Theos-Talk Archives (February 2003 Message tt00348)

Steve Stubbs wrote:
> Frank is right about that one. The movie THE ETERNAL JEW documented 
> the Jewish pratice of slaughtering animals so as to cause the maximum 
> distress to the sacificial victim. 
A) Jews have not sacrificed animals in almost 2000 years. When the 2nd 
Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, animal (and vegetable, for that matter) 
sacrifice ended, and the rabbinical groups agreed that prayer would take 
the place of sacrifice.

B) Kosher slaughtering is designed to cause the MINIMAL distress to the 
animal. Slaughtering can only be done by a trained specialist, who uses 
a very sharp knife to cut through the windpipe and the carotid artery. 
It must slice through both in a single stroke; if it does not, then the 
animal is not kosher. If the knife is not perfectly sharp, the animal is 
not kosher. Needless to say, the shochet (the name for the trained 
specialist) goes through a lot of effort to assure that this does not 
happen. The animal loses consciousness within 1/2 a second of this 
taking place. EEG readings that have been taken show that the pain does 
not have enough time to register.

Bart Lidofsky