For all of the back and forth here about whether to shecht a goat at the upcoming Food Conference (which is certainly a noble and lively debate), very little space has been given to the what of shechting. Or the how, I suppose. While certainly secondary, the technical aspects of what goes/would go into slaughtering a goat at a Jewish retreat center in rural Connecticut with no facility set up for such a thing, and kosher are by no means simple. I was given the debatably enviable task (I loved it) of figuring out the answers to all the whats should we move ahead. Given that I’ve spent the better part of 18 months (2 years if you count my initial pangs of conscience) trying to get my ethical, kosher meat co-op off the ground, I figured I’d know all the pieces by heart and would just smooth them into place- heck, 1 little goat vs. dozens of cows? Piece of cake. Turns out that’s only half true.

If you just focus on the technical things needed, the task seems simple. Which is what I did. Since the kashrut aspect was forefront in my mind, and since I’d actually worked as a mashgiach (kosher supervisor) at Isabella Freedman before and was familiar with the organization that gives them a hechsher (certification of kashrut), that seemed the best place to start. I called the Rav HaMachshir, the “head rabbi” (lit. “rabbi who gives the hechsher”), at the Hartford Kashrut Commission, to ask what his organization would need in order for the slaughter to happen with their blessing and the resultant meat, should the animal end up being kosher (they don’t always despite best intentions) allowed into Isabella Freedman’s kitchen.

He was very friendly and said they’d be fine with it, but a rabbi familiar with shechitah, preferably an actual shochet, would need to serve as an overseer- a mashgiach- to the process. Since he has no one on staff who fit the bill, we discussed some other options and I set off to find someone at one of the major hechshers that works in the meat industry who was appropriate. I quickly found someone from the OU who was very personable and excited to be part of the process.

My other concern was the legal aspects; there are very specific state and federal regulations around slaughtering meat and I wanted to make sure we stayed within those guidelines.  For the most part, animals can be slaughtered on premises for consumption thereon without an issue- which surprised me when I first learned it, but there it is. The rules become a little stricter but still perfectly manageable when the animal is being removed from the premises for consumption by whoever is purchasing the animal. Stricter still if they are being removed to be sold commercially in anyway, but staying within the state. And finally, the strictest regulations address meat being moved across state lines for commercial purposes. So our situation was simple and I trusted that whoever was doing the slaughter and the overseer, both having lots of experience in this area, would know what to do. I wasn’t disappointed.

We were moving along nicely- I’d dealt with the halachic (Jewish legal) and legal issues needed to allow the actual task to happen. Now I had to deal with the actual task- getting a goat and someone to kill it. More on that soon.