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Adapted from L'Chaim #217
In Europe it was the custom to fatten up geese in the months
preceding Passover, since many families refrained from using any oil other than
goose fat on the holiday. For six to eight weeks the geese would be fed a full
bucket of corn twice a day, so that by the time the holiday arrived they would
be so huge they could barely waddle.
Two religious giants of the early nineteenth century, the
Chatam Sofer and the Yismach Moshe, differed in their rulings as to
whether the practice of force-feeding rendered the geese not kosher. The
question revolved around whether or not the sharp corn grains which were forced
down the throats of the birds would damage the esophagus, thus making the birds
treife (unable to live another year, and therefore not kosher to eat).
 | | " The Chatam Sofer suggested that...they should put their rulings to a practical test..." | | |
The Chatam Sofer held that the esophagus would not
necessarily be damaged, and so he ruled the practice permissible. (Of course,
the geese had to be carefully checked before being consumed to prove that they
were kosher by the process described later.) His contemporary, the Yismach
Moshe felt that since the corn kernels were sharp, the likelihood was that
the birds would be rendered treife by the force feedings. He ruled that
geese fed in this manner would not be permissible.
The two corresponded back and forth, each presenting learned
arguments to prove his point, their dispute purely "for the sake of heaven".
Finally, the Chatam Sofer suggested that instead of theorizing, they
should put their rulings to a practical test. Each was to take ten geese and
fatten them up. Then, they would slaughter them, fill the esophagi with air and
float them in a full tub of water. If the esophagus was damaged air bubbles
would escape into the water, thus proving that the bird was treife. If no
bubbles were seen, the bird would be kosher.
When the birds were duly fattened and slaughtered, an amazing
thing took place. All the birds from the household of the Chatam Sofer
proved to be kosher, whereas all the birds of the Yismach Moshe tested
treife!
So it was seen that the legal rulings of these two great giants
dominated the physical reality, proving the axiom that the rulings of true Torah
authorities determine the actuality of a physical situation.
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