Bidspirit auction | Laws of Ritual Slaughter and

Laws of Ritual Slaughter and Inspection — Illustrated Manuscript. Community of Banowitz, [1835]. Unique in the world! - A prayer for the ritual slaughterer and a summary of the laws of shechitah (slaughter) and bedikah (inspection), in an illustrated manuscript written by Rabbi Akiva son of Reb Zelig, from the holy community of Banowitz, [1835]. [1] large leaf, paper, 44×56 cm. Written in scribal script (STaM) in black and red ink, with additional colors in the illustrations. This unique manuscript presents practical and didactic tools for the ritual slaughterer and inspector: a concise summary of the laws of inspection and defects rendering an animal non-kosher (treifah), a prayer before slaughter, and a visual guide enabling review and memorization of the laws, their sources and reasons — through colorful and pictorial aids. The manuscript concludes with the inscription: “I, the humble [Akiva son of Reb Zelig?] of the holy community of Banowitz, made this depiction of the lung in the city of Mitzar, in siege and distress, in the year when goodness reached the slaughterers — [5]595 (1835).” This remarkable testimony shows that even “in a time of distress for Jacob, ” there were those who persevered with devotion — studying the laws and creating instructional tools for their retention and understanding. Since several of the halachot here differ from the text of the Shulchan Aruch, it appears that this is not a mere copy but rather laws and prayers preserved from the author’s own memory. The manuscript opens with a Prayer for the Slaughterer before slaughter: “Please, O Lord, Creator of all, Your glory is above the heavens and Your honor upon the earth. Deliver my soul today from evil hours, rebuke the Satan that he not accuse me, and let no sin or iniquity hinder this commandment which the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded — to slaughter and to rectify its roots in the supernal realm, in all its particulars and intentions, to repair all 613 commandments dependent upon this precept … to awaken the love of the Beloved. Amen Selah.” It then continues with the Laws of Slaughter, under the heading: “Rabbi Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: Any slaughterer who has not mastered the laws of shechitah — it is forbidden to eat from his slaughter, as it is written: ‘Go out to the field and hunt me game’ — the extra word ‘game’ teaches that the slaughterer must be proficient in the five matters expressed with the letter he: shehiyah (delay), derasah (pressure), chaladah (thrusting), hagramah (cutting in the wrong area), and ikkur (tearing). These five are laws transmitted to Moses at Sinai.” Each of these five principles is illustrated within a circle, with the reason for the prohibition explained beneath. These laws correspond (with variant wording) to Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De‘ah §§ 23–24. Along the margins appear, on the right, the reason slaughter is performed specifically at the neck, and on the left, the laws of a shmuta (dislocated windpipe). Following this is the heading “And how is the inspection done?”, describing the pressing of the thumb on the curvature of the windpipe-cover so that the simanim (trachea and esophagus) protrude and can be seen to have been properly cut; afterward, the slaughterer inspects whether they returned to place — if they did, the shechitah was valid; if not, the animal is terefah. It concludes that the difference affects the permissibility of its fat and eggs. A similar ruling (in different form) appears in Rema, Yoreh De‘ah 25:1. On both sides below the heading are the “Laws of Two Defects”, listing fourteen signs concerning inspection of the lung and their rulings. Beneath this appear notes on the commandment of covering the blood (Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 28). Also shown is a diagram of the windpipe, lungs, hepatic cavity, and gall bladder, surrounded and interwoven with the laws of treifah: the sources of the prohibitions, the distinctions between kosher and non-kosher appearances, details of defects in the lobes, lungs, and hepatic cavity, the laws of blisters, adhesions, abscesses, and more (Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 29 ff.). At the bottom are biblical allusions to kosher and non-kosher appearances of lungs, with colored illustrations of these appearances and general rules for internal inspection. The lower margin bears again the name and place of the scribe. Overall Good condition. The leaf is damaged in several areas, and portions of the text were restored through professional artistic repair. Some of the writing is faded. Time stains.