When one of my family members decided to look for a source of parnassah, he did not have any qualifications. He is an avreich who is a talmid chacham, and just before he came to this decision, they were learning hilchos shechitah in the kollel. This relative, who learned with great diligence, came to the conclusion that working in shechitah might be suitable for him.
He didn’t learn in order to become a shochet. He learned in order to learn, but he learned very seriously, and from there he went on to practical learning. Those in the know told him that shechitah of chickens was easier than shechitah of cattle, so he focused on chickens, and within a short time he was accepted for work in a poultry plant.
After he had been working there for a while, the plant came upon financial hardship. The amount of work decreased steadily, and a large number of workers were fired. My relative remained working, but everyone there knew that nothing was very secure and that the plant was standing on very shaky legs.
During one of those days of uncertainty, one of the long-time workers came over to him and told him, “You are young and skilled, and I’m sure you’ll be successful elsewhere, while I am already older. Here people know me, but the minute they fire me I’ll have nowhere to go. I don’t have the strength to start all over again. Therefore, I want to ask something of you.” He already understood what the request was going to be. “How about when they fire me, you come along and say that you’re willing to go instead of me?”
It was an audacious request that put my relative in a difficult position. It isn’t easy for anyone to find work. Here he was in a plant where people already knew him and needed him, and he was even getting special compliments that while others were being fired, his superiors would not forgo his work. But now he was being asked to leave for the good of another worker...
He deliberated a lot, and ultimately he decided to give in. Indeed, in real time, when they wanted to fire the long-time worker, he went over to the managers and asked to be fired instead of him. Then he left the plant for the last time.
Now that he had no work, he thought it was a good opportunity to use the time until he’d find another job to learn shechitah for cattle. He learned it well, and he found work in a meat plant.
Here he had special siyata diShmaya and quickly became very sought-after as one who examines the shechitah knives and separates the meat from the forbidden cheilev. Today he is the head shochet in one of the world’s leading kosher meat corporations.
Once, when someone asked him how he got there, he said that he feels that there is great siyata diShmaya accompanying him because of his having given in to the older worker back in the poultry plant.
