Kosher

Q: What is the difference between kosher and non-kosher meat?

A:  Shechita is Jewish ritual slaughter, and is done to cause the animal minimal pain and suffering and maximum respect.  Shechita can only be performed by a shochet, a highly qualified and skilled professional. Years of training precede the shochet’s entry into his vocation.

The animal to be slaughtered must be found to be free of disease, affection and even malformations. Further, any beast which is nevelah (dies of natural causes) or trafe (torn by another animal) is considered unfit for consumption. Animals hunted or trapped (and injured in the process) are also unfit.  Shot with a bullet or arrow or caught in a trap the animal suffers pain and trauma making it unfit for eating.  This is not the Jewish way.  Only animals killed in accordance with Law are deemed acceptable for food.

A shochet’s responsibility, besides slaughtering, is to inspect the internal organs to ensure they are not diseased.  The shochet must be a learned and pious individual.  In contrast, the U.S. slaughterhouses are factories.

As the shochet prepares for his task, he recites a blessing as a vivid reminder that flesh is a gift given by God and not to be taken thoughtlessly, without concern.

During the actual slaughter, the shochet must draw a perfect blade; there can be no knicks or scrapes in the metallic blade.  The knife is then wielded to severe the carotid artery.  The swift action renders the animal insensible to pain. 

Finally, the blood of the animal is removed along with the veins and arteries carrying the life source and from the heart.  The flesh is salted and rinsed to remove every vestige of blood.

There are, of course, other differences between kosher and non-kosher meat but this is a quick review of the primary divisions.  Underlying the entire process of shechita is the principle of tsa’ar ba’alei hayim, being mindful of the suffering that we cause to God’s creatures.

Glatt

Q: What is “glatt” kosher?

A: Let me start by saying that the USDA demands that animals slaughtered for public consumption not be diseased or grossly contaminated.  Judaism goes much further (to quote the famous commercial, “we have a higher authority”).  Animals must not only be free from obvious disease they must be free from internal and external lesions, their organs cannot be damaged or defective along with a host of other criteria.  If the cost of kosher meat is high it is only because of the strict attention paid to the physical state of the animals, and if found to be defective, the meat is sent to supermarkets.

Now to your question, what is “glatt” kosher?

Kosher is kosher.  Either the meat is acceptable or not.  Right?  Food cannot be “super kosher.”

The term, “glatt,” does not refer to a standard of kashrut but to specifically the lungs of the animal, which were inspected to have no adhesions. This is a step beyond that which is required by halacha, religious law.

There are only a few certain adhesions to the lungs that render an animal unfit, trafe. Jews who wished to be meticulous in their observance decided not only to rely on the standard examination of the ritual slaughter, shochet, to determine the permissibility of the animal. They would accept only if animal's lungs were completely smooth, or glatt.