10

The Maharil in his Tshusvos Chadashos ("New Responsa," mentioned here), writes (Siman 93) that the custom is not to give kabblah to shochtim who learned the laws shechita in German (translated materials).

Is this idea still practiced? Has a shochet been refused kabbalah because they learned the halachos in a different language, e.g. English?

Community
  • 1
sam
  • 41,686
  • 4
  • 80
  • 141
  • I'll have to ask my rebbi about this one; I believe some of his students only use a translated, English שמלה חדשה, but I'm not certain of this. I personally prefer using the original whenever I learn something. – MTL Jan 03 '15 at 23:59
  • 1
    There is an English Simlah Chadasha? – sam Jan 04 '15 at 01:27
  • Some things are very hard to learn in its original,like Emunos vdeaos – sam Jan 04 '15 at 01:28
  • My rebbi has a translation; he turned down Artscroll's offer to publish it....he self-published it and gave out to the class; I also have the PDF. I have my own translation that I wrote, but I'm still proofreading it. If I'm right in my earlier assumption, they're using my rebbi's translation. – MTL Jan 04 '15 at 01:28
  • Interesting,he translated the Bechor as well? – sam Jan 04 '15 at 01:33
  • No; his translation is pretty much word for word Simlah Chadasha, incorporating some of מטה אשר where necessary; his own הערות and such in footnotes. – MTL Jan 04 '15 at 01:33
  • 1
    The Simla Chadasha imposes some minimal level of learning. Is the idea that the person COULDN'T learn in Hebrew, or it so happens that he DIDN'T learn in Hebrew? The former might not qualify as learned enough (though nowadays, one who can only learn in English may have finished Shas, Chumash with Rashi and Ramban...) – Ze'ev misses Monica Jan 04 '15 at 22:43
  • I think it's more of ,not understanding the origins of the halacha – sam Jan 04 '15 at 23:19
  • @shokhet any updates??? – sam Jan 15 '15 at 00:08
  • Not yet, sorry. – MTL Jan 15 '15 at 00:23
  • @Shokhet - Would you be able to share the English version of Simla for me? – user9841 Jul 28 '15 at 17:27
  • @sam rabbi Chaim Loike of the ou (also yu) published a translation – hazoriz Jul 28 '15 at 18:19
  • @user9841 see above comment, i would also like a copy of the pdf – hazoriz Jul 28 '15 at 18:19
  • 1
    @hazoriz It's on Google Books here: https://books.google.com/books?id=U_ImCAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=chaim+loike&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAGoVChMIr_Haqcv-xgIVCqseCh3Mpgfs#v=onepage&q=chaim%20loike&f=false – MTL Jul 28 '15 at 19:45
  • @user9841 See above comment with link; yes, that is the book I was referring to – MTL Jul 28 '15 at 19:45

1 Answers1

3

There are many rabbonim who won’t give kabbala to a Shochet that doesn’t show a strong grasp of the Hebrew terms and precise language of the text in Hebrew. Potential Shochetim have failed tests because they answered all the questions in English, even though the answers were correct. I’ve been teaching shechita for years and this is my experience with the students I’ve sent to be tested. (There was even one Rav who only wanted to see the student read and explain a random Halacha in the Shulchan Aruch as his test.)

DovidShaffier
  • 346
  • 4
  • 9
  • meaning he needs to be able to learn inside, Gemara, Shulchan Aruch, etc. source? – mevaqesh Oct 08 '17 at 14:15
  • The Shulchan Aruch says where? – mevaqesh Oct 08 '17 at 14:16
  • I can’t find the source right now. I might have been mistaken as to it being from the Shulchan Aruch. I’ll try to find it and in the meanwhile I’ll edit my answer to exclude that part (as it wasn’t really a response to question asked, rather just to give context to the prevailing custom today) – DovidShaffier Oct 08 '17 at 16:07
  • Adding sources for these practices (i.e. where did your Rabbeim get these practices from?) would greatly improve this answer. – DonielF Oct 08 '17 at 16:50
  • 3
    The question was if there are rabbis today who won’t give kabala to someone who learned in English. Based on my experience the answer is yes, there are such rabbis. As to why they won’t, that’s not really the question, as the asker gave at least one reason himself in his question. – DovidShaffier Oct 08 '17 at 17:12
  • @mevaqesh source simla chadasha 1:6 https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=35269&pgnum=10 and shulchan Aruch HaRav 1:2 "ולכן כל רב שנותן קבלה לשוחט צריך לדרוש ולחקור עליו אם הוא אדם כשר ודרכיו מתוקנים ויראת ה' על פניוכד וגם שיהיה יודע ללמוד ולהבין בעצמו בגמרא ובפרש"י שאז יש לו לב להזהר כמו שאמרו רז"ל אין בור ירא חטא ואיכא מאן דאמר בגמרא שאם קרא ושנה ולא שמש תלמידי חכמים דהיינו למוד הגמרא הרי זה בור וזהו דעת רב עמרם גאון הובא בב"י" https://chabadlibrary.org/books/adhaz/sh/sh5/1/1/2/index.htm#_ftnref_29 – hazoriz Aug 20 '20 at 17:28
  • who brings the Bais Yosef from ספר מחזיק הבדק ... ויש לנו להכותם ולהלקותם ולנדותם כל אותם השוחטים או הבודקים לעצמם עד שיקבלו עליהם שלא לעשות עוד עד שיהיו בקיאים בכ"ד ספרי הקדש ובתלמוד בכמה פרקים ויודעין... https://www.sefaria.org/Beit_Yosef%2C_Yoreh_Deah.1.7.1 – hazoriz Aug 20 '20 at 17:29