Timing and Location of Shechitah
From Halachipedia
When
Night Lights
- Shechitah may only be performed by daylight or torchlight, not during the day in a dark room or at night with just candles. Bediavad, though, the shechitah would be kosher if it was during the day and he checked the simanim or, according to some, even at night by candlelight and he cut the majority of simanim without hagrama.[1]
- Moonlight and starlight are also insufficient for shechitah, but some say they can be sufficient for checking simanim.[2]
- Two candles held together with at least the flames touching count as a torch, as does wood smeared with oil.[3]
- If one started shechting by torchlight but it was extinguished or he forgot to light one altogether and only realized mid-shechitah, he may complete the shechitah to avoid making the animal a nevelah.[4]
Shabbat and Yom Kippur
- Strictly speaking, an animal shechted on Shabbat or Yom Kippur beshogeg (or bemezid in private) is permissible from a shechitah perspective, but one still has to overcome the penalty imposed on benefiting from Melacha performed unjustifiably on Shabbat.[5]
- Shechting in front of ten Jewish people in public brings one to the status of Mumar Mechallel Shabbat Befarhesia, so there is little room to permit the meat and a rabbi should be consulted.[6]
Where
- One may shecht at the top of a boat or roof but not into a rivers or large bodies of water, which gives the impression one is shechting to deity in charge of the waters. One may, however, shecht into a filled pit or spring, as long as the water is too dirty to reflect his image.[7]
