shochet’s knives and the carcasses. They kill from 1,600 to 1,900 cattle each week, and from there the real kosher meat, with labels attached, comes to retail dealers. But the majority of small dealers deceive their ignorant customers, for they also put on labels and place large signs of kosher in their stores. Some of them have their own slaughter establishments, their own shochets, and their own overseers and examiners, who act as rabbis. The ignorant Jews do not know that there is a difference, and so buy their meat of any butcher who has a kosher sign and can affix a label to his meat.”