May one slaughter kosher animals with a machine? I don't mean to ask this question about restraining animals, what I want to know is if one may use a machine to actually make the cut, to actually shecht with a machine.
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Is a human involved in making the machine function? – Double AA May 09 '14 at 18:43
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@DoubleAA See my answer – MTL May 09 '14 at 18:57
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I'm first trying to understand the question. – Double AA May 09 '14 at 19:00
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@DoubleAA Is it unclear? – MTL May 09 '14 at 19:02
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1I don't really understand what you mean by "machine". A knife is a machine. A simple one, at least. – Double AA May 09 '14 at 19:04
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@DoubleAA True...I'm talking about a more complicated machine, like a water-mill wheel or something. Something that is not clearly a direct human action. – MTL May 09 '14 at 19:09
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See the Shulchan Aruch Siman 7 ,see also the Mareches Hashulchan which discusses the diff between koach rishon and koach sheni ,see also the gemara in gemara I believe 16a where Rashi talks about a water dam – sam May 09 '14 at 19:30
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Yes and no.
Surprisingly, Simlah Chadasha says (siman 7) that you may slaughter with a knife that is attached to a wheel (though only b'dieved, because of a wheel that is not כח אדם; and because it's difficult to do correctly).
However, restrictions apply:
- The machine has to be human-powered, specifically by a Jew (think handcrank); or water-powered, where the water-gate is very close to the wheel and is released by a Jew [so that it is כח גברא.
These methods may only be used when the person is actually still turning the wheel (when a person is turning the wheel), or on the first rotation of the wheel after releasing the water (or cranking the wheel and letting go, when a person turning the wheel). - The knife (obviously) has to be moving in a way that it can slaughter correctly (back and forth motion -- if your machine is a wheel, picture train wheels).
- None of this can be attached to the ground, because a knife that is attached to the ground may not be used for shechita. See Simlah Chadasha 6:5.
Probably every mass-production kosher company read through these halachos, hoping for a way to make it work -- but the restrictions are too difficult, especially the one about not having the machine attached to the ground. So we still do need shochtim ;).
MTL
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