Sunday 9 December 2018

Chullin 12: Supervising Shechita

Rav Nachman teaches Rav's ruling: As long as one watches someone performing shechita, ritual slaughter, from the start to the end, the animal can be eaten.  Simply watching half of the process done well is not enough to allow us to assume that the remainder will be done properly  If one does not witness the entire process, it cannot be eaten.  If the slaughterer is a professional that witness is not required.  
It seems that the rabbis wish to ensure that only those who are expert in shechita perform or witness the act of shechita.  The Tosafot HaRosh suggest that one situation might involve one who happened to see on performing shechita compared with one who is watching carefully.  Rabbi Akiva Eiger teaches that we might know with certainty that the slaughterer does not know the laws.  In addition, we might be unsure whether or not one was an expert, and so we insist on supervision.

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