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Are Jews allowed to eat hunted animals? That means the animals are dead before getting their necks cut.

I do not think that a large proportions of ancient Jews were hunters, but I would be surprised to find that there was not a single hunter in all of Jewish history.

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    Hunting for sport is strictly forbidden, and hunting for food will render the animal a tereifah if (as in the example you gave) you wound or kill the animal before slaughtering it. But that said, hunting is most certainly permissible. You could hunt for pelts, for example.
    – Shimon bM
    Jul 14, 2013 at 10:34
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    Interestingly, the hebrew (and biblical hebrew) word for hunting is Tzayad, which means trapping, not hunting. It seems to me that they would trap the wild animals and then slaughter them.
    – Menachem
    Jul 14, 2013 at 17:28

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No.

In theory (see Yore Dea chapters 3, 6, 7), it's possible to kill an animal with a really sharp arrow or thrown knife and render it kosher, but not practically.

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  • Shooting below the knee would not render it treif. But the question specifically wanted death before slaughter.
    – user6591
    Aug 25, 2014 at 1:21
  • Not really. My question is whether jews hunt at all or not. It seems that judaism may have lead the world to move on from hunter gatherer society to farming. Or something like that.
    – user4951
    Sep 11, 2014 at 1:35
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    @JimThio If your question is about whether it is permissible to hunt, then ask that; not whether consumption of the meat would be permissible.
    – mevaqesh
    Oct 2, 2016 at 4:07
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    Well sort of both. I mean what's the point of hunting if not for eating 4 k years ago?
    – user4951
    Oct 2, 2016 at 8:48
  • Well practically in Chullin 30b Rav Yona is recorded as shecting a bird in flight with an arrow. So we see it practically was possible ,but today not encouraged...
    – sam
    Jan 31, 2018 at 4:32
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And, of course, to keep from dying (פיקוח נפש), though all non-animal food sources would have to prove or seem obviously insufficient, just as if all emergency rations were treif (which would be preferable, I believe, to killing an animal when there were something else you could eat that were permissible under the circumstances---please correct mke if I'm wrong).

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  • Welcome to Mi Yodeya. As written, this doesn't seem to answer the question. If you're trying to say that hunting is ok for pikuach nefesh when no other food is available, could you edit to say that more directly? Adding sources will strengthen your answer. Without these changes this will probably be deleted; we reserve the answer space for answers, not discussion. See tour for more about how the site works. Thanks, and please do edit if you can make this fit better!
    – Monica Cellio
    Aug 24, 2014 at 20:21
  • @MonicaCellio This answer may be better as a comment to the pre-existing answer....but this guy doesn't have the rep for that just yet. ....think it should be converted?
    – MTL
    Aug 25, 2014 at 5:13
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Isaac was apparently not opposed to wild game. Was he not waiting for Esau to bring him some venison when Jacob came in and fooled him with mutton?

(I can't imagine how he was fooled since they taste so dissimilar)

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    That's true, but who's to say that he intended to shoot the deer? Maybe he wanted him to trap it, and slaughter it in a kosher manner.
    – MTL
    Jan 8, 2015 at 0:42
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    Before Torah was given, not relevant!
    – havarka
    Jan 8, 2015 at 0:43
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    @havarka That's a good point, but the Avos kept the Torah, even though they weren't commanded to.
    – MTL
    Jan 8, 2015 at 0:45
  • @Shokhet Was Esav's Shechita even Kosher?
    – Double AA ♦
    Jan 8, 2015 at 6:26
  • @DoubleAA Good point; I don't know. Would Yitzchak's shechita be kosher? Remember, he may not have been Jewish....
    – MTL
    Jan 8, 2015 at 16:28
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The Torah specifically allows for hunting in Leviticus 17:13, provided that you pour out all the blood on the ground and cover it with earth. This is consistent with the Torah's instructions concerning the slaughter of animals in general, where you are required to pour out all the blood on the ground, but not required to cover it with earth. It is inconsistent with the ideas created in the Talmud, which seem to contradict the Torah on this point.

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    Im notsure what contradiction you see
    – Double AA ♦
    Nov 25, 2014 at 21:23
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    You understand of hunting is an anachronism. The word can be about trapping as well. And that is not an exclusively religious claim.
    – Yishai
    Nov 25, 2014 at 21:43
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    The animal had to be shechted after being trapped alive. However, there are those who say that this only occurred after the conquest of Eretz Yisrael. That is a different question and is not part of this question.
    – sabbahillel
    Mar 31, 2016 at 0:30

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