The ''Simla Hadasha'' (שמלה חדשה) is a compendium on the
Jewish laws of
ritual slaughter (
Shechita
In Judaism, ''shechita'' (anglicized: ; ; ; also transliterated ''shehitah, shechitah, shehita'') is ritual slaughtering of certain mammals and birds for food according to ''kashrut''. One who practices this, a kosher butcher is called a ''sho ...
). It was written by Rabbi Alexander Sender Shor in 1733.
Author
Rabbi Shor was the son of Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Shor, a direct descendants of
Rabbi Joseph Bechor Shor of Orleans, one of the most famous of the French
Tosafists
Tosafists were rabbis of France, Germany, Bohemia and Austria, who lived from the 12th to the mid-15th centuries, in the period of Rishonim. The Tosafists composed critical and explanatory glosses (questions, notes, interpretations, rulings and ...
.
Even in his youth, Rabbi Alexander Sender Shor was the Chief Justice of the
Rabbinic Court in the town of Hovniv directly outside of Lvov. While his work was published he lived in the town of Zelkava.
Rabbi Shor died on Tuesday, January 29, 1737, or the 27th of
Shevat
Shevat (, , ; from ) is the fifth month of the civil year starting in Tishre (or Tishri) and the eleventh month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar starting in Nisan. It is a month of 30 days. Shevat usually occurs in January– ...
in the
Hebrew year 5497.
His tombstone is still extant in the Jewish cemetery in Zelkava.
Acceptance
Use of the ''Simla Hadasha'' has become so ubiquitous that it has replaced the
Shulchan Aruch
The ''Shulhan Arukh'' ( ),, often called "the Code of Jewish Law", is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Rabbinic Judaism. It was authored in the city of Safed in what is now Israel by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in ...
as the definitive work on ritual slaughter. Any candidate who wishes to become a ''
shochet'' (ritual slaughterer) is no longer tested by Rabbis on the laws found in the Shulchan Aruch—he is tested instead on his knowledge of the Simla Hadasha. The famed Rabbi Moshe Sopher, also known as the
Chassam Sofer,
[See Responsa of Chassam Sofer, Yoreh Deah Section #43] describes the ''Simla Hadasha'' with the following words, "His words are the words of the Living God". The work was published well over one hundred times.
[See introduction to the Friedman Edition of the Simla Hadasha p. 36 , Monsey, NY 2007]
It is of great interest to note that the Simla Hadasha has only been received universally by
Hasidic
Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...
and
Ashkenazic Jewry. The
Sephardi
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
c world has not embraced its use. Shechita historians have pointed out two possible reasons for this difference. The first reason is that the author of the Simla Hadasha has taken an extremely strong stand against the author of the
Pri Hadash, a Sephardic luminary, stating that the work is filled with errors in that the author had only spent two years writing it. The second reason is that the Simla Hadasha is a proponent of the idea of rubbing (מיעוך) the Sirchos (lung adhesions). This is sheer anathema in the eyes of Sephardic codifiers. Perhaps the confluence of both reasons was responsible for the non-acceptance of the Simla Hadasha in the Sephardic world.{{Citation needed, date=November 2008
Contents
The Simla Hadasha is in essence a restatement of the
Yoreh De'ah
''Yoreh De'ah'' () is a section of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of halakha (Jewish law), the ''Arba'ah Turim'', written around 1300.
This section treats all aspects of Jewish law not pertinent to the Hebrew calendar, finance, torts, marr ...
section of the ''
Shulchan Aruch
The ''Shulhan Arukh'' ( ),, often called "the Code of Jewish Law", is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Rabbinic Judaism. It was authored in the city of Safed in what is now Israel by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in ...
'' that deals with the laws of ritual slaughter and some of the laws of defective animal lungs.
*Chapters one through five deal with the laws of the ritual slaughterer himself and his intentions.
*Chapters six through ten deal with the laws of the slaughtering knife.
*Chapters eleven and twelve deal with the place and time of ritual slaughter.
*Chapters thirteen through seventeen deal with the animal that was slaughtered.
*Chapters eighteen through twenty five deal with the procedure of slaughter.
*Chapters twenty six through twenty eight deal with various other laws.
The Simla Hadasha then skips to the section of Shulchan Aruch that deals with defects in the lungs and proceeds with a restatements of chapters thirty-five through thirty nine.
References
Rabbinic legal texts and responsa
Kashrut