Jerusalem – Ahead of the Yom Kippur holiday, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel launched its annual information campaign against the ritual slaughter of chickens. That campaign just received a boost from an unexpected source, as one of religious Zionism’s most influential rabbis joined the call against the practice of kaparot, in which an individual’s transgressions are ceremonially transferred to an animal or inanimate object.
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Shlomo Aviner, head of Jerusalem’s Ateret Yeshiva and rabbi of the settlement of Beit El, has spoken out in the past against the contentious rite. This time, however, he acceded to the SPCA’s request and issued a religious ruling that, rather than slaughtering an animal, giving money to the poor is a better method of absolving oneself of transgressions.
“Because this is not a binding obligation but a custom, in light of problems related to kashrut and the suffering of animals, and given the edicts of the aforementioned rabbis, a recommendation must be made to favor performing kaparot through money, by performing the great mitzvah of providing for the needy,” Aviner wrote, citing religious decrees by rabbinical authorities from various periods throughout Jewish history.
What makes this “Shlomo Aviner” a leading Rabbi. Never heard of him even.
This is good to fill news pages, but few Kapporos doers care much for what some zionist rabbi doesn’t like about it.
Who? What Yeshiva?
They want to ban shchita in Israel? What a surprise…
does #1 know all the rabbis in Israel? obviously he does not. he(she) is not the judge of who “leading rabbis are”
Dear #1 and #2 whether you agree with Rabbi Aviner or not.(I don’t and also would not easily cast aside kaporos with chickens even though I myself use money) we cannot ignore the black and white blatant issues which effect most of our kaporos centers, which is one of the reasons I use money. Whether it be kashrus, cleanliness,dangerous sanitary conditions and hardship to neighbors, reusing of the same chicken or mistreatment of the chickens. These are mitzva ba beaveira. There has to be real teeth in enforcing proper guidelines for kapporos including proper hashgocha, management ,and removal of kapporos from residential areas. How many times have we read that kapporos centers have been found to not shecht well or not feed the chickens or not take back the left over ones. How many times have schechted chickens been left at unsafe temperature before packaging or just left to rot till after yom tov. How many times as well did many centers say that chickens were being distributed to a tomchei shabbos type organization but never arrived. Tomchei shabbos in flatbush and B.P. even took out an ad in the jewish papers saying they don’t use chicken from kapporos. While we should not ban kapporos the current system is broken, and unfortunately many kapporos centers are not fit to handle the mitzva properly. Simchas by Klal yisrael
Of course the worst pic gets used. Anyone who does kaporos holding the bird like this, should be given a potch in punim!
I have never done Kaporos with a chicken, for all of the reasons mentioned in Number 6.
It’s not mercy to turn a blind eye to the suffering of animals. Frankly, the shechting is the kindest part of the entire process.
We have used money since I can remember.
Did this “Rabbi” Shlomo Aviner leave a bank account number where you need to wire the money to?
I wonder how many people will now shlug kapures with Shlomo Aviner’s psak.
is another example of rabbis who think they are smarter and more progressive then the tzaddikim before them
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE IS NOT DEMOCRATIC
they should be ignored and impeded in every way
anyone who touches on torah should be ostracized and hindered seriously
besides these people dont go down to chinatown markets
instead they come for pubiucity stunts on young chassidic families
#1 and #2 : a little bit of respect would not hurt you at all. Checking on your Sinas Chinam level, I’d recommend you to check your Tfilin and Mezuzos urgently.
Besides being Darckei Emori, it certainly seems to be Tzar Balai Chaim… hard to see how this can have any value when we are looking for Mitzvos to perfom during the Yemai Haachamim… just one more example of making the Tafail the Ikkar.
A year ago I was walking down the Rehov Strauss in Yerushalayim, minding my own business, when this lady starts shoving pamphlets at me and shouting about kapporos. So I immediately went to Mahane Yehuda to the Kapporos Center and shlugged kapporos.
#7 – As far as I know there are two ways to hold a chicken (wings or feet) and I don’t think either of them would be that comfortable for a terrified chicken, especially if it trying to get away.
I have seen people put the chicken(s) in a box – especially for pregnant ladies – but this is not common. Besides this, there always seems to be a dead chicken in every cage – and I don’t think they committed suicide.
Kapparos is neither tzaar baalei chaim nor darkei emori.
