Notes.
1. On Page 459—1a.
The prohibition of eating meat taken from the body of an animal whilst alive is based on the words אך בשר בנפשו דמו לא תאכלו “But flesh, when the blood thereof is in its soul, shall ye not eat” (Gen. ix. 4). The phrase “to be in the soul” means to be surrounded and animated by the soul, to be in the midst of active, living organs of the animal. “The blood of an animal is in the soul thereof” may therefore be paraphrased thus, “The blood hath its vital powers and the animal is alive.” (Comp. Lev. xvii. 11.)
This prohibition is one of the שבע מצות בני נח “the seven Noachide commandments,” i.e., commandments which, according to Tradition, were already in force in the days of Noah, and are binding on all his children or all mankind, and not on the Israelites alone; viz., (1) the prohibition of idolatry (עבודה זרה), (2) of murder (שפיכות דם), (3) of adultery (גלוי עריות), (4) of blasphemy (ברכת השם), (5) of robbery (גזל), (6) of eating meat taken from a living animal (אבר מן החי), and (7) the institution of courts of justice (דינין). See Babyl. Talm., Sanhedrin 56a. [[463]]
2. On Page 459—1c.
The existence of certain rules concerning killing animals for food included in the oral teaching of the Torah is derived from the following passage: “Thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock which the Lord hath given thee as I have commanded thee” (Deut. xii. 21). In the Commentary of Rashi, ad locum, we read: “Here we see that certain commandments have been given with regard to the killing of animals, how this should be done. These commandments are comprised in Hilchoth Shechitah, which form part of the Oral Law, revealed to Moses on Sinai.” They are fully discussed and explained in the first chapter of the treatise Chullin.
Any deviation from these rules in the act of killing the animal renders the shechitah unlawful (פסולה). The killing of cattle, beasts, or fowl for food is therefore entrusted only to such persons as possess a knowledge of the rules of shechitah and are skilled and trustworthy. The beth-din or the Chief-Rabbi decides whether a person has duly qualified himself for the office of shochet (שוחט), and whether he may kill animals for kasher food.
It is the duty of the shochet to examine the animal before killing it, and to satisfy himself that it is not in a dying condition; after the shechitah of any cattle or beast (בהמה or חיה) he must examine the lungs to assure himself that they are in a normal condition. If he finds them in a diseased state he declares the flesh of the animal as t’refah (טרפה) and unfit for food. In the case of poultry the examination is not made by the shochet; but if any deviation from the normal state is discovered in the lungs or in any other part, the meat must not be used as food unless the animal has been examined by a competent person (Rabbi or dayyan), and declared by him to be kasher.
As to the beneficial influence of these examinations on the general condition of health in the Jewish community, see Dr. H. Behrend’s articles in Jewish Chronicle, November 12, 1880, and October 24, 1890, and Nineteenth Century, October 1890.
3. On Page 459—1d.
The following particular rules are to be observed in kashering meat:—
(a.) The meat is first soaked in water for half-an-hour; this [[464]]must be done within three days after the killing of the animal. It is then taken out of the water, placed on a slanting board or in a wicker-basket, and after a few minutes, when the water has sufficiently run off, sprinkled on all sides with salt. After the lapse of an hour the salt is again removed by soaking and rinsing.
(b.) In case of urgency, when, e.g., the meat is wanted for a patient, or when on Friday afternoon there would not be left time enough for cooking or roasting the meat, it need only be kept in water for fifteen minutes and in salt for half-an-hour.
(c.) In kashering poultry all the inner parts of the animal must be taken out and salted separately; the rest must be sprinkled with salt both within and without.
(d.) Liver is salted a little and roasted on fire, not in the oven or in any vessel. This done, the liver may be cooked or roasted in any way.
(e.) The heart is cut open before the salting, and a piece is cut off at the apex, in order that the blood may run off more easily.—For the same purpose the horny part of the legs is cut off.—The head must be opened and sprinkled with salt on both sides, after the brain has been taken out; from the latter the skin is drawn off, and then it is salted.
(f.) Eggs found in poultry are treated as meat, but must be salted separately.
(g.) The vessels used for soaking and salting the meat should not be used for other purposes.
