Introduction
Bedikah and nikkur as part of kosher meat production show great diversity due to the influences of local or regional minhagim. Furthermore, they can also become part of a communal identity and serve as protection against external influences. In this context, women can express their ritual role and identity by affirming local practices and even performing nikkur.
A striking example of this is a collection of responsa written in Bonn in 1616, which documents a special form of bedikah as part of a lenient minhag (Bodleian Library Oxford, Oppenheim 328; NLI Jerusalem, Ms. heb. 8° 2241; Det kongelige Bibliotek Kopenhagen, Cod. Sim. Hebr. 97; printed in Mordechai Halberstadt, Maamar mordechai, Brno 1790, fol. 39d-45a, No. 30). When the new provincial rabbi wanted to abolish this minhag, he met with fierce resistance, which referred to the established meticulous practice in which women were also involved: “Women with experience, whose hearts He [God] has raised in wisdom, porged (menakkrin) the outside of the stomach.”
As a result, the minhag remained in place until the 19th century, but was regarded as a local peculiarity in the Electorate of Cologne, which repeatedly sparked controversy. In addition to its halachic function, the collection of responsa was also significant for the politics of memory. For the respected (katzin) Juda bar Chayyim from Bonn, in whose house the controversial ritual slaughter and meat inspection had once taken place, was none other than the notorious “traitor Loeb Kraus” of the Frankfurt ordinances of 1603. Denounced by his Jewish opponents in his office as “supervisor” of the Jews of the Electorate of Cologne, he in turn denounced the decrees of 1604 to the Elector as high treason. With the minhag documented in the collection of responsa, his followers erected a monument to him as a benefactor.
Bibliography:
Klein, Birgit E., Wohltat und Hochverrat. Kurfürst Ernst von Köln, Juda bar Chajjim und die Juden im Alten Reich. Netiva. Wege deutsch-jüdischer Geschichte und Kultur, Bd. 5. Hildesheim/Zürich/New York: G. Olms, 2003.
Source 1 Translation
Bodleian Library Oxford, Oppenheim 328, fol. 4b-5a
Question. May our master teach us. It has been customary in the land of Cologne for many years, and accordingly our elders and wise men have taught, [namely] the pious chief rabbi Chayyim Treves z“l, R. Joslen of Bonn, and R. Liva Kotnem, who, like all scholars and wise men who have ”sat on blankets” [cf. Judges 5:10] in this land: If a needle was found in the stomach, it was customary to examine whether it had completely pierced [the stomach wall] and whether there was no drop of coagulated blood on the outside of the needle tip [sticking out from the inside]; if the findings were negative, it was declared kosher.
However, since the custom spread that most cattle are fed [i.e., kept in stalls and not on pasture], needles are usually found in the stomach. And therefore, in the eyes of the crowd, it was customary to check for needles in the reticulum immediately after removing the stomach, even before examining the lungs, regardless of whether the diaphragm was fused or stuck to the reticulum or omasum; even then, one had to search for needles in the reticulum. If needles were found in the reticulum, they were not shown to a scholar at first, but only to the slaughterers (shochatim] and meat inspectors (bodkim), who were usually as experienced in this examination as they were in examining the lungs, as this occurs very frequently among them. And so all the scholars of this country allowed them to follow this procedure for many years: if a needle was found stuck in the omasum, either lengthwise or widthwise, or even in the omasum itself, then experienced women, whose hearts He [God] had raised in wisdom, were allowed to porge the omasum from the outside [menakkrin; make kosher by removing the forbidden fat] and the experienced bodkim, together with the experienced bodkim of each community or city, cut open the meat under the needle to see if there is any perforation and if there is no drop of coagulated blood [outside the tip of the needle sticking in from the inside]. If the result is negative, it shall be declared kosher. Accordingly, our contemporaries, the elders of our people, testify that they have seen this halachic practice of declaring something kosher from the aforementioned chief rabbi [Chayyim Treves] and the other scholars after them. Now, however, this halakhah has been renewed by our [new] chief rabbi [R. Moshe Buergel], who currently resides in this country and wants to renew something that we have never seen or heard of and that our fathers never considered: If the liver lobe is fused with the omasum or reticulum, then one must check whether there are needles in the rumen or omasum. Even if a needle is found loose, not stuck, without having pierced and without a drop of coagulated blood [on the outer wall of the stomach], even in this case it is treif. His proof comes from the gloss at the end of “Sifrei bedikot yeshanim,” which begins: “If you find that it is fused, etc.” This is also cited by the genius, our master R. Moshe Isserles in his Shulchan Arukh in § 41:8, albeit with linguistic variations, as well as in his “Torat he-chattat”, also with linguistic variations. Similarly, the author of the “Levush” [R. Mordechai Jaffe] has again included this statement in a third variant in his reference to the above passage. His proof and derivation [of the new chief rabbi] are based on the gloss, and our response to this gloss does not need to be elaborated here in my book. However, our fathers did not tell us all this, but only the described method of meat inspection, regardless of whether it was grown together or not.
Therefore, may our masters teach us: If the lobe of the liver is fused with the omasum and the reticulum, and a needle is found in the cavity [of the stomach], without any perforation and without a drop of coagulated blood or any other suspicious sign, just the needle in the cavity, then may our teacher teach the righteous way [cf. Proverbs 4:11]; and thus may HE strengthen his power. On the eve of the holy Sabbath of the Parashah ‘I have not brought anything treifa into your house’. (Gen 31:39; Parashat ויצא) ” [6 Kislev 5316; November 27, 1615]
After this letter was written, one of the heads of households in this country, a Torah scholar named Hirshlen Bruehl, one of the disciples of our master, Rabbi R. Sanvil Elisom of the holy community of Frankfurt, may God establish it forever, sela, came and said that he had seen how several times a question had been received asking for instructions regarding a needle in the reticulum, and he had never heard him ask whether the lobe of the liver was fused or stuck to the reticulum, but had always examined the case in accordance with our investigations, as our aforementioned forefathers had instructed us, and also in this country he had seen and heard in the name of his father-in-law, R. Liva z”l Kotnem, who had examined in the appropriate manner.
[Response from the holy community of Prague] Regarding the question on the other side of the page: We are surprised at the scholar who, in the case of adhesion of the liver lobe to the omasum or reticulum wants to declare treif if a needle is found in the cavity. The truth is that in the case of adhesion, one must examine whether a needle is stuck in the cavity; but if one examines and finds no stuck needle or drop of coagulated blood or any suspicious sign in the membrane of the flesh, which is healthy and unchanged, then it is kosher, even if there is a needle in the cavity.
Saying of Solomon Ephraim son of the Master, R. Aaron, may the memory of the righteous be a blessing, Luntshitz,
and ruling of Isaiah son of my lord, my father, my teacher, our master R. Abraham Segal, may his memory live on in the world to come, Horvitz
Received on the holy Sabbath, Tevet 19, 5316 [January 19, 1616].