Chullin, Chapter 2, Mishnah 3. Our chapter has been working through the mishaps that ruin a shechita even when the shochet fully intended to act properly. This mishnah turns to derisa, bearing down. A valid shechita is made by drawing the blade to and fro across the throat, the way a saw works. Should the simanim instead be opened by driving the knife straight down with force, nothing has been achieved and the shechita does not count. What follows is a series of cases in which we must determine whether such bearing down occurred.
Chopping off the head
"Hitiz et harosh" - he lopped off the animal's head - "bebat achat, pesulah." The head came away in one blow, without the blade traveling back and forth, and the slaughter is disqualified. A stroke of that kind is by its very nature a downward driving of the knife, and shechita demands the sawing motion.
"Haya shochet" - here he was slaughtering properly, moving the blade forward and back as required - "vehitiz et harosh," and the head came off, "bebat achat," in the course of one of those passes, whether the outward one or the return. Was that pass a genuine slicing motion, or was it a downward press?
"Im yesh besakin melo tzavar, keshera." Everything turns on the size of the blade. If the knife exceeds the animal's neck by an extra neck's breadth, so that its length comes to twice that measurement, the slaughter is valid: a blade of that reach can carry the simanim through on one draw, and we have no grounds to suspect that he bore down on it. Where the knife does not reach that measure, we take for granted that the simanim could not have been severed in one movement without the blade being forced downward, and the shechita is disqualified.
Two animals at once
"Haya shochet" - he was in the middle of slaughtering - "vehitiz shnei rashim," and he took off two heads, "bebat achat," in a single stroke. The test the mishnah applies: does the knife have "melo tzavar echad," a spare neck's breadth beyond the two necks it passed through? If it does, "keshera." A blade that long could sweep through both necks on one draw, so nothing compelled him to bear down at any point. With a shorter knife the assumption runs the other way: only downward force could have taken both heads at once, and since both heads did come off at once, downward force is what we conclude occurred.
When is the measurement needed?
"Bameh devarim amurim?" In which circumstance does this rule apply? When must we insist that the blade carry an extra neck's breadth beyond the neck or necks it cuts? "Bizman sheholich velo hevi," when he pushed the knife away and never drew it back, "o hevi velo holich," or drew it back and never pushed it away: in short, where the entire cut was made in one direction only.
"Aval im holich vehevi" - but if the blade traveled both ways, out and back - then its size ceases to matter: "afilu kol shehu," any knife whatsoever, "afilu be'izmel," even a tiny scalpel, "keshera." Two passes in opposite directions can open the simanim with no downward pressure at all, however small the blade, and the shechita stands.
A knife that falls on its own
"Nafla sakin veshachata." A knife came down on its own and slaughtered the animal. No human force lay behind it: he did not throw it, and he did not start it moving downward and let it carry on by itself. It simply fell, and in falling it cut. "Af al pi" - even though - "sheshachata kedarka," the cut came out exactly as a shechita should, with the blade traveling across the throat, the ruling is "pesula."
"Shene'emar, Vezavachta ve'achalta." The pasuk says that you shall slaughter and you shall eat, and from this we learn: "Mah she'ata zove'ach, ata ochel." What you slaughter, you may eat. Only a shechita performed by a person permits the meat for eating, and only such a shechita is kosher.
Interruptions in the middle of the shechita
The mishnah now lists three cases in which the shechita was already under way and something interrupted it.
- "Nafla sakin vehigbiha." Once he had begun cutting, the knife slipped from his hand; he retrieved it and carried on.
- "Naflu kelav vehigbihan." Once he had begun cutting, his garments slid off him; he lifted them back into place and carried on.
- "Hishchiz et hasakin ve'af" - he wore himself out sharpening the knife, started to slaughter, and had no strength left to see it through - "uva chaveiro veshachat," so another man stepped in and finished the slaughtering.
"Im shaha kedei shechita, pesula." In every one of these cases, should the delay stretch to the span of a full shechita, the slaughter is disqualified. The stoppage, then, must be exceedingly short.
"Rebbi Shimon omer." Rebbi Shimon sets a tighter limit: "af shaha kedei bikur," even a delay equal to the time one would need to run over the blade and confirm that its edge is free of nicks, a briefer measure than the first one, is already enough to disqualify the shechita.