4. On Page 459—1c.
The law of shechitah applies only to cattle, beasts, and birds (בהמה, חיה and עוף); there is no commandment as regards the killing of fish. Tradition supports this exception by reference to the distinction made in Num. xi. 22: “Shall the flocks and the herds be slain (ישחט) for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together (יאסף) for them, to suffice them?” Although the latter term (יאסף) is also used of quails (ibid. 32), no such inference is made with regard to birds, because in ver. 32 the term יאסף is not contrasted by ישחט; besides, the verb שחט is frequently applied in the Law to birds, but never to fish. Comp. Babyl. Talm., Chullin, p. 27b.
There is this difference to be observed between בהמה on the [[465]]one hand, and חיה and עוף on the other. In the case of the latter two the shechitah must be followed by the covering of the blood (כסוי דם Lev. xvii. 13). The object of this law is, according to some, to prevent the blood being used for idolatrous and superstitious purposes, as birds and beasts were generally hunted in the fields, mountains, and woods, places frequently associated in the imagination of the ancients with evil spirits and the like. (Comp. Commentary of R. Obadiah Seforno on the Pentateuch, ad locum.) The law was perhaps intended to impress the lesson on the mind of the hunter that the blood shed of a living being presents a ghastly sight that offends the eye of man. He will accustom himself to think that taking away the life of another being, even of an animal, is an act of grave responsibility, and will not be led to misuse his weapons against any of his fellow-men.
5. On Page 460—3b.
Comp. Mishnah, Treatise Chullin, iii. 6.—The characteristics of the clean and the unclean cattle and beasts are given in the Pentateuch, but the characteristics of the clean or the unclean birds are not mentioned in the Law. Our Sages, however, declared every bird of prey—or every bird that seizes its food with its claws, and lifts it up from the ground before eating it (Rashi) to be an unclean bird; while all birds are clean that have a projecting claw (אצבע יתרה a claw longer than the rest) and a crop (זפק), and whose stomach has a membrane that can easily be peeled off (קרקבנו נקלף). Another rule is this: Birds that dwell and associate with unclean birds are unclean. “Not without reason does the starling go to the raven: they are of the same species” (Babyl. Talm., Chullin 65b). The sentence serves also as a moral lesson (ibid., Baba Kama 92a). At present, however, only those birds are killed for food which are known traditionally to have always been considered as “clean birds” (Maimonides, Mishneh-torah, Hilchoth maachaloth asuroth, i. 14–20; Tur Joredeah, chap. lxxxii.).
6. On Page 461—7.
Onkelos translates this commandment: לא תיכול בשר בחלב “Thou shalt not eat meat in milk,” in accordance with the Oral Law. The threefold repetition of the commandment forbidding [[466]]the seething of a kid in its mother’s milk is explained traditionally to indicate a threefold prohibition: that of boiling meat and milk together, that of eating such mixture, and that of deriving any benefit whatever from it (ואיסור, איסור אכילה, איסור בישול הנאה). In obedience to the principle, “Make a fence round the Law,” we abstain from milk or butter for some time after having partaken of meat.
7. On Page 461—4.
The honey of bees is an apparent exception from the rule that the products of the unclean animals are forbidden. The honey mentioned in the Bible is mostly the juice of fruit, especially of dates; but the honey of bees is also mentioned (Judges xiv. 8). It is assumed that honey does not contain any part of the bee itself, but is merely the juice of the flowers sucked and again discharged by the bees. (See Babyl. Talm., Bechoroth 7b; Maim., Mishneh-torah, Hil. maachaloth asuroth iii. 3.)
Note 8.
In addition to the things enumerated in this chapter as forbidden, there is the prohibition of “wine of libation” (יין נסך). Everything used in the worship of idols was condemned, and could not serve as food, drink, or any purpose; it was אסור בהנאה. Wine was frequently used by heathens in libations to their idols. The wine of a heathen was therefore always suspected of having been employed in idolatrous libations, and was consequently forbidden as יין נסך. Since, however, such libations have ceased this prohibition has also lapsed.
It has, however, not lapsed in its entirety. It is only the אסור הנאה that is no longer in force. The prohibition of using wine prepared by non-Jews (סתם יין) as a beverage still continues. This and similar prohibitions were intended as a barrier against the increase of mixed marriages among the Jews. (Comp. Babyl. Talm., Shabbath 17b.) [[467]]