#11 sinas chinom, shminom . is this only mitzvah you observe?? the article says ‘leading rabbi,’well he is far far from my leading rabbi. and since the it does not mention whos leading rabbi so you can keep him. if this shyagetz rabbi mocks the mechaber, ramah and all tzaddikum and kedoshim who observed and observe this minhak he’s no ‘rabbi’!!
#12 you ignoramus , the mechaber brings this minhag and you come with darkai emori..shygetz arois!!!
If they all shlog kapporos like the guy in the picture I would also advocate banning it.
What that kid is doing is tzar ballei chayim. He should hold it by the wings & gentely swig it over his head. Someone should teach people how to do it without causing pain to the chicken.
Rabbi Aviner is in fact a leading Rabbi and the Rosh yeshiva of Ateret Yerushalyim in the old city. Just because you haven’t heard of him doesn’t make him less of a Rabbi. It is ok to disagree with his psak. It is not ok, however to malign him, to put rabbi in quotes etc. Now you have one more really big aveira to try to get rid of during kaparos. But wait – it won’t work – you have to ask Rabbi Aviner for mechila directly. AFAIK he does have email, see if you can google him for a way to reach him in order to ask mechila.
Gmar Chasima Tova
#17 … I wont call names especially during Aseres Yemai T’Shuva… but please look at the Ramo…
To #15Yossele: I suggest you have someone pick you up by your feet and swing you around their head 3 times … oh and do this all day, day after day… and them tell me if it is Tzar Baalei Chaim or not…
#20 mr fool, we do not take a chicken and swing it day after day …and for these 5 min.. see meforshim ..but those who mock our holy minhugim will be ‘taken by thier feet’ after 120 ‘and be swung day after day’..
interesting that my chicken never thrashes around, and seems calm the whole time. does it have anything to do with how you treat it, or is my kapparah just lazy?
do it with money, for gods sake!!! then give the money to tzedakah, all you self rigeous ppl
#1 ,
Rabbi Aviner is one of the leading Dati Leumi poskim.
I’m stunned that a rabbi would be criticized for agreeing with an explicit statement in the Shulchan Aruch. Are all the commenters Orthodox?
Oy Favish #22 … to call someone a :fool” during the Aseres Yemai T’Shuva to support what is a best a Minhag? It just goes to show that the Satmar Rav was right. He said (I believe it was the Satamar who said it) regarding the Minhag not to eat nuts on R”H because Egoz is B’Gematria Chet, he said “Chet is also B’Gematria Chet”! In other words people (does this apply to you?) are so caught up with the symbolisms, the Minhagim, the Simanim etc. and forget that the real issue is to do T’Shuva and change. How can you defend a symbolic Minhag that represents T’shuva and at the same time call someone a fool? I am Mochil, but really, what is the Cheshbon?
Oh and Favish, I know you only swing it for 5 minutes or less but the same chicken is used by many people, so the chicken is being used over and over, day after day!
to #22 favish think before you write
The custom has been strongly opposed by some rabbis, such as Maimonides, who generally considered sacrifice to be inferior to prayer and philosophical meditation. Other rabbis, such as Nahmanides, Solomon ben Adret, and Joseph Caro considered it a non-Jewish ritual in conflict with the spirit of Judaism, which knows of no vicarious sacrifice or any sacrifice outside of the Temple in Jerusalem
1. There is a machlokes ha poskim as to whether kapparos is darkhei ha emori. There are quite a few who hold it is. Still, it is a minhag yisroel and should not be trifled with.
2. Tsaar Baalei Chayim is a deoraysa — that is an explicit gemara.
3. Whether kaparos causes tsaar baalei chayim depends how you do it. It doesn’t HAVE to be done in a way that is tsaar baalei chayim, but in practice it often is.
4. That leads to the question of whether it should be continued today, since today rabbonim have little control over how the hamon am do things. It is not a bizayon to say that while a minhag was once properly done, today everything is hefker, and this minhag in practice leads to issurim deoraysa and hence should be banned. I think that is what R. Aviner is saying.
No one said that Kapores wasn’t a respected tradition – they said the way it is being done today IS tzar Baalei chayim and a host of other evils, and they are right.
Don’t pull the part you like to ague against legitimate complaints about how this “business” has become more about money then mitzvah.
Here in Manchester the chickens are well looked after…. the shochtim are there to ensure their welfare, when one chicken keeled over it was removed from the cage, given water and left out to recover. shechita is mostly only done at the abbatoir, thus no mess.
