Hello Everyone,
Today we began a discussion about the kashrut requirements of chickens. Chickens are not different in principle from cattle since both species are governed by the laws of treifot. Nonetheless there was an important difference in practice between the procedures governing chickens and cattle. The difference lay in the process of examining chickens and cattle for the presence of treifot.
As we saw already, the Mishnah in masechet Chullin presents us with a long list of treifot. Even though any one of those treifot render an animal forbidden we have no obligation to look for treifot. The reason for this is that the Torah permits us to manage our religious lives on the basis of well-founded assumptions[1]. Experience shows us that most animals do not suffer from treifot, so I am allowed to assume that the animal or chicken which has been properly slaughtered is kosher and I have absolutely no obligation to examine it for treifot.
There is however an ancient[2] custom to examine the lungs of cattle for סרכאות. Rashi explains that even though most cattle do not have סרכאות, since there is a significant [3] incidence of סרכאות in cattle we need to examine the lungs of every animal that is slaughtered. The Pri Megadim[4] adds that the Torah permits us to ignore “the minority” when the search for it is burdensome. Since סרכאות do not occur in poultry there was never a custom to routinely check the lungs of poultry.
However, as the saying goes, that was then and this is now. In our times the procedures for raising poultry have changed radically. Now chickens are raised in crowded coops. They have no room to roam and stretch their legs, they are fed steroids and other supplements to accelerate their growth, and they receive inoculations to prevent the their catching various diseases. All of these factors have (according to many authorities) raised the incidence of treifot among chickens to above the Halachically significant threshold percentage. Treifot (particularly treifot of the leg sinews known as צומת הגידין) need to be searched out.
We saw that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel recognizes three levels of kashrut in the poultry industry. The highest level is called [5]חלק. Next comes מהדרין and then “merely” kosher. The distinctions between these levels of kashrut extend from the procedures for inoculating the chicks on the poultry farms[6],to the rate of shechitah at the poultry plant and finally the procedures for examining the chickens for treifot.
Naturally, חלק poultry is more expensive than non-חלק, and this reflects the more careful (and therefore slower and less profitable) steps taken in guaranteeing the kashrut of the chicken.
Next week we will discuss, bli neder, in more detail the rationales of the various Hashgachot and how they view the incidence of treifot.
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[1] In Hebrew these types of assumptions are labeled as רוב and חזקה.
[2] Allusions to it are to be found in the Gemarah as well as in the Midrashic literature.
[3] I hope that we next week will discuss the precise definition of “significant.”
[4] PRI MEGADIM
- Joseph son of R. Meir Teomim was born in 1727 in the village of Steritz, near Lvov (Lemberg), Poland (nowadays it is in Ukraine). He lived with his parents in Lemberg where his father was a judge and preacher. R. Yoseph studied with his father, and at the age of 18 had already published his own novellae at the end of the published volume of his father’s novellae. Around the year 1744 he married and moved to Komarna where he served as a grade-school teacher, while his essential occupation was the study of Torah and writing his books. In 1765 he had already published two of his first volumes: Porat Yoseph on some tractates and the Ginat Veradim on the principles of the Talmud. In 1767 he relocated to Berlin and studied and authored his books in the study hall of the wealthy Daniel Yaffe. In 1774 he accepted the position offered by the lay leaders of Lemberg to full his late father’s position as decider of Jewish Law (posek) and as preacher, remaining there for seven years. In 1781 he was appointed the Rabbi of Frankfort on the Oder in east Germany where he passed away in 1792. R. Joseph is famous for his compilation Pri Megadim on the Shulkhan Aruch, Orach Chaim and Yoreh De’ah, which have become one of the primary explanations to this code of Jewish Law. There are super-commentaries on it, as well as abbreviated versions. The commentary on Orach Chaim is comprised of two parts: the Mishbetzot Zahav on the Taz [Turei Zahav] by R. David haLevi and the Eshel Avraham on the Magen Avraham by R. Avraham Gombiner and was first published in Frankfort on the Oder in 1786. The commentary on Yoreh De’ah is comprised of the Mishbetzot Zahav on the Taz and the Siftei Da’at on the Shach [Siftey Cohen] by R. Shabbtai Cohen, and was first published in Berlin in 1771. Nowadays, the Pri Megadim is published at the end of each volume of the Shulkhan Aruch in almost every edition, and in some modern editions can be found on the very folio of the code. In addition to the Pri Megadim, R. Yoseph Teomim authored many other volumes, including Rosh Yosef on tractate Hullin; Shoshant Ya’akov on the principles of the Talmud; Tevat Gome (on Gemorrah, Midrash, and Aggadah) and is a commentary on the Torah using Halakha and midrash (first published in 1882 in Frankfort on the Oder); Matan Secharan shel Mitzvot investigating issues of reward and punishment, and many more. Some of his compilations are lost. The Responsa Project now contains the Pri Megadim on Orach Chaim according to the Machon Yerushalayim edition of 1994, on Yoreh De’ah according to the Goren Ornan Institute edition, Jerusalem 2004, and the Tevat Gome according to the Mishor edition, Jerusalem 2007.
[5] And even though originally the word חלק only applied to cattle whose lungs are free of adhesions, the term has acquired the meaning of being “flawlesslykosher.”
[6] So in Israel there are indeed “Glatt Kosher eggs” since the eggs come from a poultry farm where the חלק /Glatt form of inoculation is followed