How Is the Mitzvah of the Foreleg, Cheeks, and Maw Observed Today? [Part 3]

How Is the Mitzvah of the Foreleg, Cheeks, and Maw Observed Today? [Part 3]

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In this article we will explain how this mitzvah is observed in practice today. The article is divided into sections for those who wish to merit observing this mitzvah, private slaughterings, and commercial plants. We will also discuss whether these matters are relevant to a private consumer buying meat in a supermarket. It is recommended to first read the previous articles, which explain the laws of this mitzvah in detail.

Is there a special value and purpose in organizing a group that buys an animal in order to fulfill this mitzvah? What guidelines are recommended for such a group so that the mitzvah is fulfilled properly and in the most exemplary manner? Is there a problem with buying from a private slaughtering? When is there an obligation to give the gifts in a private slaughtering, and when is there no obligation? Is it permitted to buy from a private slaughtering in which the gifts are not given? What is the law regarding buying the tongue or the muscle [no. 8]? What is the law regarding buying tongue meat or the muscle in a regular store? What is the law regarding a private sale, such as Mishnat Yosef, directly from the slaughterers? What is the reality in slaughterhouses in Israel? What is the law outside Israel? Can an agreement be made in advance with a kohen? What is the law when only a symbolic sum is given to the kohen? What is the law regarding one who damages the priestly gifts? What is the law regarding one who sold them or ate them? And what is the law regarding one who refuses to give the gifts while they are lying in his home?

The Virtue of Organizing a Group to Fulfill This Mitzvah

Some organize a slaughtering whose entire purpose is to merit fulfilling this important and precious mitzvah, with all members of the group who bought the animal meriting to give the foreleg, cheeks, and maw to a kohen together. There is a special significance to this according to what Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote (Shaarei Kedushah, Part 1, Gate 3): in a person’s intellectual soul there are 248 limbs and 365 sinews, just as there are in the human body, and only when a person fulfills all the mitzvot is he called a complete tzaddik. From then on he succeeds in purifying his soul, and the yetzer hara has less control over him. [And after he also rectifies his character traits, becoming both righteous and pious, the yetzer hara no longer controls him at all, and he does not desire improper desires.] Therefore many people wish, at least once in their lives, to merit actually fulfilling this rare mitzvah. [It should be noted that even one who has not succeeded in fulfilling this mitzvah in practice, if he studies these laws—as the readers of this article are doing at this moment—rectifies the limb connected to the mitzvah and the part of the soul connected to this mitzvah; nevertheless, there is an advantage in fulfilling it in practice.]

The Pleiti (Yoreh De’ah 61:6) related that in his time there were pious and devout people who wanted to fulfill this mitzvah, but outside Israel, according to some opinions, it cannot be fulfilled. Therefore, when they encountered a Jew traveling to the Land of Israel, they would give him money so that he would buy an animal for them, slaughter it, and give the gifts to a kohen.

Guidelines for Those Who Wish to Merit This Mitzvah

In such a case it is very important to ensure that among the members of the group there are no kohanim, Levites, or anyone married to the daughter of a kohen or a Levite. It is also advisable to stipulate that if one of the group members, or his wife, is from the tribe of the priesthood or the Levites, he has no share in the foreleg, cheeks, and maw of the animal. Another point is that since the goal is the mitzvah, and if the animal is found to be a tereifah they will not be able to fulfill the mitzvah, and there is a high percentage of tereifot or at least doubtful tereifot, it is worthwhile to buy a small lamb or kid, whose likelihood of being glatt is very high and whose price is relatively low. This will enable the members of the group to fulfill this mitzvah in the most meticulous way.

Buying from a Private Slaughtering Where the Gifts Were Not Separated According to Halachah

When there is a private slaughtering, if they must give the tongue, the right muscle, and several additional pieces to a kohen, the cost is very high and certainly raises the cost of the slaughtering. This is definitely a test that the owner of the slaughtering must withstand in order to fulfill a positive Torah commandment. [The maw has no economic value, and therefore we did not mention it.]

In such a case there is also a problem buying from the slaughtering if the gifts were not given according to halachah: buying the tongue, as well as the lower cheek [known as “Israeli head” or “kap flash”], and the meat portions of the foreleg [the right muscle no. 8, banana muscle no. 88, part of the shoulder roast cut no. 5, and part of the mock tender cut no. 6—all only from the right side of the animal], because it is stolen from the kohen. However, if one is not buying directly from the person who owned the animal at the time of slaughter, but the meat passed through another merchant, there is no prohibition. But ordering these parts in advance is problematic because it assists transgressors, for he is asking in advance that these parts be stolen from the kohen and brought to him.

