BARBECUED CHICKEN WINGS

Published August 25, 2009

V’ZAVACHTA

Being on vacation up in the Golan in NOV with all the cows around and making barbecues, verses in this week’s portion had a special significance.
In the desert, the people weren’t allowed to eat meat unless it was brought to the OHEL MOED as a SH’LAMIM sacrifice. But what would happen when the nation enters the land of Israel, conquer the land , divide it up, and the nation is scattered all over within the borders of the Holy Land? Would they have to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to bring a sacrifice first every time they wanted to have a barbecue? That is just the question verses in our portion deal with (12:20-21). Before they enter the land, Moshe instructs them as to what they are to do with regard to eating meat when they will all be living in Israel.
The verse says “KI YARCHIV ET G’VUL’CHA - when you have widened your boundaries and conquered the land ” and “KI T’AVEH NAFSH’CHA LE’ECHOL BASAR - and you want to eat meat”, then “B’CHOL AVAT NAFSH’CHA TOCHAL BASAR” - you can eat meat anywhere with out bringing it first as a sacrifice to the Temple; “KI YIRCHAK MIM’CHA HAMAKOM” - because THE PLACE (i.e. the Temple) will be far from you. (For example NOV is a 2-3 hour drive to Jerusalem). Since the majority of Israel would not be living in the vacinity of the Temple, Hashem will not require them to bring a sacrifice every time they want to eat meat.
In the desert, all the slaughtering of meat had been done under the watchful eyes of the Kohanim. Now that everyone would be allowed to slaughter their own meat, Hashem gives us here special laws for accomplishing this task. In the Talmud (CHULIN 28a) we are taught that from this verse V’ZAVACHTA… KA’ASHER TZIVITICHA - you shall slaughter as I have commanded you - that Moshe was taught the laws of ritual slaughter, SH’CHITA. These were handed down to him HALACHA L’MOSHE MISINAI and not all written down explicitly in the verses.
The laws say that one must slaughter the animal by a cut through the breathing pipe - trachea (KANEH) and the eating pipe - esophegus (VESHET) by a person who is obligated in this mitzva (i.e. not by a non-Jew but in theory by a woman) with a cutting instrument that is not attached to the ground (K’LI CHITUCH METALTEL) without stopping in the middle (SHEHIYA), without a chopping motion like a guilitine (D’RISA), without placing the knife in the meat first and cutting upward while the knife is inside the meat (HAGRAMA), without stabbing into the neck before shechting (CHALADA), and without tearing the meat like when cutting with a serated knife (IKUR). For these reasons a SHOCHET must have a very good knife that he checks thoroughly and often (with his tongue and fingernail).
These laws apply to cattle and birds, but with birds its sufficient to cut either the KANEH or the VESHET.
For a nice explanation on the significance of all the laws of sh’chita see Rav Hirsch on these verses.

SINCE IN THIS WEEK’S PORTION we learn about the laws of Sh’chita that allow us to eat meat anywhere - here is a simple barbecue recipe.

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 onion
chicken wings

Mix ingredients for marinade. Put wings in a large flat pan. Pour marinade over wings and toss well. Marinate for 24 hours, turning occasionally. Barbecue on grill or bake in 350 degrees F oven for 1 hour.