[Avodah] schechtworthy

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Saul Newman quoted a newsletter which wrote:
> A /shochet/ that watches television is violating Biblical
> prohibitions. While this casts aspersions on his
> trustworthiness, he should not be removed. He must be first
> warned to cease from such behaviour (Shevet Halevi YD 2).

R' Jacob Farkas questioned the above:
> I was curious whether it is fair to apply the standards of
> yesteryear to the modern day Shoheit. The role of a Shoheit
> today has (in most cases) been drastically reduced, given
> that he is usually part of a larger operation that has a
> league of Kosher overseers who decide matters of policy,
> procedure, and more particularly, decide the Kashrus of any
> specific animal in question. ... To compare him to an
> old-school Shoheit (e.g. one-man operation), whose ne'emanus
> and often whose pesaq about the meat was enough for the
> community, is unfair.

RJF seems to be understanding the newsletter as saying that a shochet who watches television has questionable trustworthiness, and therefore it is problematic to rely on whatever paskening he might be doing.

That's not what I presumed the newsletter to mean. I had thought the problem to be that (from their perspective) a shochet who watches television is under suspicion of being a non-shomer mitzvos, which would make the shechita itself passul, regardless of any paskening he might do.

But I must asmit that the wording of the newsletter is unclear. It could go either way. Maybe someone wants to ask them.

Akiva Miller
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