As for buying from the rest of the animal, there is a pious practice not to eat from an animal from which the gifts were not separated. According to the Knesset HaGedolah (Yoreh De’ah 61, Hagahot Tur 3), one who does so is even subject to excommunication. However, according to the holy Or HaChaim (Pri To’ar 61:3), there is no prohibition, and it is only conduct appropriate for a person as pious as the prophet Yechezkel.

Cases in Which a Private Slaughtering Is Exempt from Giving the Gifts

However, there are several situations in which the owner of the private slaughtering is exempt from giving the gifts, in which case there is, of course, no problem buying from him even the tongue and the right muscle:

1. When a non-Jew has a partnership share in the animal at the time of slaughter, and the partnership includes the organs that must be given to the kohen. However, if the partnership is arranged so that the Jew receives the front part and the non-Jew receives the hind part, there is a complete obligation to give the gifts to the kohen.
2. Even if they stipulated that the animal belongs to both the Jew and the non-Jew at the time of slaughter, and after the lung is checked, if the Jew wants the animal it is his, and if he does not want it, it belongs to the non-Jew, this exempts from priestly gifts. However, if the slaughtering is being done by the Jew and the animal belongs to the Jew, but if he does not want the animal it belongs to the non-Jew, this is considered as the non-Jew undertaking to buy anything found to be a tereifah. This is not effective, and the animal is obligated in the gifts if it is kosher. (Rema, Yoreh De’ah 61:25; Pri Chadash 41; Pleiti 32.)
3. When the non-Jew is not present at the place of slaughter, there is an obligation to write down or otherwise mark that a non-Jew is a partner in the slaughtering, so that they will not be suspected of failing to give priestly gifts.
4. When the slaughtering is not regular but occasional, and one of the partners in the animal is a kohen or the husband of a daughter of a kohen. However, if the slaughtering is regular, this leniency does not help. In addition, sometimes before the slaughter the partners already determine which cut each partner will receive; in such a case, if a particular cut of the foreleg, cheeks, or maw has no kohen’s share in it, this does not exempt the one who receives that part from giving it to a kohen. Therefore, in many private slaughterings the practice is to stipulate in advance that the share of the kohanim participating in the slaughtering is the foreleg and cheeks.

Meat Plants

Meat plants today must be divided into several categories: slaughterhouses owned by non-Jews; slaughterhouses owned by Jews outside Israel; a slaughterhouse in full Jewish ownership; a slaughterhouse in joint ownership; a slaughtering in which the cattle belong to a Jewish marketer and not to the slaughterhouse; and a slaughtering in which the cattle are jointly owned by a Jewish and a non-Jewish marketer.

In order to explain the present-day reality, it must be emphasized that in every slaughtering, the percentage of mehadrin-level kosher meat is low, and there is a high percentage of definite tereifot, with this varying according to the breed and origin of the cattle. In every slaughtering, arrangements must be made for marketing the tereifot or the less meticulous meat. Therefore, the owner of the cattle always needs someone who will market the meat to the non-Jewish public. In addition, many refrain from eating the hind part, and it is marketed to the non-Jewish public.

Therefore, when there is a partnership, it is structured in several forms: either an ordinary partnership in which both partners share in the entire animal at certain percentages; or a partnership in which the Jew receives the front part of the animal and the non-Jew receives the hind part of every animal; or a partnership in which every kosher animal belongs to the Jew and every tereifah animal belongs to the non-Jew. The division can be carried out in several ways: either everything belongs to the non-Jew, but the Jew selects for himself a certain number of animals that he likes, and the non-Jew must supply cattle until the quantity the Jew needs is reached; or the reverse, everything belongs to the Jew and every animal that is a tereifah belongs to the non-Jew, with a certain quantity that the non-Jew will receive in any event; or a full partnership in the animals, with it being determined that the kosher or mehadrin animals belong to the Jew and the rest to the non-Jew, and at most there is an agreement that afterward they will settle accounts if there were unusual percentages.

Halachically: in any case where a non-Jew has a partnership share at the time of slaughter, the entire animal is exempt from priestly gifts. However, if the partnership does not include the entire body of the animal, the determining factor is to whom the foreleg, cheeks, and maw belong. If the non-Jew has any share in them, there is no need to give them; but if the partnership is entirely, for example, in the hind part, there is an obligation to give them to a kohen as usual.

