Jerusalem – AP Report: Neturai Karta Gets On The Bandwagon To Rethink Kaparot Yom Kippur Ritual

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    In this picture taken Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011, ultra-Orthodox Jewish men hold chicken after it was slaughtered as part of the Kaparot ritual in which it is believed that one transfers one's sins from the past year into the chicken in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox town near Tel Aviv, Israel. For generations, ultra-Orthodox Jews have marked the arrival of Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day, by waving live chickens over their heads before slaughtering the birds to atone for their sins. But in a departure from centuries of tradition, a small but growing group of religious leaders are decrying the practice as animal abuse. These rabbis say the practice, along with the cruel conditions they are kept in, violates a biblical injunction against animal abuse. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)Jerusalem – For generations, ultra-Orthodox Jews have marked Yom Kippur by swinging live chickens over their heads while saying a blessing, then slaughtering the birds as a symbolic way to rid their souls of sins.

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    Now some rabbis are decrying the practice as animal abuse.

    These rabbis say the ritual, along with the cruel conditions the chickens are kept in, violate Jewish law, which has strict rules on the care and slaughter of animals.

    Rabbi Meir Hirsch began having second thoughts about the practice, known as kaparot, or atonement in Hebrew, when he noticed chickens squawking in distress in plastic cages near his house.

    Butchers “bring the chickens from the farm at night, and they spend all day in the sun without food or drink,” said Hirsch, a member of the Neturei Karta ultra-Orthodox sect in Jerusalem. “You cannot perform a commandment by committing a sin.”

    The tradition dates back at least 800 years and calls for believers to wave a live chicken three times over their heads ahead of the arrival of Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day, which begins at sundown Friday. After slaughter, religious Jews often donate the meat to charity.

    Jewish leaders across Israel and the United States have called for an end to the practice for years, but leaders of insular ultra-Orthodox communities have been resistant.

    The controversy surrounding kaparot stretches back centuries.

    Rabbi Joseph Karo, one of the major codifiers of Jewish law, called it a “foolish custom” reminiscent of pagan practices. Since his 16th-century pronouncement, Jews of Sephardic, or Middle Eastern, origin have tended to perform kaparot without animals, sometimes swinging sacks of coins above their heads before donating the money to charity.

    Those following Ashkenazi, or European, customs, have continued to use chickens, however.

    Hirsch said he now waves a $10 bill above his head instead of a chicken. While Hirsch’s sect of several thousand members in Jerusalem is relatively small, calls for reform are spreading to other streams of Orthodoxy.

    Yehuda Shein, a community activist in the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh, founded an ultra-Orthodox animal rights group last year. This year, about 50 activists from his group, “Behemla,” or “in compassion,” handed out flyers citing rabbinical opposition to performing kaparot on chickens.
    An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish child watches  chickens being slaughtered as part of the Kaparot ritual in which it is believed that one transfers one's sins from the past year into the chicken in Jerusalem's religious Mea Shearim neighborhood, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011.
    “People doing kaparot think only about holding onto the chicken, and they think they did a good deed of donating the chicken to charity. But they don’t understand the pain the animal endured,” Shein said.

    Shein shudders at factory farming practices that mean chickens spend their lives packed tightly into cages, only to be roughly transported to slaughterhouses by night and neglected for hours on the day of their death.

    “Whoever wants to do this ritual can do it on a farm where the chickens roam freely,” he said, adding that he wants to improve chicken farm conditions not just for kaparot, but for all days of the year.

    Behemla also campaigns for more humane egg and meat farming and has pushed to regulate the fur industry, which supplies the traditional material for ultra-Orthodox hats.
    An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man swings a chicken, later to be slaughtered as part of the Kaparot ritual, in which it is believed that one transfers one's sins from the past year into the chicken, in Jerusalem's religious Mea Shearim neighborhood, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011. The ceremony is held before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which starts on Friday. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
    Menachem Friedman, an expert on Jewish religious society in Israel, said replacing chickens with donations to charity is a rising trend in Israel and around the world.

    “There is also a very accepted custom in synagogues, that in the afternoon, people bring their money for kaparot, and everyone chooses the charity he wants to support,” he said.

    Most opposition to chicken kaparot has come from progressive Jewish circles, and modern Orthodox worshippers shun the practice, though Friedman said “there are sprouts of an awakening” now among the very religious.

    Still, the vast majority of the ultra-Orthodox continue to transfer their sins to chickens ahead of Yom Kippur, he said.

    In an alley of the religious neighborhood of Mea Shearim, dozens of men, women and children milled around plastic cages stacked five high and stuffed with chickens. The local butcher charged about $16 for live birds with bound legs.

    Moshe Friedman bought one and gripped its wings with his left hand while he held a laminated prayer sheet with his right. Then he swung the chicken above his head, muttered a blessing, and took the bird to be slaughtered.

    Friedman, 21, said he believed the chicken’s death saved him from a violent recompense for his own sins.

    Miriam Honig, 30, said her husband waved chickens above her head and the heads of their two young sons.

    “I think it’s good for a child to see this,” said Honig of London. “We eat the chicken for a meal, and so now we see the live slaughter.”


