You are either already subscribed or there was an error
Your entry has been submitted
Sorry, your entry could not be submitted
Up and Down Day5: Shechitah -- Like Sheep to the Slaughter - with artist's paintings
2009.07.04
Please start by looking at the beginning of this set and work your way up to it
http://www.photoblog.com/chossid/2009/06/30/up-and-down-day1-road-to-yalta.html
The family's oldest son bringing the first sheep. Simcha, the shoichet, is on the left.
Click here to add text
Please start by looking at the beginning of this set and work your way up to it
The family's oldest son bringing the first sheep. Simcha, the shoichet, is on the left.
1
Weighing in. We pay by live weight.
Click here to add text
Weighing in. We pay by live weight.
2
Cleaning the lamb's neck prior to shechitah.
Click here to add text
Cleaning the lamb's neck prior to shechitah.
3
Click here to add text
4
Removing the skin
Click here to add text
Removing the skin
5
Click here to add text
6
Checking the internal organs
Click here to add text
Checking the internal organs
7
Eviscerated sheep. Removing the "gid hanashe" vein and "cheilev" or forbidden fats from the hindquarter is difficult, and not practiced by most Ashkenazi Jews, so we only got the forequarter, through the 11th rib. I also took the lungs, which we enjoy, and are not legal in the US. I was told that they are tasty ground up, mixed with fried onions, and used as a filling in pastries.
Note the amazing handiwork of the Creator -- the symmetry and how every organ makes the animal function -- just as much as we see His work in a beautiful flower or sunset. After all, He did create everything, not just the overtly beautiful things. We can look and see His hand everywhere, and appreciate it.
Click here to add text
Eviscerated sheep. Removing the "gid hanashe" vein and "cheilev" or forbidden fats from the hindquarter is difficult, and not practiced by most Ashkenazi Jews, so we only got the forequarter, through the 11th rib. I also took the lungs, which we enjoy, and are not legal in the US. I was told that they are tasty ground up, mixed with fried onions, and used as a filling in pastries.
Note the amazing handiwork of the Creator -- the symmetry and how every organ makes the animal function -- just as much as we see His work in a beautiful flower or sunset. After all, He did create everything, not just the overtly beautiful things. We can look and see His hand everywhere, and appreciate it.
8
Click here to add text
9
Simcha is blowing up the sheep's lungs, in order to check them. If there are any holes or adhesions, (signs of disease,) they will not be considered fit for use.
Click here to add text
Simcha is blowing up the sheep's lungs, in order to check them. If there are any holes or adhesions, (signs of disease,) they will not be considered fit for use.
10
Following Nellinka's comment, I did a search, and saw how this subject, a piece of life, has been treated by artists. The first is from no less than Rembrandt.
Click here to add text
Following Nellinka's comment, I did a search, and saw how this subject, a piece of life, has been treated by artists. The first is from no less than Rembrandt.
11
Marc Chagall added the ritual slaughterer, the woman who will remove the blood, and the man who will (with his family) eat the meat, in their village setting.
Click here to add text
Marc Chagall added the ritual slaughterer, the woman who will remove the blood, and the man who will (with his family) eat the meat, in their village setting.
12
Soutine's version. (He was a contemporary of Modigliani.)
Click here to add text
Soutine's version. (He was a contemporary of Modigliani.)
13
Saudan
Click here to add text
Saudan
14
One last painting.
Click here to add text
One last painting.
15
This was the actual purpose of our trip. Remember that there was a group of visitors who needed kosher meat.
Shechitah is the ritual slaughter of animals, according to Jewish law. Any slaughterhouse, whether kosher or nonkosher, is by definition a disconcerting, blood-filled and gruesome place. Torah law, however, is most insistent about not inflicting needless pain on animals and in emphasizing humane treatment of all living creatures.
Kosher slaughter, shechitah, involves cutting the trachea and esophagus with a sharp, flawless knife. At the same time, the carotid arteries, which are the primary supplier of blood to the brain, are severed. The person who will shecht the animals is known as a shoichet. He must be very knowlegeable in all the detailed laws, and he must be a G-d-fearing person.
The profound loss of blood and the massive drop in blood pressure render the animal insensate almost immediately. Studies done by Dr. H.H. Dukes at the Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine indicate that the animal is unconscious within seconds of the incision.
It should be kept in mind that in non-kosher slaughter, when the animal is killed by a shot with a captive bolt to the brain, it often has to be re-shot, sometimes up to six times, before the animal collapses. The USDA permits up to a 5 percent initial failure rate.
As Torah Jews, we are imbued with the teachings which require animals to be rested, along with people, on the Sabbath and fed before the people who own them, and that the mother bird must be sent away before her young are taken to save her grief. These and similar statutes make it clear that inhumane treatment of animals is not the Jewish way.
Kosher slaughter, by principle, and as performed today in the United States, is humane, and the Humane Slaughter Act, passed into law after objective research by the U.S. government, declares shechitah to be humane. For Torah observant Jews, it cannot be any other way.
I can understand Jackye's point of view -- But -- unless one is a vegetarian on principle, it is reality. (I mean, if one eats meat, we have to realize that it comes from somewhere -- other than the butcher store.) In the Jewish religion, we do not think that we can be more compassionate than the Almighty. He commanded us to eat meat, but to kill the animal and prepare it an a special way. The actual killing is as humane as possible. In addition, we have an entire procedure of soaking, salting, and triple rinsing, to eliminate any blood from the meat, since the animalistic tendencies are at home in the blood. Furthermore, we do not eat the heart, the seat of the animal soul, and which had so much blood in it. Again, it is reality. When we do the will of the Creator, follow these procedures, and bless HIm before and after eating, we elevate the food that we eat. With blessing, Leah :-)
I also suggest to start at the beginning of this set, here.
Last point (I hope) -- there are always two ways of looking at things -- i.e. is the glass half full or half empty? Maybe because I was once considering a medical career, I'm not so squeamish. But when I look at #8 above, I see the amazing handiwork of the Creator -- the symmetry and how every organ makes the animal function -- just as much as we see His work in a beautiful flower or sunset. After all, He did create everything, not just the overtly beautiful things. We can look and see His hand everywhere, and appreciate it.