However, if there is a non-Jewish partnership in the ownership of the slaughterhouse or the merchandise, but the non-Jew is not present on site, there is a need to record or publicize the matter in some way, so that people will know that the reason this mitzvah is not being fulfilled is that there is a non-Jewish partnership.

The Reality Today

The reality today is that in the Land of Israel most slaughterhouses are owned by non-Jews. The largest slaughterhouse, where most of the meat is slaughtered, is Dabah in Deir al-Asad, in non-Jewish ownership. Tnuva today is also Chinese-owned, though there are a few slaughterhouses under Jewish ownership [if there is some agreement or partnership with a non-Jew, it is incumbent upon them to publicize the matter].

In the past, at the Marbek slaughterhouse it was common for merchants to bring their cattle and slaughter them at the slaughterhouse. As of today [Elul 5782], to the best of our inquiry this is less common, but still in many cases there is a Jewish entrepreneur who owns the cattle, and they are not owned by the slaughterhouse.

Outside Israel, for example in Poland, South America, and some slaughterhouses in the United States, the slaughterhouses are fully non-Jewish owned. The slaughterers inform the slaughterhouse how many cattle they want, for example 500 head of cattle, and they slaughter until they find the quantity of cattle at the desired level of kashrut. For example, if 25% of the cattle meet the level of cleanliness they want, they slaughter 2,000 head until they have 500 cows that are mehudar. Therefore, there is no obligation whatsoever of the gifts, because at the time of slaughter the cattle are owned by non-Jews.

Therefore, in practice, almost all meat is exempt from priestly gifts, and there is no problem with it. The question remains only regarding a slaughterhouse in Israel that is fully Jewish-owned, and similarly a slaughterhouse in the United States that is fully Jewish-owned.

In addition, in every slaughtering there is a non-Jewish marketer who markets the tereifot; in a large portion of cases he is a partner in the cattle already at the time of slaughter. [Some mehadrin certifications require this for an additional reason: there is a prohibition against trading in tereifot, especially since there are periods when there is no demand for meat among the Arab public, and most of the tereifot are sold, Heaven forbid, to Jewish non-kosher restaurants in Israel. Therefore, the kashrut authority requires that the tereifot be owned by the non-Jew from the outset.]

Acquiring the Rights from the Kohen Without Actual Giving

In one certification, where the marketer buys the cattle before slaughter, it is customary that when they slaughter in the Jewish slaughterhouse, the marketer makes an agreement with a particular kohen, and the kohen sells them all the merchandise at a very low price. Similarly, a few years ago the Rabbinate published an agreement of this type and urged marketers and slaughterhouse owners to sign it, but unfortunately only some agreed to do so. We will explain how this agreement works.

In these agreements there are two problems: a. Is it permitted for the kohen to sell the fine meat portions at a cheap price because he wants them to continue giving him the low compensation and not bring everything to another kohen? b. Can the kohen sell the meat portions before he has acquired them and before they have reached his possession?

To explain this law, we will first introduce the law called “makirei kehunah,” meaning a person who is always accustomed to giving the gifts to a particular kohen. The gifts are considered, halachically, to be in the possession of the kohen even before the owners have given them to him. Therefore, with respect to various laws, the kohen has the power and right of ownership over the gifts, even though they have not yet reached his hand.

In practice, when a person wants to buy the gifts from the kohen [even for their full monetary value], the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 61:14) rules that this can be done when three conditions are met: a. the kohen is “makirei kehunah,” meaning that the person has an established practice of giving to this kohen throughout the years; b. the kohen is a Torah scholar; c. the kohen is financially pressed.

In addition, this is on condition that the kohen is not a servant in the house of the owner of the animal, because then there is concern for psychological pressure by the employer upon the kohen. Therefore, for example, he transfers the gifts to a guest who is a Torah scholar, to whom the homeowner would have given a respectable portion of his own. (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 61:14, based on Taz 16.) [However, the Pri Chadash (24), Pri Megadim (Mishbetzot Zahav 16), and Pleiti (15) wrote that if the homeowner already actually brought the gifts to the servant, there is no prohibition in asking him for them, and there is no concern that he will not give them wholeheartedly.]

