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I meant to do this post a while back but my feathers were all ruffled by life's challenges. Apparently, there is a custom before Yom Kippur to take live chickens, swing them over a person's head to transfer the sins to the chicken. The chicken is then ritually slaughtered (similar to the idea that during the temple times people offered live animals for slaughter in order to achieve atonement). The chicken is then given to a poor family for a meal. While I do like the idea of giving charity and I certainly recognize that if you give a chicken as charity to a poor person, that animal would be killed, kapporos are not the best way.
I decided to go reference what R. Slifkin, the zoo rabbi, had to say. I read his book, Man & Beast. I think it's an ok reference, kind of dry and dull but it does discuss kapporos. First he goes over the laws that state that we are certainly allowed to use animals for human need. We can eat the kosher ones, make clothes and use them as beasts of burden, and in the times of the temple we could offer them as sacrifices (thus used for spiritual needs as well). What we can't do, is distress them beyond what is necessary to accomplish those needs (Tz'ar Ba'alie Chaim).
He seemed to say that the swinging of the chicken overhead was not unnecessary distress but I lean toward the opinion of the chicken that it sure isn't fun. Instead, he described the conditions used to transport the chickens in densely packed, dismal coups. Coincidentally, I was hiking with an Australian woman and she said that the animal rights laws in her country require that the person go to the farm to do the kapporos rather than the chickens being transported under reprehensible conditions.
R. Slifkin notes that there is already, in place, an alternate acceptable mechanism to transfer sins and that is to money. Use a handkerchief with money and spin it around your head if you like rather than distress an animal. Let's face it folks, we don't have a temple and there are no ritual sacrifices so this is an unnecessary and cruel substitute. (Personally, I don't believe that we will have any sacrifices in the third temple. People can no longer relate to worship of God through sacrificial rites. We have substituted that with prayer. Even Ramban says the reason God gave the people the means to perform sacrifices is because the state of the people's minds back then was such that sacrifices were the only way they understood worship of any god).
I don't think most of us would go out of our way to do this form of kapporos if not for the organizations that bring these chickens to communities. I wouldn't be surprised if someone isn't turning a profit under the guise of Tzedakah but that's nothing new. "Be inscribed in the Book of Life!" the flyer claims. As if this voodoo magic procedure will tilt the scales of heavenly judgment in your favor. Recently I heard that some people were told to kick the chicken afterward. People are morons and people are cruel. Think for yourself and be a better person but not at the expense of other people or animals rather than harm an animal to save your soul. Sheesh.
I decided to go reference what R. Slifkin, the zoo rabbi, had to say. I read his book, Man & Beast. I think it's an ok reference, kind of dry and dull but it does discuss kapporos. First he goes over the laws that state that we are certainly allowed to use animals for human need. We can eat the kosher ones, make clothes and use them as beasts of burden, and in the times of the temple we could offer them as sacrifices (thus used for spiritual needs as well). What we can't do, is distress them beyond what is necessary to accomplish those needs (Tz'ar Ba'alie Chaim).
He seemed to say that the swinging of the chicken overhead was not unnecessary distress but I lean toward the opinion of the chicken that it sure isn't fun. Instead, he described the conditions used to transport the chickens in densely packed, dismal coups. Coincidentally, I was hiking with an Australian woman and she said that the animal rights laws in her country require that the person go to the farm to do the kapporos rather than the chickens being transported under reprehensible conditions.
R. Slifkin notes that there is already, in place, an alternate acceptable mechanism to transfer sins and that is to money. Use a handkerchief with money and spin it around your head if you like rather than distress an animal. Let's face it folks, we don't have a temple and there are no ritual sacrifices so this is an unnecessary and cruel substitute. (Personally, I don't believe that we will have any sacrifices in the third temple. People can no longer relate to worship of God through sacrificial rites. We have substituted that with prayer. Even Ramban says the reason God gave the people the means to perform sacrifices is because the state of the people's minds back then was such that sacrifices were the only way they understood worship of any god).
I don't think most of us would go out of our way to do this form of kapporos if not for the organizations that bring these chickens to communities. I wouldn't be surprised if someone isn't turning a profit under the guise of Tzedakah but that's nothing new. "Be inscribed in the Book of Life!" the flyer claims. As if this voodoo magic procedure will tilt the scales of heavenly judgment in your favor. Recently I heard that some people were told to kick the chicken afterward. People are morons and people are cruel. Think for yourself and be a better person but not at the expense of other people or animals rather than harm an animal to save your soul. Sheesh.
