451. People Eating Tasty Animals: The obligation to ritually slaughter animals before eating them

Shechitah – the ritual slaughter of animals for food – is an unusual mitzvah in a very noteworthy way. The Torah tells us, “you shall slaughter from your cattle and your sheep…as I have commanded you.” God told us how to perform shechitah? Where? It’s nowhere in the Torah! This is a clear-cut indication that there has to be an Oral Law, since the Written Law tells us outright that God has said some things that are not recorded in it!

In shechitah, the shochet (slaughterer) must slice the major part of both the trachea and the esophagus of mammals. (Biblically, only one pipe is required when slaughtering birds.) Even though our verse only speaks of cattle and sheep, we see that other animals are included from such verses as Deuteronomy 12:22 (which speaks of eating such kosher wild animals as deer) and Leviticus 11:46 (which equates poultry with meat). Fish, however, do not require shechitah, since the Torah speaks of them merely being gathered (see Numbers 11:22). Kosher species of locust likewise do not require ritual slaughter; see Talmud Chullin 27b-28a for more on the topic of what does and does not require shechitah.

The reason for this mitzvah is related to what we said back in Mitzvah #148, the prohibition against eating blood. The life of a creature resides in the blood. An animal is slaughtered in a location that causes it to forcefully expel more blood than would happen otherwise. This helps to remove the life-force from the meat.

An additional reason for shechitah is to prevent unnecessary cruelty to animals. We are permitted to use animals – even to the point of eating them – but we may not cause them needless suffering. Shechitah is a quick and relatively painless method of slaughter.

This mitzvah applies in all times and places. It is discussed in the Talmud in the first two chapters of tractate Chullin. It is codified in the Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh Deah 1. This mitzvah is #146 of the 248 positive mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos and #48 of the 77 positive mitzvos that can be observed today as listed in the Sefer HaMitzvos HaKatzar of the Chofetz Chaim.