Misconception:Nikkur achoraim(renderingthe hindquarters of an animal fit for kosher consumption) is aSephardic practice that is banned by rabbinic fiat for Ashkenazim andthus not performed in the United States.

Fact:There is no such ban, andnikkurwaspracticed in many Ashkenazic communities into the twentieth century.The practice of some communities to refrain from eating hindquarters,owing to the difficulty in excising the forbidden sections, continuesto exist among both Ashkenazim and Sephardim.

Background:After a kosher animal is properly slaughtered and inspected,1 it still may not be consumed until certain large blood vessels,2chailev(prohibited fats known as tallow or suet; see, e.g., Vayikra 7:25) and thegid hanasheh(the sciatic nerve)3 are removed. The removal process is callednikkur(traiberingin Yiddish, porging in English), and the person who does it is called amenakker(ortreibererorporger). Other animal parts must also be removed because of theirproximity to, contact with, dependence upon or similarity tochailev.This includes permitted fats(shuman)that may be confused withchailev. Nikkurin the forequarters is significantly easier, because thegid hanashehis located in the animal’s hindquarters. Additionally, the front half of the animal, from rib twelve onward,4 has almost nochailev.5 Thus, the primary task innikkurof the forequarters is removing several blood vessels. (In this article, except where indicated otherwise,nikkurrefers to removing the forbidden parts of the hindquarters, not the forequarters.)

Theprohibitions involved are indeed serious. Consuming prohibited fats orblood is more serious than eating pork and incurs the severe punishmentofkaret,6 while eating thegid hanashehincurs lashes.

A brief treatment of the relevant laws can be found in theShulchan Aruch,YD64-65; various special“kuntresim”that were published over the years deal with the topic in greater detail. Rema, however, twice states (YD64:7 and 65:8) thatnikkurcannot be learned from a text, only through apprenticeship. This is due both to the fact that much ofnikkurdependsupon local custom and to the difficulty of learning the process withoutactually doing it. It is detailed work, requiring anatomic knowledge,surgical skill, patience and knowledge of tradition. Until relativelyrecently the majority of Jewry performednikkuron both the forequarters and hindquarters of the animal.7 Indeed, there is no indication in either theShulchan Aruch(Rabbi Yosef Karo; 1488-1575) or Rema (1520-1572) that the discussions ofnikkurare anything other than practical.8

Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch(Teshuvot Vehanhagot1,YD418-419)claims that Maharshal (Rabbi Shlomo Luria, 1510-1574) established acustom that “Godfearing people refrain from eating hindquarters.”9Rabbi Shlomo Machpud (Madrich HakashrutofBadatz Yoreh Deah[5762],5:90) asserts that Rabbi Sternbuch’s claim is based upon a misreadingof Maharshal. Rather, Rabbi Machpud states, the custom Maharshalestablished was to refrain from eating the hindquarters until a secondmenakkerinspectedwhat the first one did. Indeed, he writes that Maharshal ate thehindquarters of all animals save for those of small, delicate calves.

Examining Maharshal in the original supports Rabbi Machpud’s contention. InYam Shel Shlomo(onChullin2b, no. 2, p. 2 andChullin93b, no. 19, pp. 179-180 in the 5755 edition and cited in full inBe’er HateivYD65:6), Maharshal records that in the “old days” in Germanynikkurwas not so difficult. However, new stringencies madenikkura far more arduous task, leading to grave mistakes. Overwhelmed by time-consuming stringencies, localmenakkrim,whocould not always keep up with the demand for hindquarters, wouldsometimes neglect to excise some of the forbidden sections. Thus,writes Maharshal, he therefore does not eat hindquarters until he has asecondmenakkercheck the work of the previous one, a practicehe says was already instituted by Maharam Mintz. Evidently, Maharshalneither refrained from the consumption of hindquarters nor did heprohibit others from consuming them.He was simply ascertaining that thenikkurwas done properly.

