[Avodah] schechtworthy

[Chana Luntz]

RZS writes:

> It's a question of poretz geder.  In a community where TV-watching is
> not accepted, someone who does raises questions about his yiras shomayim,
> and a shochet's yiras shomayim must be beyond question.  The same applies
> to shaving or trimming, and in an earlier era even to wearing galoshes!
> Someone whose community regards these things as normal is just behaving
> normally, and no question need be raised.
> 
> R' Elchonon Loebenstein was a shochet in Melbourne for many decades.
> He was one of the Dunera Boys, and when he started shechting for the
> L community in Melbourne some were concerned because he trimmed his
> beard.  They wrote to the LR, who replied that since he came from
> Germany where this was normal, it did not cause any problem at all
> with his shechita.

Where is poretz geder discussed vis a vis a shochet?  I know that beis din
is required to check that shochtim are mumchim, beki'im and kasherim because
of the michshol that can arise from shechita (Yoreh Deah siman aleph si'if
aleph in the Rema), but I confess that checking for chitzonius of this
nature seems if anything to be the exact opposite of what one might want.

After all, as you say,we need a shochet to have a greater yiras shamayim
than yiras benei adam (difficult as that is to achieve, as we know from
pirkei avos) - as the temptation to say nothing and allow the shecting to
pass as kosher when a) his reputation is at stake; and b) his employer's
money is at stake is exceedingly great.

So who seems psychologically more likely to be that sort of person? The one
who does what seems correct to him al pi halacha, regardless of what people
say, or the one who trims his sails (or should we say his beard) because of
what the community will say?  

Again I understand what you are saying if you are using the term poretz
geder to mean what it is often used in the literature to specifically mean,
to go against the consensus of Chazal or the rishonim bringing the universal
minhag especially where it is made clear that a violation is indeed poretz
geder (such as not fasting on minor fast days).  That is a question of a
person setting himself up against the weight of authority, and it is
important that a shochet submit to rabbinical authority (hence the
requirement to show the knife).  But to extend that to submitting to the
whims of the wider community seems almost guaranteed to pick up the wrong,
rather than the right, type of person.  One for whom chitzonius is more
important than penimius.  And that seems a more risky choice to me than the
other.


> Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's

Regards

Chana