[By Avrohom Reit]
The minhag of kaparos, designed to assist us in doing teshuva, has been practiced for centuries if not millennia in practically every Jewish community throughout the world. The minhag is generally practiced by taking a live animal, usually a chicken, and bringing it close to us—uncomfortably close—right over our heads. Within this closeness, however, lies the power of the minhag. A connection is made as the chicken is held and then waved above every person: “This is my exchange; this is my replacement; this is my atonement.” By the time the chicken is handed over to the shochet, and especially if we watch the shechita, we feel deep and powerful pangs of remorse over our misdeeds and a fearful awareness of where our negative actions can lead if we do not better ourselves.
Kaparos has recently been under the scrutiny of well-meaning activists, who do not understand enough about the benefits of the minhag and unfortunately are too quick to dismiss it. While critiques of the way the process is handled at certain kaparos centers may be valid, the purpose of this article is to underscore the value of the minhag, which may be lost in light of the criticism. The minhag still has much to teach us, especially today, in our whitewashed over-sanitized world, where chickens come from cellophane-wrapped packages in the grocery store and we go about our daily business blindly, feeling little relationship between our deeds and their effects.
The first thing to be clear about is that the Torah allows us to use animals for our benefit. Our relationship with them is purposeful. We work the land with them, we ride them, and we eat them. In the process, we are required to be merciful—to feed our animals before we feed ourselves, to relieve an animal staggering under its load, to make sure that two species of different natures are not harnessed together, to shecht animals quickly and with a minimum of pain.
In the case of kaparos, chickens are being used for both a spiritual and physical benefit: to provide inspiration for teshuva as well as food for the needy. The shechita, which would have been justified for the sake of an ordinary meal, is that much more meaningful when it comes to a kapara chicken. When viewing the shechita, the observer is reminded of the corporal punishments the Torah imposes for many crimes. He is shocked into thinking “This could have happened to me.”
There is a side benefit to witnessing the shechita close up, especially in our generation. Not long ago, every Jew had much more experience with the mitzvos of shechita and kisuy hadam, mitzvos that are central to the definition of what a Jew is and how he should behave. According to the Sefer Hachinuch, these mitzvos teach us important lessons in compassion and restraint. A Jew may not eat whatever, wherever or however he wants. He must first choose a healthy animal. Then he must bring it to a specially trained shochet. The shochet must take the time to properly prepare his knife, so that it is sharp enough for the animal to die swiftly and painlessly. The blood of a bird must be covered, and not left in a puddle on the ground, to encourage mindfulness and respect. Afterwards, the carcass must be opened and the innards inspected for ruptures or other disqualifying wounds. The meat must then be salted to remove the blood. All this takes a lot of focused intention and dedication.
Before the modern age of factory processing, if a person wanted to eat chicken he had to bring a live bird to his local shochet. As the shochet would go through the entire procedure with each bird, people had plenty of time to internalize the lessons of each of these mitzvos. With the commercialization of poultry processing, however, production has been moved away from residential areas and these mitzvos have been erased from communal awareness. For many of us today, kaparos is our one opportunity a year to experience these mitzvos first hand and contemplate the lessons they impart, especially those regarding tikun hamidos.
For those who feel sorry for the chicken, the following is important to bear in mind. The goal of every creature is to fulfill the purpose of creation. Kaparos allows the chicken to die, not as a McNugget, but as an instrument for many mitzvos. First, and most importantly, it encourages people to do teshuva. In the process, it also facilitates the many mitzvos involved in shechita, kisuy hadam and kashrus, as well as the brachos that will be made before and after it is eaten. It may be served as part of a seudas mitzvah, and the energy it provides may assist someone in performing other mitzvos. When held in comparison to the other ways the chicken could have met its fate, this is a happy ending.
I am a firm believer in using chickens for kapparos. However, I do have a few h’aros that I would like to address to the administrators of the kaparos centers.
As central and beneficial as this minhag is to our Yom Kippur preparations, it has the potential to backfire. Too often, the yards set up for kaparos are not maintained properly. The noise, crowds and odors offend customers and neighbors alike. Reciting pesukim and brachos in the midst of a dirty and smelly courtyard is certainly problematic. It is unwise to seek Hashem’s forgiveness for our iniquities while committing new ones. Regularly hosing down the chicken crates would eliminate most of the dirt and foul odor.
In the past, people lived with more farm animals and had a better understanding of how to hold and care for them. Today, many people relate to them as if they were alien creatures. Perhaps kaparos centers should train their own staff in how to hold the chickens properly. Even better, they should be staffed with people who can guide customers to hold their chickens properly or at least offer to hold them for the customers.
