Shame.
When 'kosher' slaughter is not Jewish
The title of the article says it all. It is a blot on the Jewish people that the Chief Rabbi of Israel believes that so repulsive and cruel a practice does not constitute a halachic problem. This reflects poorly on us, him and the body of law that permits him to take a stance contrary to simple morality. If the Orthodox community has any self-respect it will demand a repudiation of his views and his immediate dismissal.
The title of the article says it all. It is a blot on the Jewish people that the Chief Rabbi of Israel believes that so repulsive and cruel a practice does not constitute a halachic problem. This reflects poorly on us, him and the body of law that permits him to take a stance contrary to simple morality. If the Orthodox community has any self-respect it will demand a repudiation of his views and his immediate dismissal.
While I'm at it I don't think much of this:
It is important to note that the ideal kosher cut would sever the trachea, esophagus and carotid artery, thus immediately eliminating blood flow to the brain and rendering an animal unconscious in as quickly as 10 seconds. Contrary to widespread perceptions, however, a valid kosher slaughter requires only the cut of the trachea and esophagus. The post-cut scenes on the videos of staggering, mutilated animals seem to be cases in which the carotid arteries were not severed, thus leaving the animal conscious and able to suffer pain.Frankly I'm not even convinced that the 'ideal cut' which severs blood flow to the brain really does quickly eliminate perception of pain.
- sheikh X at 10:50 AM
12 Comments:
amen sister
hey sister,
this is probably a case where the rabbinic establishment is not going to have the character or the sense of its own responsibility to budge. so let's see if the secular establishment steps forward to legislate a change.
anybody want 2-1 odds that the "morally superior" israeli government won't be doing anything either?
i guess we can all go to bed tonight hypocrites.
The Israeli supreme court outlawed production of fois gras on the grounds of cruelty. I don't think its unlikely that the Israeli secular establishment will insist on ethical standards for animal killing.
Unfortunately WTO membership means that the Israeli legislature can't ban US kosher meat on the basis of welfare standards.
well i hope you're right. only i hope it is the legislature and not the activist supreme court that decides what is moral or not.
for what it's worth, most mainstream rabbis in america condemned the practices that were documented in that video and called for greater scrutiny of that specific plant. there was also a lot of criticism leveled against the israeli chief rabbinate by the americans, for its insistence on closing ranks behind jewish oversight of slaughtering practices instead of looking critically at what had been revealed.
Thats good. I don't much like the concept of a 'chief rabbi'. It elevates these guys to a stature that is foreign to jewish tradition. I bet the british started it.
actually, i'm pretty sure that the ottomans started it. the british did a lot to encourage it, though, and to give the position new stature and prominence.
First, the idea of chief rabbi is as evil as that of tzaddik. No Jew has or should have a higher rank than another in relation to God.
Second, the idea that kosher slaughter is worse than other animal slaughter immediately marks the author as anti-Semitic or, if Jewish, as a self-hating Jew. Any slaughter is bad. Has the author of the paper compared the suffering of kosher-slaughtered animals with that of animals slaughtered in a non-kosher way? Has the author shown tapes of both kinds and compared them?
I have seen or read several such reports about kosher slaughter. Not once have I seen a comparison with non-kosher slaugher.
asherv - the argument concerns the specific conditions at a kosher slaughterhouse.
there are also periodic problems with regular slaughterhouses - but of a different type because most of the animals are stunned before being killed. of course, mass killing means the occasional animal fails to be stunned and suffers excruciating pains on its way to oblivion.
the bottom line is that industrial slaughter is always going to end up causing far more suffering than small scale farmers killing their fattened pig. pressure to maintain speed and the drive for economy makes it inevitable that some animals will suffer horribly.
in the wild, a pack of chihuahuas can stalk a feral cow for many hours unnoticed, until at last they attack in perfect coordination- savagely and at once. sometimes as many as ten or fifteen chihuahuas will swarm over the cow until it is brought to its knees when at last the leader of the pack delivers the coup de grace. Generally speaking, the cow suffers terribly but it is really a noble and majestic sight and ought to be beheld and appreciated.
captive bred chihuahuas dream of this and sometimes fresh beef will trigger a glorious rush of race memories.
that's ridiculous. there is no such thing as a wild chihuahua.
of course there is. where do you think chihuahuas come from?
nonsense. chihuahuas are not descendants from glorious wild dogs. they are genetic monsters, created in underground laboratories by oriental carpet salesman. it is no accident that these unnatural lifeforms have poor bladder control, indigestion and vindictive bowel evacuation. their entire physiology is designed for maxiumum carpet destructive capacity. if they do indeed dream of stalking cattle, it is a false memory, implanted using the very technology used to make replicants in blade runner.
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