Shoshani Ubanav/ Nikkur

 

DON’T BE IGNORANT OF YOUR BUTTS,

OR, KASHRUT AND HINDQUARTERS

Often enough,  we  here in the USA see that this is what is kosher on a kosher, four legged animal.  “No Butts about it” was  a slogan from kosher meat producer Hebrew National:  the hind quarters are not listed as kosher.

However, when you go to Israel, the situation is  totally different.

Meet the Shoshani Brothers.  They run Jerusalem’s best known butcher shop,  Shoshani and Sons, Inc., which is under top-level Kosher supervision.  The shop was started by their father before the state of Israel was established! Jerusalem’s top restaurants buy their meat here, and lovers of good food order from them.  And their store has a meat map like this:

Kosher butchers like the Shoshani’s, as well meat stands at the supermarkets throughout Israel  show the whole cow!  All those cuts that are normally not available as Kosher in the USA are sold there:  Sirloin, Tenderloin, Flank, Top Round.

Here is the display case at Shoshani and Sons. The cut in the middle is #13, “Sheytel”, which is prized for Szechuan Beef and other stir-fried dishes. It’s a cut from the back of the cow,  and you normally can’t get this cut of beef from a Kosher butcher in the US.

 Almost every part of the cow is kosher according to the Torah.   In Israel, kosher hind cuts are common and affordable.   In the USA,  we rarely see them, if at all. What is going on here?     Part of it has to do with our ancestor,  Ya’akov.

BERESEET (GENESIS) 32: 22-32

24And Ya’akov was all alone--  then a man wrestled with him on and on until dawn. 25When the man saw that he could not win against Ya’akov, the man struck at the socket of Ya’akov's hip so that it was dislocated as they wrestled. 26Then the man said, "Let me go; it's almost dawn!" But Ya’akov answered, "I won't let you go until you bless me!" 27So the man asked him, "What's your name?" "Ya’akov [Heel-Twister]," he answered. 

 28The man said, "Your name will no longer be Ya’akov but Yisra’el [god-fighter] because you have struggled with God and with men--  and you have won." 29Ya’akov said, "Please tell me your name." The man answered, “You need to ask my for my name?” Then he fled from Ya’akov. 30So Ya’akov named that place Peni-el [Face of God], because he said, "I have seen God face to face, but my life was saved." 31The sun rose as he passed Peni-el. He was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore, even today the people of Yisrael  do not eat the  Gid Ha’nashe [Sciatic tissue attached to the hip socket] because Ya’akov's hip was dislocated at the thigh muscle.

Look at the reactions of sages to this last verse:

The Bechor Shor (Oleans, France, 12^th cen.):  It is to be a commemoration for them that their forefather fought with the angel, and [the latter] could not subdue him. And so [the angel] wounded him in the rear-facing section of his thigh, in the place where there is the sciatic nerve. And it is a commemoration of glory and greatness.

 

Chizkuni (France, 13^th cen.):  it would be right and proper to punish the Israelites not to eat that particular sinew as they should not have allowed their founding father to be exposed to hostile forces at night. Yaakov’s sons were physically strong, and they should have been at hand to assist their father if the need arose to do so. Seeing that they failed to do this, the blame for the injury sustained by their father was theirs. From now on they would have learned their lesson and would practice the commandment to accompany their father, or for that matter, any older and wiser person, especially at night.  

 

Ibn Ezra (Spain, 12^th cen.) :The meaning of the term gid ha-nasheh (the sinew of the thigh-vein) is known from the tradition received and transmitted to us by the Talmudic sages. The rabbis interpret gid ha-nasheh to mean the sinew that slipped from its place. No one but those lacking in understanding and knowledge of nature have any doubt as to its definition.

 

Tur HaArokh (Toledo, Spain, 14^th cen.) :    The Jews not eating this sinew are comparable to sons who make a point of fasting on the anniversary of their father’s death. Another way of looking at this law: In the future, the Jewish people would be commanded not to eat this sinew in order that they should remain aware of the miracle which had occurred when a mortal man, their ancestor Yaakov, had been able to prevail against a celestial force trying to wrestle him to the ground.

 

So Jews who observe Kashrut won’t eat this part of an animal. So what do they do for meat headed to Israel that we don’t do here? 

A trained kosher butcher will  cut out the forbidden tissue from the meat,  a process called Nikur.  There used to be many people in the United States who were Menakerim,  experts in Nikur,  but due to a number of reasons, there are only three left in the entire US!  So aside from three stores here,  you have to go to Israel to find a kosher sirloin, as in Israel there are still many Menakerim.  However,  as we try and eat less meat-  and waste less of the meat we do eat, there may be a return of these cuts to the kosher market in America. 

To top it all off,  Rambam  (that’s Rabbi Dr. Moses Maimonides to you)  codifies what you have to do with this section of an animal and some other related laws:

 

 

Mishneh Torah, Forbidden Foods 8:7

One who removes the gid hanashe must dig out all traces of it until nothing remains. A butcher's word is accepted with regards to the gid hanashe, just as it is accepted with regards to chailev (fats forbidden to eat by the Torah). We don't purchase meat from any old butcher, only from an upright guy who has an established reputation for being observant of the Torah. If he slaughters the meat himself and sells it, his word is accepted.

Mishneh Torah, Forbidden Foods 8:14

It is permitted to derive benefit from the gid hanashe. Therefore, it is permitted for a Jew to send a thigh with the gid in it to a non-Jew. The Jew may give the non-Jew the entire intact thigh in the presence of a Jew. We don't suspect that this other Jew will partake in the meat before the sinew is removed, because the location of the gid is conspicuous (so they won’t eat it).

(See-  it really stands out!--> ) So when we look at this week’s Torah Portion and ask “what does this have to do with being Jewish today,”  the answer is clear, no butts about it!  What we eat, when we follow the discipline of kashrut, anchors us to the lives of our ancestors and their struggles.