The Laws of Ritual Slaughter

The Laws of Slaughter

Our teacher Joshua ben Nun said from the mouth of Moses ben ‘Amram, from the mouth of the Almighty: Whoever slaughters for a Jew but does not know the laws of slaughter, it is prohibited to eat what he has slaughtered. And these are [the invalidating acts of] slaughter: interrupting, pressing, thrusting, diverting, and tearing.

What is “interrupting”? [When] a slaughterer begins to slaughter an animal and is forced [to pause], or the knife falls from his hand, or a scarf falls over his eyes, or a hornet lands on his hand, or someone surprises him by speaking, and [the knife] remains in his hand for the length of time that it takes to slaughter another animal, and the blood passes through all the flesh, it is a nevelah [i.e., a carcass] from the first measure [of time] that the blood has not been poured out. As it is written in the Torah: For the life of all flesh, its blood is in its life (Leviticus 17:14), and it is written: And you shall not eat the life with the flesh (Deuteronomy 12:23).

What is “pressing”? When the knife is very sharp, the animal is soft, the slaughterer is strong, and he slaughters the two organs [i.e., the trachea and esophagus] in one go, the animal is “pressed” and may not be eaten. [ . . . ]

Abominations

Our teacher Joshua ben Nun said from the mouth of Moses, from the mouth of the Almighty: Any slaughterer of Israel who slaughtered an animal or beast improperly, it is an abomination. But listen and learn, O house of Israel: If you are in a land to the east of the Sanctuary [i.e., the Temple], when slaughtering, turn toward the land of the west and slaughter. If you are in a land to the west and the Sanctuary is to the east, slaughter toward the east. If you are in the south and the Sanctuary is to the north, slaughter toward the north. If you are in the north and the Sanctuary is to the south, slaughter toward the south. For prayer and slaughter are the same [and one always prays toward the direction of the Temple].

And if you say that the table of a Jew today is like the altar upon which they would offer sacrifices [see b. Menaḥot 97a], that is the case, as they would slaughter on the altar and lift [the sacrifice] to the wood atop the altar. [And in the case of] the table of a Jew, one sanctifies and blesses over the table. [ . . . ] As it is stated: The altar, three cubits high and its length, two cubits, was of wood, and so its corners; its length, and its walls, were of wood; and he said to me: This is the table that is before the Lord (Ezekiel 41:22). It started with the altar, yet ends with a table, because one’s table in this world is in place of the altar. Consequently, it is forbidden for a Jew to slaughter unless he turns toward the Sanctuary.

If one slaughters without reciting a blessing, it is an abomination. If one slaughters [while one is] naked, it is an abomination. If one slaughters without a scarf [upon his head], it is an abomination. If one slaughters while drunk, it is an abomination. If one slaughters without bathing after a seminal emission, [for example, if] he forgot to bathe, it is an abomination.

If one is sitting in a house of mourning and he is a mourner, he may slaughter only after his days of mourning have been completed, because slaughter requires one [to have] a settled mind and his heart [to be] glad, for there is joy in [consumption of] meat, as it says: And you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 27:7). Therefore, one should know whether he can recite a blessing over the act of slaughter, and if not, regarding him the verse states: He that sacrifices for the gods shall be utterly destroyed [save for the Lord alone] (Exodus 22:19). [ . . . ]

How can one differentiate between a slaughter for the altar and a slaughter for consumption? In a slaughter for the altar, the animal would be examined by the priests before they slaughtered it, and they would slaughter only at a time for the sacrifices, but for consumption it is permitted to slaughter at any time, except for the Sabbath, as it is written: After all the desire of your soul [you may slaughter and eat meat] (Deuteronomy 12:15).

But [if] one seeks to slaughter for a Jew to eat and there comes before him an unusual animal, [how should he proceed]? What is an unusual animal? An animal that has two heads—which of them should he slaughter? If the animal grazes with two heads and hauls loads with two heads and both heads have whole eyes and ears, and he wants to slaughter it, he may slaughter the animal with two heads [as follows]: place the left head below and the right head above, bring the skulls together, one skull atop the other, put his hand on both of them together, recite the blessing and slaughter, and turn to the right (upper) head. And if he diverted [the knife while slaughtering] the upper [head] or tilted it, it is a terefah [an animal with a fatal condition before it died, which may not be eaten]. But if the slaughter of the upper head was accomplished properly, it is kosher, and if he diverted [the knife while slaughtering] the lower (left) [head] or tilted [it, the animal remains] kosher.