Some people wonder why they don’t see chickens being fed at kaparos centers. For the sake of sanitation and food safety, the USDA does not allow chickens to be fed for 24 hours prior to shechita. During those 24 hours, a chicken can live on the food which is held in its crop (a holding pouch in a bird’s throat where nutrition is stored). When the chickens leave the farm their crop is full. They slowly ingest this food during their journey to the city and as they wait their turn for kaparos. After shechita, their bodies will be clear of excess waste and contaminates. For these reasons, the proprietor has no interest in last minute feedings and the customer need not worry that the chickens are starving. If chickens are kept for longer than expected, however, they should be fed.
Chazal and the Rishonim were the bearers and interpreters of the Torah in which animal welfare is stressed. The fact that they allowed the minhag shows us that when it is done right, it conforms with or exceeds all reasonable standards for animal welfare. May Hashem help us to perform it properly, grant us forgiveness, and bless us with a good, sweet year.
The author lives in Brooklyn and studies in the kollel of Mesivta Teferes Jerusalem under Hagaon Rav Dovid Feinstein shlita. His recent book on kaparos — Zeh Kaporosi – The Custom of Kaparos — has been published by Mosaica Press. Other works by the author, available through Feldheim Publishers are: Lekicha Tama – A Lulav and Esrog Buying Guide and Teka Beshofar – Mastering Shofar Blowing. A third book, Chalutz Hana’al – A Concise Overview of the Mitzvah of Chalitza, is available directly from the author.
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26 Responses
“VIDEO: A Rabbi’s Plea: Wave Money, Not Chickens”
He says the exact same thing. Only, he was raked over the coals by the “expert commenters” of YWN.
Beautifully said. It’s unfortunate that even in those of us who try to stay close to halacha which of course includes mesora, modern societal pressures have had an effect. We feel on the defensive where we shouldn’t be thinking that way at all, our Torah and mussar trump all of their emotions. The people who push the animal agenda have stated that they would kill their own father before an animal.
Thank you Rabbi Reit.
I personally use money for Kaparos… but I really enjoyed this article.
I live in Los Angeles, and they made a major protest at least 100 ppl against kaparos, I did my kaparos there with my family, the protesters spat at me and my wife and told my kids that your parents support murderers, they make up rumors that the chickens are going to the garbage meanwhile inside they are cleaning every chicken, the sad thing is this protest was organised with a “frum orthodox Rabbi” he is the pico shul rabbi I lived in La all my life and never heard about him I think he caused a major chillul hashem.
By RABBI Avrohom Reit
He is an outstanding talmid chochom and a good freind of mine please change
Yasher Koach. Beautiful article.
Impressive. Really a masterpiece for our times.
Thank you.
What is the name (Email address?) of this wonderful author?
nvrmnd.
I see his name on top.
#1 apushatayid: This Rov’s message is much different than the one from a few days ago by a so-called rabbi. That guy was calling to end kaporos. And comment #4 by lajew is referring to that so-called rabbi.
Dear Rabbi,
You write very nice,but the reality is that chickens are ( I can’t say all the time)are being abused.
It would’ve been more instructive to admonish people in to be careful with a chicken instead giving us the whole drasha.
Second, just because something was done for hundreds of years doesn’t mean it should last forever. Times have changed, chickens are abused… Stop the practice.
“Kaparos allows the chicken to die, not as a McNugget, but as an instrument for many mitzvos. ….. When held in comparison to the other ways the chicken could have met its fate, this is a happy ending”..
The author of this opinion piece purports to speak on behalf of all the chickens who will be niftar erev yom kippur but provides no evidence in support of his sweeping generalization. Given that one can be yotzeh the mitzvah using coins subsequently donated to tzadakah for the needy and all these thousands of chickens could be be peacefully living out their days at some farm or as pets, I’m not sure you would get much support among the chickens if you really solicited their views.
“…..The fact that they allowed the minhag ….”
Half-True, semi-False….
The good rabbi ignores plenty of poskim who call it darkei Emori and worse. Any proof that chickens were used in Talmudic times?…
I’m going to try again:
Why not mention te Shulchan Aruch’s opinion in Orach Chaim 605 where he strongly condemns the minhag to use chickens?
Number 9. Read comment number 5.
Mr. #11: Chickens love being niftar so we Jews can eat them with a brocho. That’s what they were born and live for.
Gadolhadorah
There is nothing to be yotze you dont have to do kaporos to begin with its not a mitzvah. Soon some stupid so called rabbi will come and say why throw your money out for kaporos is there nothing else to do with money?
#14: My comment #9 responds to your comment #1. Comment #5 has nothing to do with it.
#14: Comment #5 is advising the site to please credit the author of the article of this post. (That has now been done.) #5 is not addressing #4.
Quite frankly, I’m shocked by the achzorius ( cruelty) of some pro-kaporos posters on this subject on the 3 news items about kaporos here at YW.
I’m not taking a position , but if you approve, by all means mention at least that chickens should be delicately handled with some compassion.
