them. Hence the various regulations for the lawful mode of killing animals for food handed down by tradition as Mosaic. The flesh of beasts and birds not killed in the prescribed manner is regarded as nebelah, that is, as that of an animal that died of itself, and is prohibited, just as is the flesh of an animal found to have been affected by a lesion that might have proved mortal and which is regarded as terefah, that is, as if it were torn by a wild beast. Nebelah and terefah are both forbidden to the Jew in the Pentateuch. The dietary laws, including the regulations for slaughtering animals, have thus a biblical basis. The observant Jew regards them as divinely ordained. They certainly go back to hoar antiquity. Daniel and the three young men who were brought up in Babylon refused to eat the animal food of the Babylonians and preferred to live on pulse. The revolt of the Maccabeans was due to the religious persecution under Antiochus, who sought among other violations to force observant Jews to violate the dietary laws (II Mac. 6. 18.).

The Jewish mode of slaughter is specifically held by the observant Jew to be a command of God, based on the text (Deut. 12. 20-24) which permits the consumption of food not brought as a sacrifice. "If the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to put His name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat within thy gates after all the desire of thy soul" (Hullin 28a).

The precise mode is not set forth in the Scriptures except that the Bible uses the verb shahat to denote the killing for sacrifices, parts of some of which were eaten by the priests or by those who brought the offerings. But

the method now in use has descended to the Jews from time immemorial, is fully discussed in the Talmud, and is held to have been preserved traditionally from the days of Moses to our own time. The law of Shehitah is regarded as a hok, a statute. Our motive for its observance should be loyalty to God's commandments. But, as with other hukkim, it is open to us to reflect and speculate on the purpose of the divine Lawgiver. The reason that has obviously suggested itself to the thinkers of Israel is that this institution of Shehitah is based on sentiments of humanity. "Since it is necessary to slay animals for food, our holy religion has laid down rules how we are to proceed in slaying an animal so as not to give it unnecessary pain" (Ra'avan, Maamer Haskel, 1. 19; Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, III, 26 and 48).

How is this principle of humanity safeguarded? The slaying of an animal for food is a religious rite and can only be performed by an official specially trained, examined and certified. He can act only with the permission and under the supervision of the ecclesiastical head or body of the district where he works. The conditions that have to be fulfilled are as follows: The Shohet (ritual slaughterer) must be a Jew of good character, religious, and possessed of some culture. Minors, the uneducated, deaf-mutes, morons, and non-observant Israelites cannot act as Shohetim. Persons whose hands tremble or who are addicted to alcohol cannot act in this capacity. The candidate for the office must bring satisfactory evidence of his moral and religious character, so that one may rely on his conscientiousness in the discharge of a duty in which so much is left to the conscience. One who wilfully violates Juda

ism or does not believe in its traditions or disregards the dietary laws or publicly violates the Sabbath or has a bad reputation is not only ineligible to act as Shohet, but is removed from office if he does so act, and what he kills may not be eaten by Jews. No one can act as Shohet unless he is familiar with the rules of Shehitah, has been taught to kill expertly, and has killed properly at least three animals in succession in the presence of a competent Shohet. The Shohet examines the carcasses, mainly the lungs. He must therefore also have a thorough knowledge of the normal and pathological conditions of the animal's organs. He is examined by the rabbi in theory and receives a certificate which holds good for the jurisdiction of that rabbi only. If he goes to another place a fresh license has to be obtained from the ecclesiastic of the new district under whose jurisdiction he will stand.

In some places the custom is to issue certificates for a definite period, usually three years, when they have to be renewed. The Shohet must always refresh his knowledge of theory. In practice he must be expert in examining and setting the knife and in killing. The mode of killing is an incision in the neck, severing the œsophagus and trachea. The knife is of more than surgical sharpness and smoothness, with a perfect edge, without the least perceptible unevenness, indentation or roughness. It is passed forward and backward over the operator's finger -flesh and nail-twelve times to test its sharpness and smoothness; over the flesh, because the oesophagus is fleshy like the finger; over the nail because the trachea is cartilaginous and hard like the nail. If any unevenness is felt the knife has to be smoothed on the hone and again

tested before being used. So much importance is attached to smothness of the knife that it is examined once more after killing; and if any unevenness, roughness or the minutest indentation is found the beast is regarded as having been improperly slaughtered, and its flesh is nebelah and may not be consumed by Jews. Before proceeding to kill, a benediction is recited by the Shohet, as is done before the performance of other religious rites.. The knife must be more than twice as long as the breadth of the neck of the animal; for large cattle fourteen finger-breadths. Hence Shohetim have three different knives, one for birds, one for large cattle, one for small cattle. The mode of killing cuts the trachea, oesophagus, carotid arteries and jugular veins with one continuous, to and fro movement of an exceedingly sharp and perfectly smooth knife, which, as I have said, has been prepared and tested for absolute freedom from roughness.

Five points have to be observed in correct ritual slaugh

ter:

1. Shehiyyah.-There must be no pause. The incision must be continuous until all the vital parts are severed. A pause for an instant, voluntary or involuntary, renders the killing improper. The object is to obviate protracted pain.

2. Derasah. There must be no pressing upward or downward, nor any hacking. The object is to secure positive and swift action in the incision.

3. Haladah. There must be no burrowing. The knife must not be introduced under the skin, as in stabbing, or covered by the wool of the sheep or hair of the steer. The incision must be free, open and exposed, so as to drain

the brain quickly and thus render the animal unconscious immediately.

4. Hagramah. The incision must be made in a prescribed region of the neck, namely, through the trachea, preferably below the cricoid-the complete cartilaginous ring immediately below the larynx-but not through the larynx, nor through the part of the neck which is close to the chest, where the muscles are very thick and the trachea is deep seated. The reason is that the complete ring is hard, sometimes almost completely ossified, and might blunt or nick the instrument and thus cause delay in cutting and inflict increased pain. Similarly, the muscles near the chest are thick and stout and to cut through them would be attended with delay.

5. 'Ikkur.-There must not be a laceration, but an incision, a clean cut, not a tear; hence the knife is examined after the operation, as well as before, to make sure that it is perfectly smooth. If a roughness is found the beast is declared to have been improperly killed and its flesh is terefah. The reason is evident. It is well known that a tear is infinitely more painful than an incision. The prescribed incision, theefore, must be made by an instrument sufficiently long and broad, exceedingly sharp and perfectly smooth.

The incision should be carried from the surface of the skin down to, but not touching, the vertebrae. This necessarily includes the severance of the trachea, œsophagus, carotid arteries, jugular veins, the pneumogastrics and the main or upper cardiac branches of the sympathetic nerves, Severing the carotid causes an immediate acute anaemia