Shechitah (Ritual Slaughtering)

Question: Why is there a ritual way of slaughtering and preparing all kosher animals except for fish? Answer: When the Jews were in the desert and started complaining about the lack of meat, Moses turned to G‑d saying, “If sheep and cattle were slaughtere...

Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 100 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 97 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.

Shechita is the Jewish religious and humane method of slaughtering permitted animals and poultry for food. It is the only method of producing kosher meat and poultry allowed by Jewish law. It is a most humane method as explained below. There is no ritual ...

Shechita is performed with a surgically sharp instrument (a chalaf), which must be perfectly smooth without the minutest notch or irregularity. The shochet constantly examines the instrument to ensure this standard is maintained. The frontal structures at...

Only a Jew specially trained for shechita - a shochet - can perform shechita. He is required to study for a number of years and is examined, in theory and practice, in the laws of shechita, animal anatomy and pathology. He serves an apprenticeship with an...

Shechita is the only method of animal slaughter permitted by Jewish law to enable Jews to eat meat and poultry. It is not a dispensable custom or an outdated rite or ceremony, but a divinely ordained Jewish teaching given to Moses on Mount Sinai. It remai...

He examines the organs and vessels immediately after severance by the shechita incision, to ascertain that the shechita was properly performed, this examination is visual and tactile (b'dikath ha'simanim).This integral part of the shechita process is requ...

"Stunning" refers to the methods of attempting to render an animal or bird unconscious prior to slaughter. The main methods used in the general slaughtering industry for cattle and sheep are: • captive bolt gun: a steel bolt is shot into the skull at the ...

Recent research for the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) has shown that use of the captive-bolt stun gun on animals infected with BSE can transmit the infected tissue into parts of an animal used in the human food chain. This presents a r...