Reply to No. 16
Minhag yisroel din who….there is a big z’chus to follow a rational minhag except in cases such as this where the shulchan aruch explicitly prohibits the practice. There will always be some rabbonim who will challenge the shulchun aruch to gain their 15 seconds of fame.
the money goes to tzedaka!!!!! just make it out for twenty dollars and then donate it. thats the value of a chicken
If it was practiced for millenia, surely you can quote sources to that effect.
Substitutionary atonement is a major characteristic of a different religion.
Rashi mentions a custom mentioned by the Geonim that “twenty two or fifteen days” before Rosh Hashono people would take baskets – one for each child – and plant legumes and the like, and before Rosh Hashono would wave them around their heads and say, “This should be instead of this [person], and it should be my exchange, and it should be my substitute.” The baskets would then be thrown into the river. In this Rashi we find the concept of saving oneself from a harsh Heavenly decree by it being effected on another object.
The Maharal writes that the Gemoro implies the same. The Gemoro brings the story of Rabbi Akiva who was travelling with a donkey, and rooster and a candle. Upon being refused entry to a certain city, Rabbi Akiva had no choice but to sleep overnight in the woods outside the city. During the night a lion killed the donkey, a cat devoured the rooster, and a wind extinguished the candle. The next morning he learned that the city had been attacked by murderous thieves and he had been miraculously saved. The Maharal explains that the same terrible fate that the townspeople had suffered, was to befall Rabbi Akiva as well. However, he was substituted by his donkey (representing his physical body), his rooster (instead of his soul) and the candle (instead of his intellect). The Maharal concludes that from this Gemoro we have an “absolute proof to take a chicken for a kaporo for the soul on erev Yom Kippur.”
The Remo brings this custom in Shulchon Oruch and writes that it is a custom of pious people and should not be disregarded.
In addition to the afore-mentioned dimension of kaporos being a “substitute” for the individual (as the Mishna Berura writes that the individual should imagine that all that is transpiring to the chicken should in fact have happened to him), there is another reason which is brought down in Eliya Rabo, that the kaporos is an atonement for the sins of the person. This being the case, it is likened to an obligatory sacrifice that each individual has to bring. (The halachic implications of these opinions will later be discussed.)
In Shulchan Aruch the mechaber writes that this which they are accustomed to do kaporos on the eve of Yom Kippur to slaughter a chicken etc. Similarly in the Mogen Avrohom in the name of the AriZal and the Shalo.
The Rosh (Yoma 8:23), the Mordechai (at the beginning of his notes to Masechet Yoma), and the Tur (Orach Chaim 605) record this practice (mentioned in the aforementioned Rashi on Shabbos 81b) with approval. They, however, mention that the usual practice is to take a chicken and slaughter it. They also note that the ritual is performed on Erev Yom Kippur. The Rosh explains that the Gemara sometimes refers to a chicken as a Gever (see Yoma 20b), which also means man. Thus, a chicken is an appropriate substitute for man. He also offers a pragmatic explanation: that chickens are readily available and less expensive than larger animals such as a ram.
The Chayei Adam (144:4) and Mishna Berura (605:2) explain that the idea of Kapparos is modeled after the idea of a Korban, as explained by the Ramban (Vayikra 1:9).
The Rashba does acknowledge that all of the Ashkenazic rabbis of his time practiced Kapparos and that the practice is recorded in the writings of Rav Hai Gaon. The Rama notes that this practice is recorded as early as the Geonic period and is the accepted practice in all Ashkenazic communities. The Rama regards the practice as a Minhag Vasikin, a venerated practice that one must not neglect. The practice recorded in the Rama is to slaughter a chicken for every family member.
The Ben Ish Chai (Parshas Vayelech 2), Kaf Hachaim (605:8), and Rav Ovadia Yosef (Teshuvot Yechaveh Daat 2:71) record that Sephardic Jews have adopted this custom despite the opposition of Rav Yosef Karo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch. An explanation for this change is that the Ari zt”l enthusiastically embraced this practice (as noted by the Magen Avraham 605:1) based on his Kabbalistic approach. The Ari zt”l has an enormous impact on Sephardic practice in a wide variety of areas.
The Mishna Berura cites the Pri Megadim who rules that Kapparos may be performed throughout the Aseres Yemai Teshuva.
Although chickens around the world have already come out in fierce opposition to this new sefer, do not be swayed by their claims of Amorite influence. The sefer is exceptionally well done and superbly written for all audiences. With its supplementary sections, it is sure to serve well as a reference guide throughout the year and not just during the Kaparot season. Whether you’re the type that considers Kaparot to be on par with issues such as Shabbat, Kashrut, and Nidda or alternatively, on par with issues such as upsherin, nittel nacht, and silly red strings, this is certainly a valuable sefer and a worthwhile contribution to the world of Halacha and Minhag literature in English.