In light of these points, in that kashrut certification the practice is that the owner gives a particular kohen the gifts in their entirety three times, thereby making him “makirei kehunah.” Now, at every slaughtering, when the cattle were in Jewish ownership at the time of slaughter, he gives them a sum of money—for example, 1,000 NIS—which is a respectable sum, but tiny compared to the value of the fine meat portions of an entire slaughtering.

However, the question is whether it is permitted for the kohen to sell the priestly gifts for a small sum. In practice, already 500 years ago the Radbaz (Part 1, no. 340) mentions that this was the custom, and he cites the responsum of Mahari Kurkus, who protested strongly against this custom as contrary to halachah for several reasons. See also Levush (Yoreh De’ah 61:32) and Pri Chadash (Yoreh De’ah 61:16), who prohibited it. However, the Radbaz advocated in defense of the custom.

In summary: this arrangement, even when done in the above manner, is not proper according to very many poskim, but it is better than nothing; however, there are those who do not make even this arrangement.

Outside Israel

Outside Israel, as far as we have clarified, we do not know of any particular arrangement or partnership with a non-Jew being made, and people rely on the custom that priestly gifts do not apply outside Israel. As we wrote in the previous article, the Vilna Gaon (Yoreh De’ah 61:20, Likut) wrote that one who gives outside Israel is praiseworthy, and it is likewise related in Ma’aseh Rav (103), Chatam Sofer (Yoreh De’ah 301), and Pleiti (Yoreh De’ah 61:6) that they actually gave the gifts outside Israel.

Is It Permitted to Buy Tongue or Muscle in a Store?

In light of all this, the question arises whether it is permitted to buy a cut of meat that is part of the priestly gifts, or perhaps one must be concerned that since nowadays a large portion of sellers do not act according to halachah, these cuts belong to a kohen and may not be bought. The question also arises regarding a person who buys outside Israel from a Jewish-owned plant and wants to be stringent for himself in accordance with the opinions that these gifts apply outside Israel: may he eat tongue, muscle, or another cut that may be priestly gifts?

To sharpen the question, we emphasize that the tongue or lower cheek is meat that is certainly priestly gifts. However, with the other cuts, it is not clear that they are priestly gifts; even one who buys the muscle [no. 8], although he buys it with the bone, which is certainly the foreleg, is in doubt as to whether it is the right foreleg or the left foreleg.

However, in light of what has been said, in practice in the overwhelming majority of slaughterings there is no obligation of foreleg, cheeks, and maw, and the buyer has no obligation to be concerned that this slaughtering was under Jewish ownership at the time of slaughter.

And even in a case where a person knows clearly that this slaughtering was from cattle that were fully Jewish-owned at the time of slaughter, the halachah is ruled (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 61:31) that priestly gifts can be stolen, meaning that if a person decides not to fulfill the mitzvah and to steal the gifts and sell them to another person, it is forbidden for another person to buy the gifts from the seller, because he is assisting in a transgression. However, if he transgressed and bought them from the seller and they passed into the possession of the buyer, the kohen’s ownership is removed from them, and the buyer may eat them or sell them to another. It is likewise permitted for another person to buy this meat ab initio. Therefore, in a case of doubt it is forbidden to buy directly from the plant or merchant in whose possession the animal was at the time of slaughter. However, a store may buy from a supplier who bought from the slaughterhouse, and certainly a customer may buy in a store, since it has already passed through several marketers.

However, if there is direct marketing by the owner of the animal at the time of slaughter, who organizes a sale to the general public directly [such as Mishnat Yosef], there is a problem buying these cuts [specifically regarding Mishnat Yosef, according to what we clarified, there are three partners, one of whom is not Jewish, so there is no problem at all].

In addition, the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 61:16) rules that if a Jew sells or gives another Jew the meat of the gifts, or meat that includes the gifts, he need not be concerned that perhaps the first did not give them to a kohen and then buy them back from the kohen; the other Jew may receive the gifts and eat them without concern.

The Law of One Who Damages the Gifts or Sells Them to Another

However, the owner of the slaughterhouse or the merchant who did not give the priestly gifts according to halachah cannot be sued by a beit din or by the kohanim to extract money from him for this. Likewise, anyone who eats the gifts, sells them, or damages them is exempt under human law. However, all of these are liable under the laws of Heaven, and if they wish to repent, they must pay the kohanim the value of all the meat they sold unlawfully. (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 61:15.)

But if the gifts still exist in the possession of the owner of the animal and he refuses to give them, the beit din compels him to give them. (Taz, Yoreh De’ah 61:17.)

Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 61).