A Question For My Learned Readers

What is the earliest reference to either the term shochet or to laws of ritual slaughter? In other words, what is the farthest back in time we can trace the laws of ritual slaughter? I'm looking for specific, stated references (i.e., "So and so can not serve as a shochet because…" or "The knife must made sharp. Any nick or imperfection …") not textual hints. And this is not a quiz – I don't know the answer myself. Readers?

Comments

Mishneh in Chullin.... 28 I think.

Yesterday's Chitas too... V'Zavachta... K'asher Tzivisicha... teaches us that Moshe was given the five laws of Schita orally at Sinai.

[Peter]

Maybe the first mishna in Chullin?

[Peter]

Sorry, I hit the publish key instead of the preview.

משנה מסכת חולין פרק א משנה א

הכל שוחטין ושחיטתן כשרה חוץ מחרש שוטה וקטן שמא יקלקלו בשחיטתן וכולן ששחטו ואחרים רואין אותן שחיטתן כשרה שחיטת נכרי נבלה ומטמאה במשא השוחט בלילה וכן הסומא ששחט שחיטתו כשרה השוחט בשבת וביום הכפורים אף על פי שמתחייב בנפשו שחיטתו כשרה:

[Nachman]

The knife being surgically sharp came later to avoid דרסה or שהייה. According to Gemara though, אפילו הוליך והביא כל היום שחיטתו כשרה.
No nicks? Gemara Chulin discusses "nicks". אוגרת, מסוכסכת, דמיא לסאסאה.
משנה ט"ו ע"ב גמרא י"ז ע"א וע"ב

[Anonymous]

What's SHmarya leading up to here? Another attack on rules "invented" by rabbis?

[Anonymous]

You would think Shmarya would know the aleph beis of shechita that is the foundation of a major masechta, given the way he boasts he has learned so much.

[thanbo]

Exodus 12? The korban Pesach in Egypt.

E.g., 12:6

ו והיה לכם למשמרת, עד ארבעה עשר יום לחדש הזה; ושחטו אתו, כל קהל עדת-ישראל--בין הערבים.

[Hugh]

How typical of Jews to focus on their meaningless religious exegesis rather than focus on the larger moral issue of how cruel this is to animals. To quote the great David Dvorkin:

"I must add a very personal slant on all of this. When I was a boy in South Africa, my father, as one of his duties, was a shochet; i.e., he performed the kosher killing of beef animals and chickens. I watched him do the latter in our back yard quite often, and once (and only once) I went with him to the slaughterhouse to watch him do the former. More than thirty years have passed, and the sights and smells and horror of it all are still seared into my memory. I invite today's earnest young Jews - neo-Jews, one might call them - to visit a kosher slaughterhouse and watch the ghastly agony of animals bleeding to death through their slashed throats, choking on their own blood. Who would wish to worship a God who ordained this abomination?"

[Neo-Conservaguy]

Is the suggestion that the text redacted in Chullin is an earlier text, perhaps from the first mishna?

[Anonymous]

"the sights and smells and horror of it all are still seared into my memory."

Heretics like Hugh and David Dvorkin are in good company with the liar John Kerry who uses the same exaggerated code words to get his message across.

"Seared in my memory" is the description used by Kerry when LYING about his Vietnam war record. He also refuses to release his records despite promising to do so.

[http://dhengah.org/tchikenahnakup.htm]

http://dhengah.org/tchikenahnakup.htm

[Shmarya]

Idiot.

Large animal biology is very different from poultry biology.

Once a chicken's head is *severed*, the animal is dead. Shechita does not sever the head. Ripping the head off the bird before it has bled out can cause pain. That is what happened on the kapporot video posted several posts below this.

[Anonymous]

Shmarya would be a multi-millionaire if he got a dollar for everytime he called someone an "idiot" or the like.

So much for rule #5: "No name-calling, please."

[bta]

sounds like a clear question for S., aka mississippi fred.

[A.K.]

You are all self-hating Jews. We need to be spreading love, guys. Not creating more division and hatred.