Shechitah שחיטה

The Torah says "slaughter as I have commanded you" without describing how—and the oral tradition answers: with one stroke, with a blade free of the slightest nick, severing windpipe and gullet. Five faults invalidate the act: pausing, pressing, burrowing, missing the place, tearing. All of it is worked out in tractate Chullin.

Behind the rules stands one thought: if a person eats meat at all, the animal must not suffer longer than an instant. The slaughterer—the shochet—passes an examination, holds a certificate and checks the blade before and after; in the shtetl he was a figure no smaller than the cantor.