Cohn, Jacob. The Royal Table - VWC: Faculty/Staff Web

HOW ANIMALS ARE SLAUGHTERED 59
sumed to be maturely born, without further investigation. 14
A mother and its child may not be killed on the same day,
regardless of which of them was killed first. 15
In the in-
stance that the father of the young is known, he too may
not be slaughtered on that day. 16
If by chance or design
it should happen that parent and young were killed on the
same day, the one killed last should not be eaten by the
slaughterer until the morrow, so that he may not profit
by his haste.17 An animal on the verge of death cannot
be made fit to eat by killing it in the prescribed manner. 18
In slaughtering a sick animal its reflexes after the cut
should be observed. In a cow or a beast, flexing of the
foreleg or hindleg is considered sufficient evidence of vitality
to validate the killing; but in sheep or goats the mere
stretching of the foreleg is not sufficient indication of life.19
If no reflexes are observed the animal is considered as car-
rion. 20 Although it is legally permitted
to eat flesh of an
animal that has shown the marks of vitality upon slaughter,
pious people refrain from eating anything which has been
killed out of fear that delay in its slaughter would result
in an early natural death. 21
The laws of ritual slaughter are five in number, and
stated in terms of what ought to be avoided in making the
skechitah cut. The things to be avoided are: hesitation,
undue pressure, burrowing, cutting outside of specified
zone, and laceration. Each of these has been briefly
14 Sabbath 136; Hullin Sib; Y. D. 15, 2.
* Lev. XDC. Hullin 82b.
16
Hullin ibid ; Y. D. 16, 2. This is a rabbinic ordinance.
1T Tur Y. D. 16.
Hullin 37a.
19 Ibid. Avodah Zarah 16a.
20 Y. D. 61.
Y. D. ibid., Ramah.