{"id":35159,"date":"2014-02-27T20:34:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T20:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=35159"},"modified":"2014-02-27T20:57:50","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T20:57:50","slug":"brooklyn-rabbi-cut-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/kosher\/brooklyn-rabbi-cut-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Shochet is Cut Above the Rest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/iStock_000012530238Small.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35162 alignleft\" alt=\"Set of kitchen knives\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/iStock_000012530238Small-202x300.jpg\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/iStock_000012530238Small-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/iStock_000012530238Small.jpg 569w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tablet magazine has a fascinating write-up of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/jewish-life-and-religion\/160862\/kosher-slaughter-knifemaker\">Rabbi Moshe Yurman<\/a>, a Brooklyn<i> shochet<\/i>\u00a0who is one of the only three ritual knife-makers in America (and they\u2019ve got a witty, if obvious title for it). The knife a\u00a0<i>shochet<\/i>\u00a0uses, called a\u00a0<i>chalif<\/i>, is required to be homemade and exceedingly sharp. And given how long a <i>shochet<\/i> spends with his knife, it end up becoming quite a personal object.<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Chaim Loike, a rabbinic coordinator for OU Kosher, describes Rabbi Yurman\u2019s knives as works of art (Rabbi Loike earned his own <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/jewish-life-and-religion\/123100\/eat-this-endangered-species\">Tablet profile<\/a>\u00a0last year with his quixotic quest to save the Philby\u2019s Partridge). Given how few knives Rabbi Yurman makes per year, they\u2019re a bit on the expensive side. Rabbi Loike admits that he and his students buy existing knives and then alter them to fulfill the <i>chalif<\/i> requirements.<\/p>\n<p>The piece is chock full of interesting details about the <i>shechita<\/i> world, like the fact that there are roughly 300 men responsible for all the kosher meat and chicken produced in North America. While the piece\u2019s author doesn\u2019t give too much in the way of Rabbi Yurman\u2019s biography or motivation (or what he keeps in his basement for that matter), she does emerge with some very great, very Jewish repartee.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cHow difficult is it to sharpen a knife?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cHow difficult is it to play piano?\u201d he responds. \u201cTo play saxophone? To play violin?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And, in case you know someone who needs a beautiful knife with the sharpest blade imaginable, Rabbi Yorman\u2019s least expensive knife starts at $200.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tablet magazine has a fascinating write-up of Rabbi Moshe Yurman, a Brooklyn shochet\u00a0who is one of the only three ritual knife-makers in America (and they\u2019ve got a witty, if obvious title for it). The knife a\u00a0shochet\u00a0uses, called a\u00a0chalif, is required to be homemade and exceedingly sharp. And given how long a shochet spends with his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":730,"featured_media":35168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kosher","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brooklyn Shochet is Cut Above the Rest - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/kosher\/brooklyn-rabbi-cut-rest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brooklyn Shochet is Cut Above the Rest - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tablet magazine has a fascinating write-up of Rabbi Moshe Yurman, a Brooklyn shochet\u00a0who is one of the only three ritual knife-makers in America (and they\u2019ve got a witty, if obvious title for it). 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