Haredi Group Attacks Kapparot

Leaflets calling for an end to the use of live chickens as part of the Kapparot ritual have been hung outside synagogues in Kfar Saba, Kadima-Tzoran and other Sharon region communities in recent weeks. "It's unthinkable that God-fearing Jews would cooperate with all kinds of people bringing the chickens while starving and abusing them. These animals are packed together for hours, without water or any basic conditions,” one member said.

Haredi group slams Kapparot ritual
Hemla organization joins animal activists in calling performance of religious custom before Yom Kippur 'an inhumane act'
Lihi Laufer • Ynet

Leaflets calling for an end to the use of live chickens as part of the Kapparot ritual have been hung outside synagogues in Kfar Saba, Kadima-Tzoran and other Sharon region communities in recent weeks.

Kapparot is Jewish folk custom during the days before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to transfer one's sins to a chicken or to money given to charity.

The struggle has been run for years by the Anonymous association for animal rights. This year, the activists are receiving surprising support this year from an ultra-Orthodox organization called Hemla, which has published its reservations against the way the custom is performed.

"It's unthinkable that God-fearing Jews would cooperate with all kinds of people bringing the chickens while starving and abusing them," notes one of the haredi organization members. "These animals are packed together for hours, without water or any basic conditions."

Hemla members stress that they have nothing against the actual custom. "We want to raise awareness to the horrible way that people hold the chickens. It's inhumane – they sit in the sun, crowded, without food or water. Judaism says a person must not eat before feeding his animals," explains Yehuda Schein, one of the organization activists.
 
"I personally perform Kapparot for [i.e., with] money. Naturally, if the alternative is doing it for [i.e., with] money, then I prefer doing it this way," he adds.

'Great suffering'

According to the Anonymous organization, "The Kapparot ritual means causing great suffering to tens of thousands of roosters and hens. The Kapparot ceremony includes swinging the chicken around one's head before slaughtering it. But the suffering doesn’t end there.
 
"First of all, the suffering has to do with their breeding conditions: Most chickens come from industrial henhouses, where most of their needs are denied and different systems in their bodies are damaged as a result of the density and excrements they are forced to roll in.

"At the end of the process, most of the chickens are held for hours in crowded cages, waiting without water or food to be taken out of the cages and later slaughtered."

Activists of Anonymous have been distributing thousands of leaflets in synagogues across the country under the banner, "Saving lives rather than a soul for a soul" and "Judaism – a religion of compassion, not cruelty."

"I know that there is a lot of support for our struggle and awareness to everything related to animal abuse," says Anonymous activist Tal Gilboa-Yuz of Kfar Saba. "We are trying to reach as many people as possible in every way, and in the middle of the road we met Hemla, which is an amazing and blessed organization."

Comments

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

I wonder why is kapparot deemed acceptable teologically.Isn't it a pagan custom and isn't teshuvah the only way to amend one's sins in Judaism instead of transferring it to an innocent animal?

[seymour]

they prrrrretest all the time

the conditions have not changed

they simply do not care all they care about is swinging they chicken

just like they did not care how animals or people where abused by SMR all they cared was was the knife sharp

all things have become dogma to them and the meanings behind any halacha has been lost a long time ago

[Barry]

Here is an essay about the possible origin of kapparos.

http://www.hsje.org/Holidays/kaparot.htm

According to this essay, this ritual relates to Osiris, the brother-husband of Isis, the ancient Eygptian goddess of motherhood and fertility whose worship was widespread in the Hellenic world.

[Ezra]

I'm surprised they don't simply cite the Shuchan Aruch, which clearly comes out against the custom. In the versions most in print today, R. Karo's language is "yesh limnoa minhag zu". But in some other versions, his language is even stronger, calling kaparot "minhag shetut."
True, Rama rules in its' favor, but you'd think someone against kaparot would at least mention the Shulchan Aruch's objections.

Ezra

[stave]

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[David]

I wonder why is kapparot deemed acceptable teologically.Isn't it a pagan custom and isn't teshuvah the only way to amend one's sins in Judaism instead of transferring it to an innocent animal?

Posted by: Abu Jihad Schneerson | October 06, 2011 at 07:02 AM

Charedism is a pagan cult therefore this sort of animism is acceptable. And why do teshuvah to make actual real amends to your fellow man when you can simply not bother and pretend to transfer your sins to the animal (or, indeed, the filthy mikvah waters)?

[Western Jew]

Kaparos makes sense religiously, though it is not a repentance technique and it does not absolve you of your sins in the eyes of Hashem. What it does do is confuse the evil that may be in your life and that evil follows the kaparos and leaves you alone. That may be a useful technique although I am amiss to report what the dose of evil is that leaves you. If you really want to repent and you should of course want this, the only real way to do it is through prayer, fasting and of course charity. Give lots of charity and if you know you have sinned in the past, give to a charity in regards to that sin. That will work wonders.

[Waiting4Moshiach]

In my kehilla there is a double mitzvah with kaparos. First we swing the chicken to fight the evil, and then we sell the chicken to the shvartzes to fry and at a good price so that they learn to look up to Yidden while they eat our sins. Everyone benefits, and the chicken gets to be eaten.

