(SHECHITAH).
Hilchoth Shechitoth U’Bedikoth [laws of ritual slaughter and examination].Manuscript ...

(SHECHITAH).
Hilchoth Shechitoth U’Bedikoth [laws of ritual slaughter and examination].


Manuscript in Judeo-German. pp. 80. Aschkenazi cursive handwritten by Reuven Hochfeld of Exeter (England) on tinted paper. Appended to (printed text): Ya’akov Weil. Sepher Shechitoth U’Bedikoth. Text in Hebrew and Judeo-German. With commentary Gevul Yisrael. pp. 48. [Vinograd, Karlsruhe, 6]. Carlsruhe, 1821.
Light wear. Contemporary patterned boards with marbled dust-jacket. 8vo.
Exeter (England?): 1840-53


A handwritten guide to Jewish ritual slaughter. From the title-page, it appears it was written in Exeter, a town in Devon, England, with a lengthy Jewish presence. See B. Susser, The Jews of South-West England: https://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/susser/thesis/thesisacknowledgements.htm. Pasted at the end of the volume is a manuscript rabbinic certification for a shochet named Raphael ben Mordechai Steinfeld, issued by R. Avraham Fehrenbach of Detmold (along with two re-certifications, added by the same rabbi at later dates). On the final two pages appear a list of family events with dates ranging from 1840-53. It is unlikely that England possessed home-grown Shochtim, therefore the appearance of a German / Yiddish speaking Jew present in Exeter, a town in the south west corner of the country, might not be too surprising. This guide was for his own personal use and therefore it is in the language with which he is most comfortable. The printed text here was intended primarily as a practical guide for ritual slaughterers, the work does not include Halachic sources. The Author simply provides final rulings in a straight-forward fashion, as well as local custom where fitting. Shechitoth U’Bedikoth was indispensable to every community rabbi and was reprinted dozens of times over the centuries becoming fully authoritative throughout the Ashkenazic world.