At some point the practice of not eating the hindquarters10didindeed develop. This was due to several factors including thedifficulty of porging, a lack of trust in the skills of the porgers andthe easy sale of the hindquarters to non-Jews. One of the first todescribe this practice, Sephardic Rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Zimra(Egypt/Israel, 1479-1573;Shu”t Radbaz162) mentions a localcustom of selling the hindquarters to Muslims. This practice issubsequently mentioned by Ashkenazic sources including Rabbi MenachemMendel Krochmal (1600-1661;Tzemach Tzedek,no. 73), who makes note of theshochetimwhowent to the villages around Nikolsburg, sold the hindquarters to thenon-Jews in the villages and brought only the forequarters to theJewish community. Additionally, Rabbi Yair Chaim Bachrach (Germany,1638-1702;Chavot Yair178) discusses an individual who supported himself by selling the hindquarters of kosher meat to non-Jews.

In1614, Rabbi Leon Modena (1571-1648), a well-known Venetian rabbi, wascommissioned by an English lord to write a description of Jewishpractices for King James I of England. His work, published in 1637 inItalian asHistoria de gli riti Hebraici, was the firstdescription of Jewish ritual written by a Jew in the vernacularexplicitly for a non-Jewish audience. Rabbi Modena wrote:

Whence it is, that in many places in Italy and in Germany especially, they do not eat the hindquarters; because this sinew[gid hanasheh]isin them, and a great deal of fat, which requires much exactness to betaken away clean; and there are but few that can do it as it should be.11

Thekabbalist Rabbi Chaim Vital (1542-1620), the star student of Arizal,wrote that his teacher explicitly told him to partake of hindquartersas long as thenikkurwas meticulous.12

Indeed there were many towns in Europe wherenikkurwas practiced in recent centuries. Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (1713-1793; Noda B’Yehudah,Mahadura Tinyana, YD:31) notes that in Praguenikkurwas practiced, but he acknowledges that there were cities in which there were no trainedmenakkrimand thus, for purely practical reasons, it was not practiced there.

Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschuetz (1690- 1764) was a mastermenakkerwho was acutely aware of the difficulty of doingnikkurcorrectly; in his workKreiti Uplatihe writes that he only eats hindquarters if he himself is themenakker.13The Yeshuot Yaakov (YD64:2;Rabbi Yaakov Meshulam Ornstein, 1775-1839) testifies that in all thebig cities, such as his community of Lvov, as well as in Brodt andKrakow,nikkurwas performed. Rabbi Yechiel Michal Epstein (1829-1908;Aruch Hashulchan,YD65:31) explains that in his town (Novardok, Russia)nikkurwas under strict rabbinical control, performed not by the butchers but rather by specially trained and licensedmenakkrim.As a further safeguard, the rabbis banned the importation of meat from outside the city.14

While the Chatam Sofer15(1762- 1839) attests to the fact that in Pressburg (Slovakia)nikkurwas not performed because of the effort involved, at the same timenikkurwas practiced in Lissa and Prague.

Nikkurwas performed in Melbourne, Australia, throughout the nineteenth century, although it is not clear when the practice ended.16In the early nineteenth centurynikkurwas still practiced in Hungary as evidenced by the publication in 1825 ofBeit Yitzchakby Rabbi Yitzchak ben Eliezar. In his work, which was a practical guide to the halachot ofnikkur,the author states that amenakkershould not be overly strict and remove meat that need not be removed halachically, causing undue financial loss (siman4;klal3).Just as it is prohibited to permit that which is prohibited, it islikewise prohibited to prohibit that which by law is permitted.17

A great detail of information is available about the practice ofnikkurin London and Yerushalayim, places where it was practiced well into the twentieth century.

In London,nikkurwas first introduced by the London Board for Shechita in 1827.18It seems that housewives were not happy with the appearance of the porged meat.19Butcherstried to satisfy their demands by selling unporged hindquarters. In1865, the tension between the board, the butchers and the housewivesreached such levels that a representative was sent to observe themethods ofnikkurpracticed in Leghorn, Italy, and in Paris in the hopes thatnikkurwasdone there in a “neater” manner. Unfortunately, there were nodifferences in the methods. The conflict between the housewives, thebutchers and the Board continued for decades. Eventually, the Boardlicensed only certain butchers to sell hindquarters. This led to otherproblems, and in 1912 and again in 1923 special campaigns wereinitiated to educate the public about the importance ofnikkurand to enforce the regulations. Sometime after 1929, thebeit dinof the Board prohibited the sale of hindquarters, though somenikkurapparently continued in London until at least 1941.20In1941 Rabbi Yechezkiel Abramsky supported Rabbi Binyamin Beinish Atlasof Glasgow in rejecting the butchers’ request to sell hindquarters. Hisconcern was that it could lead to problems of supervision (SeeSeridim13[Cheshvan 5753]: 3-4 for the exchange of letters). The issue aroseagain in 2000 when the Israeli chain El Gaucho sought to open a kosherbranch in London and to serve hindquarters as it does in Yerushalayim.Thebeit dinof the Board eventually turned the store down.21