[Ezra]

Western Jew,

Your explanation of kaparot is exactly why I believe many Rabbis opposed it. It takes away from the REAL kaparah. Kapparah means to atone, to make right. Say for example, you break your neighbors window. You may "feel" really bad about, and he may forgive you - (selicha). But kapparah involves making good - in this case, replacing the broken window. Anything less is NOT kapparah, no matter how much one may weep & beat one's breast. So the Torah wants us to focus on - literally - replacing the windows that we have broken in the past year. Swinging a chicken around your head shifts the focus away from replacing the window, and allows one to get away cheap.

Ezra

[batyahgirl@yahoo.com]

Is this a "pigs fly" story? I'm happy to hear that there are actually some haredim who have spiritual integrity. I have always hated the abuse of the chickens that I saw in Mahane Yahuda and when I would try to talk about it to the black hatters in charge, they just looked at me like I was crazy and said "Maaaah???" Like they'd never heard of the notion before that Hashem doesn't look kindly on animal abuse. Good for Hemla. May they succeed in their endeavors here.

[Gevezener Chusid]

I was taught in the chassidic (not Lubavitch) kehilla that I was part of for 20 years that Kapporos are only a symbol and that one does not "transfer" anything to the chicken. Rather, one should reflect upon the gravity of his sins and realize that all of the horrible things happening to that poor chicken are really what SHOULD be happening to us as punishment for our sins, but because God is merciful, he lets us off. You just can't get that feeling when doing it with money. Of course, the chicken thing means when you stand in line with this living being waiting for the shochet and you watch the life being drained from the chicken upon schita and then how he (the chicken) is thrown into a bucket while still twitching, etc. We also performed the biblical commandment of "kisui ha-dom" - covering the blood of a slaughtered fowl, which most city dwellers wouldn't get the chance to do.

I'm still against the pagan-ness of the ritual, however, and the way the chickens are treated before the ritual - and the ripoff price of the whole thing - is truly appalling. This ritual clearly developed in an agrarian society where handling chickens was pretty much normal, even in cities. Nowadays, in large urban centers, it can only mean torture for these poor birds. Killing them is doing them a favor.

But I think it is wrong to accuse haredim of thinking that this ritual in any way expiates sins without true and proper repentance.

[Gevezener Chusid]

oh, and the mass-produced kapporos chickens were given to Tomchei Shabbos or a similar organization. Some Hungarian Jews whom I knew had the custom to eat the chickens themselves in their meal before Yom Kippur and donate the cost of the chicken to charity. It was the one time a year that they performed the kashering process at home, so that it shouldn't be forgotten. Everybody's great-grandmother used to do it, and now there is hardly anyone who knows how.

[A E ANDERSON]

The smells are vile. Yuck!

[Barry]

Gevezener Chusid, the 'reflection on death' explanation for kapparos given to you is contradicted by the express words stated during the ceremony

'This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This cock (hen) will go to its death, while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace'

The ceremony has always been understood by the common folk as a 'transfer' of sins.

[zibble]

Rama rules in its' favor, but you'd think someone against kaparot would at least mention the Shulchan Aruch's objections.

Many many rishonim said that it kapporot is derech emori. However, most concurred that minhag holds the ultimate trump card.

Even Ovadia Yosef, who almost always sides with the S'A', said that the custom is so well established - going at least back to the Gaonic period more than 1400 years ago - that it is permissible to perform it with chickens.

[Ezra]

Zibble,
I know. That's if you're looking for a reason to justify it. But if you were opposed to a minhag, wouldn't you at least mention that the Shulchan Aruch also is opposed? That's what I don't get, from a purely tactical point of view.

Ezra

[MamzerHaKodesh]

I personally think that it's awesome that a Haredi group has come out and opposed this. It's so important that this change comes, and the most effective change starts within a community.

I once did the kapparot ritual in Israel, and I thought it was exotic and interesting. I'd never done anything like that before, and it seemed cool. Now, I would not participate again. I think the ritual is inhumane to animals, especially with the prior treatment and improper handling by participants. I guess money is a good way to do it - in eithe case, both are donated to charity... maybe one could donate the money to an organic, free-range kosher farm?

[What kind of goyishe name is Harold z"l?]

In our more affluent community we use duck. The goyim (zollen zay zein a kapporah oif alle yiddishe kinder) use chickens and they curse at us "f*** the duck and the jews" as they spin the chickens to kingdom come.

[Ken]

If they're passing out leaflets rather than cursing, spitting, and throwing stones,it can't be a real Haredi protest.

[Abu Jihad Schneerson]

Btw,I've read somewhere that people performing this idiotic ritual actually sacrifice the chicken to the devil,like our forefathers used to send the scapegoat in the desert to Azazel.Is this true?

[ah-pee-chorus]

i applaud hemla. but who are they?

[Adam Neira]

G-d gave us dominion over the chickens, flora and minerals of the world so the reasoning of the animal liberationists/vegetarians is flawed. The cruelty angle is overplayed as well. I would like some people to visit an abbatoir and see where their meat comes from. In soft, western, hermetically sealed homes all around the world many people have some strange ideas.

[batyahgirl@yahoo.com]

Adam Neira, I disagree that the cruelty angle is overplayed. The fact of the matter is quite the opposite: when people are exposed to the way meat and dairy animals and poultry are treated, they very often lose their taste for those foods. I am not a vegetarian, but I am meticulous in making certain that I'm only consuming products from cage free, cruelty free, organic farms.

Btw, having dominion means having responsibility to treat animals humanely. It's not a license to just do as you please.

[stave]

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