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Man of Steel: How a Kosher Slaughterer Turned Knifemaking into an Art

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
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"There are countless ways to screw up killing a kosher chicken. You could hesitate, for a moment, halfway through the chicken’s neck—the knife must be drawn across in one fluid motion, and the slightest pause can render the slaughter unkosher. You could accidentally tear the chicken’s trachea or esophagus, instead of slicing both in one clean sweep, as Jewish law requires. Your blade could nick on a grain of sand embedded in the neck—any nick found on the blade invalidates the animal for certification. You could drop the knife, press down too hard, obscure the point of incision, lose control of the bird. While an experienced kosher slaughterer can kill thousands of chickens a day without error, a beginning student might have a success rate of just over 3 percent."

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Rabbi Yurman holds a 'chalif' he has made.

"Rabbi Moshe Yurman, 65, hasn’t screwed up a kosher chicken in decades. He slaughtered his first animal at 18 and has since butchered innumerable goats, cows, chickens, sheep, peafowl, pigeons, bulls, American bison, and buffalo: If it’s kosher, he has probably killed it.

Yurman got into animal slaughter for the knives. In addition to being a shochet, or slaughterer, he is one of only three ritual knife-makers in the United States. There are fewer than 10 worldwide.

The knife, known as the chalif, is the most important tool of the shochet. The chalif must be handmade and kept exquisitely sharp. In industrial kosher plants, a bell rings every three minutes reminding shochtim to check their knives. If a nick the size of a hairsbreadth is discovered, all animals killed since the last inspection are deemed not kosher. There are different knives for different animals. For chickens, the blade is about five inches long. A lamb, eight to 12. A full-sized cow would need at least an 18-inch blade. The same goes for a bull. A buffalo could exceed 19 inches. The ideal shechitah knife is roughly two-thirds the size of the animal’s neck."

Full article.

maximus otter
 
Are the 97% of non-kosher chickens then sold to gentiles?

There is no legal requirement for Kosher or Halal-slaughtered meat to be labelled. There was an attempt recently by one education committee to enforce a policy of refusing such meat for mainstream use. It was defeated.

As I understand it, even if an animal is butchered correctly, according to the rules, certain cuts are deemed non-Kosher anyway. The issue has arisen before and I recall a chart which tried to shed some light on the sources of supermarket meat. Suffice it to say that the amount of Kosher and Halal meat in the food-system far exceeds the quantity destined for consumption by Jews and Muslims. :meh:
 
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I once worked in an organisation with strong jewish roots. The subject of kosher wine came up & it turned out that kosher wine is wine that has been blessed by a rabbi. Talk about ludicrous..
 
I once worked in an organisation with strong jewish roots. The subject of kosher wine came up & it turned out that kosher wine is wine that has been blessed by a rabbi. Talk about ludicrous..
Kosher items like wine or crackers get blessed on an industrial scale. Rabbi just walks into a warehouse, does his bit and walks back out. There is no depth or emotion to it, it's just like ticking a box for the sake of it and I'm sure defeats the original idea.
 
Reminds me of Uri Geller "energising" his crystals for sale.
 
The Jewish faith imposes all sorts of restrictions which they then have to get around somehow. One of the more ingeniously ridiculous must be the Eruv, an area deemed to be exempt from ancient Jewish law & bound by poles connected 5.5m above the ground by clear nylon fishing wire enabling people to work round some of the restrictions when convenient on the sabbath. Weekly inspections are required to check for breakages.

In the case of rabbi's blessing, this could possibly be outsourced to a robot rabbi in the future saving money & time. As long as the robot was blessed in the first place it would continue to carry those blessings to pass on to the faithful.
 
Kosher wine is not simply wine blessed by a Rabbi.
I once worked in an organisation with strong jewish roots. The subject of kosher wine came up & it turned out that kosher wine is wine that has been blessed by a rabbi. Talk about ludicrous..

That is not correct.

Kosher wine is wine which has been overseen by Jewish people in it's life on the vine and in it's production, or is flash heated in way that alters the original nature of the liquid so that it constitutes a new "wine."

The reason is 100% spiritual, because wine was used in pagan and satanic rituals many years ago, and so Jews must be careful not to use such spiritually contaminated wine.

The Eruv made out of wire is only one way such an idea is physically expressed, and again is a spiritual idea (with a physical expression) designed to sanctify the Sabbath (and some festivals.)
There are other Eruvs relating to food, in practical terms expressed by cooking certain foods in advance of a festival..

Such a concept is a reminder that one is observing the Sabbath, a day with enhanced spiritual qualities.

The physical presence of an Eruv made of thin wire well above head height is no impediment to anyone, Jewish or non-Jewish.
 
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