In Yerushalayim,nikkurof the hindquarters was actually instituted by the Ashkenazim.22Formany years Sephardim were the majority in Yerushalayim, since themodern community was established by Jews expelled during the SpanishExpulsion. Sephardim slaughtered only goats and sheep on which theypracticednikkurof the forequarters, butnikkurof the hindquarters was not done because of the animals’ small size.23Followingthe arrival of the students of the Gra and of the Ba’al Shem Tov toPalestine in the early nineteenth century, the Ashkenazic communitygrew. However, the Turks prohibited the Ashkenazic community fromperforming its ownshechitah.Finally, in 1874, when theAshkenazic community was granted the right to slaughter, it continuedto follow the custom of the Sephardim and only performednikkurof the forequarters on goats and sheep. Moreover, the Ashkenazic community adopted the Sephardic customs as regardsnikkurof the forequarters. This resulted in Yerushalayim Ashkenazim performingnikkurof the forequarters differently than other Ashkenazim.24

In 1876 the Yerushalayim Ashkenazim initiated kosher slaughter of cattle; they now introducednikkur achoraiminYerushalayim, based on the practices of the Lithuanian Jews. Thefollowing year Rabbi Yehoshua Leib (Maharil) Diskin of Brisk, an expertinnikkur,moved to Yerushalayim, and together with Rabbi Shmuel Salant established ava’ad shechitahto ensure that theshechitahandnikkurwere performed in the strictest manner.

Outside of Eretz Yisrael, the issue ofnikkurwas raised again during World War II. By the start ofWWII, Jews in most parts of Poland no longer practicednikkur.InMarch of 1938, the Polish Siem passed legislation forbidding the saleof kosher-slaughtered meat to non-Jews. Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinskywrote25that in a rabbinic meeting held in Warsaw it wasruled that all Polish Jewish communities, without exception, shouldimmediately reintroduce the practice ofnikkur achoraimto avoid significant financial loss to the local Jewish population. There was no halachic problem in institutingnikkur, stated Rabbi Chaim Ozer. Even thoughnikkurwas not practiced because of the lack of qualifiedmenakkrim,avoiding the consumption of hindquarters was not an actual custom, he said.26

In Israel,nikkurcontinued to be practiced. In 1943 Rabbi Nachum ben Avraham Kohen Levin wroteTorat Nikkur HaYerushalmi,in which he explained all aspects of practicalnikkurofthe forequarters and hindquarters. As described above, the Ashkenazimin Yerushalayim porged the forequarters of animals differently than didother Ashkenazim. Newcomers to the Land started to question thenikkurpracticed in Yerushalayim, and Rabbi Levin hoped to show that it was in accordance withhalachah,and that the differences that existed involved custom only. Clearly,nikkurwas alive and well in Yerushalayim in 1943.27

Today,nikkurof the hindquarters is practiced in Israel, and is supervised by many of the Sephardicbadatzesas well as the Rabbanut. In addition, the OU supervisesnikkurof deer hindquarters in the United States, because in deer, only thegid hanashehand blood require removal, but not thechailev.

Accordingto Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler, in both his father’s hometown of Kamenitzand Rabbi Moshe Feinstein’s hometown of Luban, Belarus (where RavMoshe’s father-in-law was theshochetandmenakker),nikkurwas performed in the early twentieth century.28People did not stop practicingnikkurbecause of a ban or custom. Rav Moshe states this very clearly (Iggerot Moshe YD:2:42; pp. 56-57). In his opinionnikkurwasnot regularly practiced in recent years because butchers didn’t want toexpend the effort, and there were enough non-Jews to purchase the meat.

Rav Moshe (Iggerot MosheOC5:28)29statescategorically that it is a grave sin to cause a section of the Torah tobe forgotten even if it will not lead to the violation of anyprohibitions.

Certainly to forget all of the laws ofnikkurwould fall under this sin. Doing so would also make it impossible to reinstitute thekorban Pesach,which cannot be properly prepared without knowing how to remove thechailevand thegid hanasheh.30