[Avodah] schechtworthy

[Zev Sero]

Jacob Farkas wrote:

> 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.

There has been no change.  Only the shochet himself knows how well he
checked the smoothness of the chalef, or whether anything went wrong
during the shechita.  No larger operation can check these things.  It
relies entirely on his ne'emanut and yirat shamayim.  Just as nobody
but the sofer himself knows whether a mezuzah or a set of tefilin
parshiyot was written in order.

(They do have a chalef-checker, but he doesn't check as often as the
shochet himself does; even in the old days the shochet had to have the
rov check his chalef regularly, but the primary responsibility was on
the shochet himself.)

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas