Kapparot
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Kapparot
(Hebrew:
כפרות,
Ashkenazi pronunciation,
Kapporois,
Kappores) is a
Jewish
ritual
practiced by some Jews on the eve of Yom Kippur. The person swings a live chicken or a bundle of coins over one's head three times, symbolically transferring one's sins to the chicken or coins. The chicken is then
slaughtered
and donated to the poor for consumption at the pre-fast meal.[1]
Contents
[hide]Etymology[edit]
Kapparah [כפרה], the singular of kapparot, means "atonement" and comes from the Hebrew root k-p-r which means "to atone".[2]
Practice[edit]
The Jewish religious practice of Kapparot is performed on the afternoon before
Yom Kippur, the
Day of Atonement
of the world. The ritual is preceded by reading Psalms
107:17-20
and Job
33:23-24. While swinging a chicken or money around the head, the following paragraph is recited three times:
- This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. (This rooster (hen) will go to its death / This money will go to charity), while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace.[3]
- Cockerel
In one variant of the practice of Kapparot, a
cockerel
is swung around the head, slaughtered
according to shechita, and then given to charity. In modern times, Kapparot is performed with a live chicken (rooster for men, hen for women), mainly in
Chassidic
communities.
The purpose of Kapparot is for personal preparation on the eve of
Yom Kippur. The
chicken
symbolically receives all the personal sins, and which is based on the reconciliation of Isaiah
1:18
in the Hebrew Bible. The religious practice is mentioned for the first time by
Natronai ben Hilai, Gaon of the Academy of Sura in
Babylonia, in 853 C.E., who describes it as a custom of the Babylonian Jews with the practice also having been as a custom of the Persian Jews and further explained by Jewish scholars in the ninth century by that since the
Hebrew
word geber (gever)[4]
means both "man" and "rooster" the rooster
may act and serve as a valid religious substitute and a religious and spiritual vessel in place of the man. In those communities which utilize live chickens, the slaughtered chicken is directly used to provide food for poor families, often via communal organizations who pre-arrange distribution.
- Money
In a second variant of the practice of Kapparot, a small bag of money is swung around the head and then given to charity.[5]
In both versions of the ritual, money or chicken, the charitable result is an essential element.
Historical controversy[edit]
Kapparot was strongly opposed by some rabbis, among them
Nahmanides,
Solomon ben Adret, and
Yosef Karo. They considered it a non-Jewish ritual that conflicted with the spirit of Judaism, which knows of no vicarious sacrifice outside of the Temple in Jerusalem. However, it was approved by
Asher ben Jehiel
(ROSH, c. 1250–1327 CE) and his son
Jacob ben Asher
(Baal
ha-Turim', c. 1269–1343 CE). The ritual appealed especially to
Kabbalists, such as
Isaiah Horowitz
and Isaac Luria, who recommended the selection of a white rooster as a reference to
Isaiah
1:18 and who found other mystic allusions in the prescribed formulas. Consequently, the practice became generally accepted among the Ashkenazi
and Chasidic
Jews of Eastern Europe.
In the
Shulchan Aruch,
Sephardic
Rabbi Yosef Karo
discouraged the practice. According to the Mishnah Berurah, his reasoning was based on the fact that it was similar to non-Jewish rites.
Ashkenazi
Rabbi Moses Isserles
disagreed and encouraged Kapparot.[6]
In Ashkenazi communities especially, Isserles' position came to be widely accepted. The late 19th century work Kaf Hachaim
approves of the custom for the Sefardic
community as well.
Some Jews also oppose the use of chickens for Kapparot on the grounds of
Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim
(the principle banning cruelty to animals).[7]
On 2005 Yom Kippur eve, a number of caged chickens were abandoned in rainy weather as part of a kapparot operation in Brooklyn, New York; some of these starving and dehydrated chickens were subsequently rescued by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.[8]
Jacob Kalish, an Orthodox Jewish man from Williamsburg, was charged with animal cruelty for the drowning deaths of 35 of these kapparot chickens.[9]
In response to such reports of the mistreatment of chickens, Jewish animal rights
organizations have begun to picket public observances of kapparot, particularly in Israel.[10][11]
But with respect to the freedom of religion
and religious
use of animals within secular law and those religious acts themselves, as Kapparot, the U.S. Supreme Court
decision in the case of Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah
in 1993 upheld the right of Santeria
adherents to practice ritual animal sacrifice
with Justice Anthony Kennedy
stating in the decision, "religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection". (quoted by Justice Kennedy from the opinion by Justice Warren E. Burger
in Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division
450 U.S.
707
(1981))[12]
The mass-slaughter of chickens on the day of high demand by a Shochet
(licensed and trained "butcher"), repeatedly results in a certain percentage of chicken not slaughtered
according to shechita
due to haste, fatigue, imperfection and non-reviewed uncertainty. Furthermore, chicken of kapparot may not be accepted even by the poor, because they are commonly perceived as being quasi-accurst (cursed) after the ritual.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Shulchan Aruch Rama O.C. 605:1
- ^
"Strong's Concordance Lexicon entry for kaphar (Hebrew word #3722)".
Rancho Santa Margarita, California:
Blue Letter Bible. Retrieved
2011-08-19.
to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation, cover over with pitch
- ^ The Complete Artscroll Machzor: Yom Kippur, p.4
- ^ Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern -1998
- ^
Strum, Andrew (2002).
"The Ancient Origins of an Obscure Egyptian Jewish High Holy Day Custom". Historical Society of Jews From Egypt. Archived from
the original
on 2011-08-06. Retrieved
2011-08-16.
... alternatively been practised with coins which are then donated to charity.
- ^ Shulchan Aruch O.C. 605:1
- ^ "THE CUSTOM OF KAPPAROT IN THE JEWISH TRADITION". Retrieved 2008-10-06.
- ^ Horrigan, Jeremiah (2005-10-22). "Abandoned chickens saved from death". Times Herald-Record. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
- ^ "Abuse Most Fowl; Chicken-death Bust". New York Post. 2005-11-10.
- ^ Sela, Neta (2006-09-28). "Rabbis cry 'fowl' on ritual use of chickens". Retrieved 2008-10-06.
- ^
Neroulias, Nicole (2010-09-08).
"Activists cry foul over ultra-Orthodox chicken ritual".
The Oklahoman.
Associated Press. Retrieved
2011-08-30.
Some efforts, though, have been made to point out that the ritual is not religiously required and can instead be performed with money.
- ^ Hall, Daniel E. (July 2008). Criminal Law and Procedure Cengage Learning. Pg. 266.
External links[edit]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kapparot. |
- Kapparah at the Jewish Encyclopedia online
- Kaparot: Yom Kippur In Crown Heights - slideshow by The Huffington Post
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