Comments on: FAQ: Is Kosher Meat Better?

By: Devin

Devin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:15:33 +0000

Part of kosher law is the animals must be ruminants (chew their cud). Modern cattle have been bred, fed, and medicated to mimic a pig. They no longer chew their cud.
Industrial corn feed also includes chicken, beef, PIG, and fish meal for protein.

How could anyone say a carnivorous cow that likely fed on an un-kosher animal and no longer has any cud to chew is kosher?

By: Tracey

Tracey — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:56:17 +0000

I recall a report in Consumer Reports or something like that where they tested different store-bought chicken for salmonella. As I recall, the Empire (kosher) chicken was slightly more likely than the non-kosher chicken to be contaminated, but the salmonella in the Empire was a much weaker strain than that found in non-kosher chicken. Apparently, whenever non-kosher producers find salmonella in a single chicken, they use antibiotics on the entire flock just in case, which leads to antibiotic-resistant strains. Empire apparently doesn’t do that. I don’t know if there is a halakhic reason for the difference.

By: Souza

Souza — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:48:13 +0000

To the posters here who posted in a mocking, derisive or otherwise negative fashion towards those advocating certain standards of treatment for animals, I ask that you take a more open-minded, comprehensive, and indeed stricter view of the kind of person your religion asks you to be. To base flippant remarks or actions on the authority of few passages in religious texts calls to mind various tragedies committed by religious zealots during the past dozen years. I am not suggesting you are committing tragedies, but I am suggesting you have greater potential as humans and as Jews than you are exhibiting.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:14:34 +0000

Thanks for your comments Carol. I’ll keep them in mind while I eat the brisket left over from the second seder. I prepared it with a rub of spices including cayenne pepper, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, honey and black pepper. It was roasted with leeks and dried apricots in a red wine sauce. It was delicious. You can find the recipe here at epicurious.com
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/234425
I’m with Craig. Shechita is ultimately a process that generates meat for carnivores to consume. It’s irrelevant to me to discuss how much more or less humane it is. It is simply what we believe to be G-d’s instruction intepreted by our Sages on how to prepare meat.

By: Craig Winchell

Craig Winchell — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:06:34 +0000

BS”D

I don’t think that anyone claimed the animal loses consciousness immediately upon shechita. Nevertheless, a properly rendered throat-cutting leaves the animal halachically dead, as far as I know, even if it may have be conscious. Just as a beheaded person’s head must retain consciousness for some period of time, yet the person is halachically dead. It may serve the industry’s purpose to do things according to methods endorsed by Temple Grandin or for that matter, Dr. Doolittle, but it’s still just generating meat for me to sink my teeth into.

By: Carol Ann Varley

Carol Ann Varley — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:44:44 +0000

To write the animal is instantly unconsious after the throat cut is untrue; there is great variablity in onset of unconsciousness, particularly in cattle and calves. Occlusion or ballooning in arteries causes delays in bleeding and there may be additional cuts required to increase bleeding time. Unconsciousness may be delayed for up to several minutes. There are many variables: the swiftness or slowness of the knife cut, the skill of the slaughterer, the level of excitement of the animal, the tendancy in some animals for their arteries to occlude. For more facts on this issue go to Dr. Temple Grandin’s website. In her study there were no animals that collapsed instantaneously; the shortest time was 8 seconds in the “best” plant and the longest was two minutes.

By: Rachmiel

Rachmiel — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:03:40 +0000

Wise Kosher Chicken (which is both kosher and organic) is by far the best chicken I have ever eaten, and in fact has “made” me more observant because I can’t bear the thought of eating a non-kosher “non-Wise” chicken these days. It’s true that it is far more expensive than other chicken (both kohser and non-kosher) but seems to me to be worth it if used sparingly in soup or to compliment a dish. The problem is getting it — at least here in Chicago, where only few Whole Foods stores have it, and the few that do seldom carry it non-frozen, often forcing us fans to order it in advance.

By: Craig Winchell

Craig Winchell — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:17:52 +0000

BS”D

The Torah tells us to slaughter the animals in the manner G-d prescribes, without ever telling us what that manner is, leading to the conclusion that there was an oral tradition brought down at the same time as the written Torah. Not all fats are prohibited, and the marbling and white fats are permitted. Finally, you’re correct that not all blood is removed by “bleeding out” from the shechita, which is why there’s also nikur, which is removal of the forbidden parts, which includes large blood vessels which may contain pooled blood. Blood left in the meat after the soaking and salting is defined as “juice”, not “blood”, and the soaking and salting is done after vessels are removed.

By: Richard A Cook

Richard A Cook — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:37:09 +0000

Please indulge me. Where in torah does it lay out the precise method of slaughter? Or is this Talmud, subject to much debate and change. I dare say that the carefullest and most precise cut will only extract most, but not all of the blood which I pressume was the intent of ha shem. And for the record marble is fat. Where do we draw the line?

By: Craig Winchell

Craig Winchell — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:05:50 +0000

BS”D

To my knowledge, that’s not a Torah concept, or a Jewish concept in general. That doesn’t mean it’s not admirable to consider things such as that, or that it’s inconsistent with the Torah. That just means that the Torah gives us guidelines for holiness, and we keep kopsher to be holy for our G-d, not to be spiritual. But if spirituality can help you in solidifying the concept of holiness, by all means be spiritual. In general, we become holy by performing mitzvos and refraining from aveiros, as they’re understood, and if we require sprituality, we get it through prayer. But I suppose anything one does to connect with G-d is OK as long as it isn’t inconsistent with Torah. So to answer your questions, 1) Being spiritually aware is not what we’re trying to do- we’re trying to be holy, 2) I don’t think the halachos of kashrus say anything about this,but kashrus is of course subjective, reflecting only the Torah perspective 3) the primary concern has nothing to do with either animals’ or peoples’ lives, but rather with sanctifying G-d. In that, we’re given the guidelines. As long as we follow these guidelines, anything else we do is ok. From a tzar baalei chayim standpoint, we’re worried about the life of the animal in the context of using the animal. From a kashrus standpoint, we’re worried about the death of the animal, that it was done properly according to Jewish law, that the animal be neither treif nor neveilah, and that the animal have a minimal standard of health so that their are few lesions or adhesions which would make the meat unfit for our food.