Is there a bracha (blessing) said for shechita (kosher slaughter)? If so, what is the bracha?
Is the blessing said before or after the animal is slaughtered?
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lets say someone forgot to say the bracha ,is it kosher ,see the Rosh,see also the Or Zaruah – sam Nov 06 '14 at 00:12
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@sam Do you think I should include that in this Q/A set? ....SC talks about it (19:1), says that it's fine, but if we see that people are being מיקל in it we should קנס them. – MTL Nov 06 '14 at 00:15
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not necessarily ,just thought its an interesting note about Eldad Hadani's shittah that its not kosher – sam Nov 06 '14 at 00:22
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@sam I might, but maybe not right now. – MTL Nov 06 '14 at 00:45
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Why were you wondering this? – Double AA Nov 06 '14 at 03:53
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@DoubleAA http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/48099/5323 – MTL Nov 06 '14 at 04:52
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@sam http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/50410/5323 ;-) – MTL Dec 21 '14 at 04:30
1 Answers
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There is a bracha on shechita, here is the wording:
ברוך אתה ה' אלוקינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצוותיו וציוונו על השחיטה
~ SA YD 19:1 (see also Simlah Chadashah at 19:1)
Rambam writes (Hil. Brachos 11:12) that if one slaughters his own קרבן פסח (Pesach offering), he makes a different bracha:
אשר קדשנו במצוותיו וציוונו לשחוט
( h/t DoubleAA for pointing this Rambam out -- I had never seen it before! )
The blessing is said before the animal is slaughtered.
~ SA ibid, SC ibid
The exception to this case is if there is a possible problem with the animal, and it is uncertain whether it is kosher or not (due to טרפות, mostly terminal health problems) -- in that case, the blessing is made after the shechita and subsequent bedika (inspection) (Rama 19:1, SC 19:2). The shechita, bedika, and bracha should all follow each other without hefsek (pause); if there was a pause, then the blessing is not made (SC 19:2).
( h/t DoubleAA for pointing this out the Rama -- I had never seen it before, and had forgotten what the SC had written about it )
