Chullin, Chapter 1, Mishnah 1. The opening two perakim of this masechet are devoted to the laws of shechitah, and our mishnah begins with the most basic question of all: who is qualified to slaughter an animal, and what happens if someone unqualified did the slaughtering anyway?
What Shechitah Is
Meat does not become permitted by itself. The Torah instructs that an animal or bird may be eaten only once its life has been ended through shechitah, a blade drawn across the neck. A beast that died on its own, or one whose slaughtering failed to meet the standards halachah sets, is a neveilah, and eating it violates a prohibition of the Torah.
A valid shechitah requires that two pipes be severed: the kaneh, the trachea, which is the windpipe, and the veshet, the esophagus, which is the food pipe. Both must be fully cut.
A number of requirements shape the act itself. The cut is made at the throat, on the animal's front side, never from behind. It has to be carried through without any break in the motion. The knife travels back and forth in a slicing stroke and is never pressed downward like an axe. And the blade must be entirely smooth, since even a tiny notch would tear the pipes instead of severing them cleanly.
The Five Disqualifications
Halachah leMoshe miSinai teaches five ways a shechitah becomes invalid:
- Shehiyah, pausing. Any interruption in the middle of the act ruins the shechitah, even if the cutting was afterward completed and the animal died from it.
- Derasah, pressing. The knife is pushed down into the neck instead of being drawn back and forth across it.
- Chaladah, concealing. The blade is buried within the folds of fat, so that the knife cannot be seen as it passes through the throat.
- Hagramah, cutting outside the proper zone, above or below the designated area of the neck where the shechitah must take place.
- Ikkur, tearing. A nicked knife rips the pipes apart rather than slicing them.
"Hakol Shochatin Veshechitatan Kesheirah"
The mishnah opens: "Hakol shochatin veshechitatan kesheirah," everyone may slaughter and their shechitah is valid. Lechatchilah, from the outset, we hand the knife to a mumcheh, someone with real familiarity with the laws of shechitah. A person whose knowledge we cannot vouch for should not be slaughtering to begin with.
But the second half of the phrase, "veshechitatan kesheirah," addresses what happens after the fact. Even a person whose expertise was unknown to us, if he went ahead and slaughtered, his shechitah stands, provided we question him afterward about the halachot and confirm that he performed it correctly. If he is examined and demonstrates that he knows the laws, the meat is kosher. If there is no way to examine him, if he is unavailable to be questioned, the shechitah is invalid.
The sweeping word "hakol," everyone, comes to include even a person who has never proven his ability. One might have thought we should worry that such a person will hesitate at the moment of truth, that the sight of blood will make him faint, and that the resulting pause will ruin the shechitah through shehiyah. The mishnah teaches that we do not entertain that concern.
The Three Who Are Excluded
"Chutz mecheresh, shoteh, vekatan." Three categories stand outside this general permission: one who is deaf and mute, one who has no daat, and a child. We do not place a knife in their hands, and should one of them go ahead and slaughter, the shechitah is disqualified whether or not he was familiar with the halachot, and the animal is forbidden.
The reason: "shema yekalkelu bishchitatan," they may have ruined the shechitah. They lack the awareness and the reliability to be trusted with the act, and it is entirely possible that what they did was not done in a halachically acceptable manner.
"Vechulan sheshachatu va'acheirim ro'in otan, shechitatan kesheirah." If any of these three slaughtered while others who know the laws of shechitah stood and watched, the shechitah is valid. The observers would have detected a problem had one occurred, and if they saw nothing wrong, the meat is kosher, even though the one holding the knife was not a baki and not a mumcheh.
Shechitat Nochri
The next case cannot be salvaged by any arrangement. "Shechitat nochri, neveilah." Should a gentile do the slaughtering, the animal becomes a neveilah, even where every detail was carried out flawlessly and a Jew who knows the halachot supervised the act from beginning to end. Only a Jew may serve as slaughterer, one who is himself bound by the Torah's dietary commands, and a non-Jew is therefore excluded.
Our mishnah is speaking of a gentile who slaughtered with no idolatrous purpose whatsoever. In such a case, though the flesh is banned as food, one may still derive benefit from the carcass in other ways, since nothing here was dedicated to an idol. Where the gentile slaughtered in the service of avodah zarah, however, say he was a priest of an idolatrous cult or a man known as a worshipper, every form of benefit from the animal is prohibited, for we presume the act was a sacrifice to a false deity.
"Umetamei Bemasa"
The mishnah adds: "umetamei bemasa," and it transmits tumah through carrying. This neveilah conveys tumah to a person who touches it, and also to one who carries it even without direct contact, for example a person transporting it in a box or on a cushion, with something separating his hands from the animal itself. What it does not convey is tum'at ohel, the tumah transmitted by being under the same roof.
The Gemara wonders what this clause contributes. Tumah through carrying applies to every neveilah, so what new information is being conveyed here? The answer is that the mishnah is drawing a line. Where no idolatrous intent accompanied the killing, the tumah extends only to touch and to carrying. Where the slaughtering was performed as idol worship, so that the animal is tikrovet avodah zarah, its tumah reaches further and affects a person through ohel as well, merely by his standing beneath the same roof or in the same space. Marking off that difference is the purpose of these words.
Slaughtering Without Sight
The mishnah now turns to shechitah performed when the slaughterer cannot see what he is doing. "Hashocheit balailah, vechein hasumei sheshachat, shechitatah kesheirah." One who slaughters at night, unable to see the animal as he works, and likewise a blind person who slaughtered, the shechitah is valid.
Lechatchilah this is forbidden, precisely because the shocheit may do something improper without ever realizing it. But bedi'avad, after the fact, the shechitah is accepted.
Slaughtering on Shabbat and Yom Kippur
"Hashocheit beShabbat uveYom HaKippurim." Shechitah is one of the avot melachot, forbidden on Shabbat and on Yom Kippur. Our case is a person who slaughtered without knowing he was doing wrong, either because he forgot that shechitah is prohibited on these days, or because he forgot that the day itself was Shabbat or Yom Kippur.
"Af al pi shemitchayeiv benafsho, shechitatah kesheirah." His deed was one that carries capital consequences: had he acted bemeizid, with awareness, in front of witnesses who gave him proper warning, he would face execution for desecrating Shabbat, and the punishment of kareit for Yom Kippur. All the same, the shechitah itself is valid, because he never meant to transgress the sanctity of the day.
As for the meat, it remains off limits until nightfall, since for the remainder of such a day one may not enjoy the fruits of a melachah done when work is forbidden. Once the day has passed, the meat is fully kosher and may be eaten.
And if the shechitah was done deliberately, the one who slaughtered may never eat that meat. Others, though, are permitted to eat it once the day has come to a close.