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    27 Comments
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    12 years ago

    The media as well as some our own frum Jews who have some serious mental problems seek to portray this minhag as some form of cruelty. It is nothing of the sort if those involved follow halachos. Tzaar baalei chayim is a real issur, and there is nothing about the minhag as intended that compromises on this halacha. If those who organize such business ventures are irresponsible and neglect the basic welfare of the chickens prior to the slaughter. It is not the minhag that needs to be abolished.

    The description of “swinging” chickens is inaccurate, and sounds barbaric. If one did that, the chicken might very well become treif before the shechita. It is held in a circular manner over the head. Let’s be honest, not sensationalistic.

    yaaak
    yaaak
    12 years ago

    AP could learn that despite Maran Yosef Karo’s opinion on the matter, Sephardic practice has been to use chickens as well. The minhag has spread via the Kabbalistic Sepharadim, who have adopted this Minhag for centuries. It’s brought down in countless Sephardic halacha books to do it with chickens. The Ariza”l praised the Minhag.

    The Rashba didn’t like the minhag and called it Darkei Ha’emori so Rav Yosef Karo didn’t like it either. However, it’s incorrect to call it an Ashkenazic Minhag. In fact, it’s mentioned by Rav Hai Gaon from the Geonic era, who allowed the practice.

    Rav Ovadia Yosef Shlit”a, who at first only used money, changed his Minhag to use live chickens in recent years. This is mentioned on the halachayomit site.

    CountryYossi
    CountryYossi
    12 years ago

    How can any erliche yid speak up against a Minheg for hundreds of years ? Those great tzadikim knew all about Tzar Balei Chaim and they still kept up this tradition and minheg…

    12 years ago

    This article is purely written and falsifies what kaporos are. We are NOT transferring our sins to the chicken. It’s a symbolic jesture to do kaporos. And what kind of English is this? “In this picture taken Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011, ultra-Orthodox Jewish men hold chicken after it was slaughtered as part of the Kaparot ritual in which it is believed that one transfers one’s sins from the past year into the chicken in Bnei Brak.” What we transfer sins into a chicken in Bnei Brak only? Whatever…

    12 years ago

    Just as a reminder the Nazis YAMACH SHAMOI were the biggest animanl rights people. They loved animals more than yidden. PLEASE LETS NOT FORGET and these N’trei Karter boys whose grand parents were probably in the holocost let them not forget. this is not an ISRAEL issue.

    12 years ago

    Who cares what the murderous hypocritical sonei Yisroel say about this? It’s ok to support the Palestinians who murder Israelis but not ok to leave chickens out in the sun? Idiots

    thinkabtit
    thinkabtit
    12 years ago

    Notice the little boys expression in the picture.pity? Sadness? Boy will have nightmares for a while!

    PchaFresser
    PchaFresser
    12 years ago

    So classic that whenever you see a picture of a chasideshe lady, she’s pregnant

    Dr. E
    Dr. E
    12 years ago

    Kapparice will not help the Neturei Karta for their sins.

    12 years ago

    I take a bottle of water to the place of the Kaparot. I wash the legs of the chicken to clean it. Then I give the bird a little water to drink in a cup. I also watch how to hold it. I don’t let it hang by It’s wings only, because it could break the wing joint, which makes it treif Chas vesholom. The right way to hold it is, keep the 2 legs in your right hand firm. Help with your other hand to hold up the entire chicken. Except when you hens it to the shochet, he will take it by It’s wings, as he knows how to hold it safe.

    BLONDI
    BLONDI
    12 years ago

    so let neturei karta do kaparos with a fish or with money….and the pregnant lady only has one chicken going over her…strange, we do 2 in the states!!!

    shabos
    shabos
    12 years ago

    next they are going to come out against the שעיר לעזאזל ביום הכיפורים

    newtransplant
    newtransplant
    12 years ago

    no. 10 – thank you!!! Here in Manchester we nearly got no chickens as it was forecast to be hot and they were afraid for the chickens’ welfare. The chickens are here for two/two and a half hours and that’s IT, they then go back to the farm until shechita. There is not much noise as the chickens are mostly handled gently. This, I believe, is how it should be done.

    TheDrZ
    TheDrZ
    12 years ago

    This. “Hirsch’s sect of several thousand members” ?????? They have about 35 members in Jerusalem at best !!!

    Moses2
    Moses2
    12 years ago

    Although we can’t change this Minhag, but it’s a duty to handle the chicken in a way that is painless and not צער בעלי חיים

    whataworld
    whataworld
    12 years ago

    I find it ironic that this Rabbi Hirsch isn’t vegetarian. What happened to minhagim? Looks like some people always have to be different than everyone.

    12 years ago

    Its telling that the Neteurei Karta and a rabbi from the non-Orthodoox Yeshiva Chovevei Torah oppose the age old the practice of Kapporos.

    OPTIMIST
    OPTIMIST
    12 years ago

    Doesn’t it usually all go together. Anti Semite, anti Israel, anti war, green, humane society, pro abortion, gay rights etc.

    wollenberg
    wollenberg
    12 years ago

    thank you #14 . I also did Kaporos in Manchester at a shlachthoiz which was clean, hygenic and the chickens were treated well. We were shown how to handle the birds and they did not appear distressed at all. I was quite skeptical about kaporos and am generally very squeamish but I was pleasantly surprised at how well-run, clean and compassionate the whole thing was.