My mother taught me to hold both wings and legs, thus ensuring a much calmer chicken.
#26 i hve no problem with that.from your postingsall over i think you have much bigger things to worry about. ..and dont hide behind the dvei yoel when all over you mock ‘his’ shita
4. That leads to the question of whether it should be continued today, since today rabbonim have little control over how the hamon am do things. It is not a bizayon to say that while a minhag was once properly done, today everything is hefker, and this minhag in practice leads to issurim deoraysa and hence should be banned. I think that is what R. Aviner is saying.
good point I doubt that years ago it was done like today on a assembly line where the operators seem not to care about anything.
when I was young I went to the butcher cleaner and more sane
#28 by addessing maimonidies, shlo ader, jos.. car etc you show where you come from you sheygatz! I cant even bring myself to post ..DO YOU KNOW THESE WERE HOLY ANGELS NOT JOSEPH CAR, SHLO..ADR.!!! IM HURISHONIM KEMALACHIM.. AND THIS IS NOT MY THOUGHT… let me tell what one of the tzaddikim told a heretic like you whu refuted the holy BAIS YOSEPH( not jos..car..) who also addressed the bais yosef with his name as if its his buddy. ‘BY ADDRESSING THE HOLY BAIS YOSEF AS JOSE..CAR..YOU ARE A BIGGER APIOKRES THAN REFUTING HIM YOU ARUL TAMAI’..but not surprizing mr apikores you have prooved yourself over and over your MO and down
let me repeat all who are against this minhug are the ones who ALWAYS take the anti torah side in other subjects eg: seprate seating busses, mixd seating emanuel etc etc so all of a sudden they come with thier un-dass torah on this subject so lets make it clear all holy tzaddikum did and do this minhak and we will stick to it!!!
#19 and dont forget to ask mechileh from the torah and all holy rebbes you mocked thruout the year on this site
#27 so you are ignorant in this minhug..its used only once. for the crookes who fool the people go tell them
#26 i have no problem calling the guy fool aseres yemai tsuvah a fool is a fool all year. round besides i dont know him or you and vise versa. the only way to become de-fooled is learn torah…bikdushah
#26 satmar rebbe said no such thing! you are far far far far from the derech of holy satmar rebbe how dare you atribute what he didnt say. thats the problem on these posts, someone says this or that rebbe, poisek said something and oilem goilem swallow
Many chashuve rabbonim have paskin that it is mutar to use either a fish or a goat for schluggen kaporos…it is not necessary to have this annual debate about using live chickens and the sanitation issues that arise.
Reply to #39 .
You know nothing about Satmer minhagim and yet you call others names. The old satmer rebbe, Rav Yolish, Z’tl was known to shlog kapporos with 18 coins wrapped in a white shmate so this is a minhag that can be accomodated without all the filth and animal suffering that is what satmer do today.
it would be kinder to the chickens and better for klal yisroel to take a few of you fools and swing you around my head a few times.
you argue like babies, and treat each other like reshaim. and this just days before Yom Kippur!
What’s the point of kappores for you now?>
# 42 i would do the same to some of “THESE” people. terrible how i became such an anti semite chas vesholom. and i live in boro park yet! or,maybe that’s why. I think the people’s behavior here and their driving style did this to me. it was sooo good 2 weeks ago. there was normalcy for 8 weeks. no parked cars on top of the sidewalk in front on Munkatch, no triple parking on 13 ave,not much horn honking,etc. its sickening,to say the least. too many people,too many cars in a small area. too concentrated. it’s maddening.
#43 you can move to china town..
#43 , I’m talking about tzar ba’alei chaim and unkosher kapporos, and you’re talking about it being hard to find a parking space after the summer!
#44, favish? Stop talking, every time you open your mouth whatever little saichel you might have left floats out. Your comments get stupider and stupider every time you write.
reply to #40 :
when you swing a goat around your head for Kaporos, please let me be there to watch. As a matter of fact, I’d come to watch you swing a fish as well.
#45 … tut, tut, you have a choice of not reading my posts. anyway, i really ruffled your feathers , huh? the truth hurts..
#47 : Favish, now you’re confusing me with one of your Kaporos chickens. I don’t have any feathers.
Really, you keep getting dumber and dumber.
I suppose the truth does hurt, but i’ll have to take your word for it.