Laws of Slaughter

Kosher slaughter may be performed by anyone, even a heretic, under the assumption that one checks the knife and hands it to him [see b. Ḥullin 4a]. This means we do not trust his slaughter a priori because we cannot rely on him to have checked the knife on his own before using it. He might have forgotten and not checked it, since one does not typically check the knife before slaughtering. And we learn from the following that the knife is generally not checked before slaughtering. For one of the sages of this generation [Maimonides, 1138–1204] insists on checking the knife after slaughtering, and another [Isaac al-Fāsī, 1013–1103] says that if the knife was lost after the slaughtering before it could be checked, then even if he checked it before slaughtering, the slaughter is disqualified. But there is neither root nor branch to any of these things.

We can further clarify this with regard to one who slaughters with a knife that is subsequently found to be defective. If the knife is acceptable, it is permissible to eat what he slaughtered, and if not, it is forbidden—this is under the assumption that he has strayed from Jewish practice simply by eating nonkosher meat for pleasure. But if he eats it defiantly, his slaughtering is disqualified unless a[n observant] Jew watches him do it from beginning to end.

But a heretic who slaughters an animal is considered to be slaughtering offerings to the dead [i.e., idols]. His crops are to be considered inedible as not yet being tithed; his wine is to be considered wine that has been consecrated to idolatry, and his books are to be considered books of divination. Some say even that his children are to be considered illegitimate. And who is a “heretic”? One who commits apostasy to worship idols, to profane the Sabbath publicly. His slaughter is disqualified.