Unique: A shchita certificate handwritten by the well-known Shochet Rabbi Chanoch Hendel Katz of Nadvorna, who was ...

Unique: A shchita certificate handwritten by the well-known Shochet Rabbi Chanoch Hendel Katz of Nadvorna, who was certified by the Admor the Ahavat Shalom of Kosov - Nadvorna 1811

From Sunday, 22nd of Kislev 1811, testifying that “Shraga Feivish Tzvi ben Shmuel studied under me the wisdom of sharpening the blade…and can feel any slight or even the slightest defect in any animal…” signed by Chanoch Hendel ben Shlomo Katz. Size: 20x24cm. Text is only on the left side of the page. Page repaired, defects to the text, filing holes, signs of folding and tape.

The letter is historical testimony of the machloket among slaughterers in Bukovina at the time. Admor Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kasov, the Ahavat Shalom, was the founder of the Kosov-Vizhnitz dynasty, and, as is well-known, he would only eat meat shechted by Rabbi Chanoch Hendel ben Shlomo Katz (descended from Rabbi Natan Shapira of Krakow, the Megaleh Amukot; related to the Ahavat Shalom on his mother’s side). Rav Chanoch had a special procedure for sharpening the blade, among other things by using a machine (some say that the Torat Haim, the rabbi’s son, reinstituted this method, now called Kasover shechita). No one would try to do shechita in Bukovina without the rabbi’s permission, who would require the certification of Rav Chanoch.

The rabbi here certified is Rabbi Shraga Feivish Zvi, probably a local shochet who was also later certified by Rabbi Haim of Kasov and the Rebbe of Ruzhin (sources: Even Shtiya, Beit Lehem Yehuda p. 11, Alei Zikaron).