“We are making history here today,” proclaimed Rabbi Caryn Broitman at the Grey Barn and Farm in Chilmark on Sunday. An intimate group of Island citizens took part in the first kosher slaughter ever to be held on the Island, according to the Rabbi. Thirty-five Silver Laced Chickens, mostly roosters, were slaughtered and processed under the leadership of Jacob Siegel, a visiting rabbinical scholar and professional Shochet (kosher slaughterer).
Schechita, or kosher slaughter, has been called a “living Jewish food tradition,” carried over the millennia by Orthodox practitioners and eager apprentices who have passed down the ritualized process specified by interpretations of Jewish scripture. Kosher meat refers only to the method by which the slaughter is carried out, not how the animal was raised.
The workshop included a short introductory talk, given by Mr. Siegel, delineating what makes a Kosher poultry slaughter different than any other. For Jews who follow kosher guidelines, “the consumption of blood is prohibited,” Mr. Siegel said. Thus, shooting an animal, stunning it before the kill, and boiling it to remove feathers, or other mechanized methods, do not allow for a full draining of the blood.
“The animal must be killed with a very sharp knife, which is perfectly smooth, and moved in a back and forth, continuous motion, to cut through the trachea, esophagus, and jugular veins, yet not the spinal cord,” explained Mr. Siegel. As a professional Shochet, he said, “I feel in slaughtering a very big weight… for both the animal’s life and the Jewish peoples’ observance of Shechita (kosher meat). You must realize the meat that is certified as kosher must be valid. So I try to be really exacting, very proper, with the cut.”
A few moments later, participants surrounded Jacob as he seamlessly transitioned from educator to solemn Shochet, preparing his knife with a black sharpening stone, slick with blood-stained water, cold from the feather-grey morning. Reaching into the cage, he firmly held the rooster and quieted his crows by bending the bird’s neck nearly back to its spine. Then, with exacting precision, he slid the knife through to sever the required two pipes. Warm blood dripped onto the soil below, which would later “be buried with the blood of the first slaughter of the day,” Mr. Siegel explained. “The first covering of blood mentioned in the Torah goes back to Cain and Abel.”
The bird was then placed firmly upside down in the cone, to allow the blood to drain from the severed neck and contain the inevitable death spasms. Mr. Siegel slaughtered three roosters in less than ten minutes before the hushed crowd. Washing the warm blood from his knife and hands, he then invited participants to pluck the birds and learn how to eviscerate them. “I encourage all of you to get your hands dirty, and get close to the meat you eat,” Mr. Siegel said.
Kosher dietary laws are meant to uphold the Jewish principle of “tsa’ar ba’alei chaim,” or responding to the suffering of animals. The prayers invoked by the Shochet before and after bookend the ritualized slaughter in the spirit of religious piety and intention. The industrialized food industry has, for the most part, separated consumers from the experience of seeing animals killed for meat. “Kosher process requires a human force behind the killing — a human, not a machine — and this is quite expensive in the economy of meat,” Mr. Siegel said.
Rabbi Broitman and her congregation are looking forward to organizing ways to bring a visiting Shochet back to the Vineyard a few times per year to process animals for Island grown and Kosher slaughtered poultry. To learn more visit mvhc.us.