Kaparot: Yom Kippur In Crown Heights (PHOTOS)

Photographer Matt Rodigheri has been documenting the Orthodox Jewish community in Crown Heights for a year.

Kaparot, or "Atonement" is a custom performed by Orthodox Jews during the days approaching Yom Kippur. A live chicken is taken and swung around one's head while the appropriate prayer is said. The chicken is then slaughtered according to Kosher law and either donated or eaten.

The idea behind this practice is that the sins of the practitioner are transfered into the chicken and the animal dies in the person's stead. Kaparot is said to have its origins in the destruction of the Holy Temple when a goat was chosen by the High Priest and slaughtered on Yom Kippur to absorb the sins of the entire people of Israel.

Often a source of controversy, the custom has been targeted by PETA and Rabbis alike as unethical.

Thousands of chickens are consumed in this manner in Brooklyn every year during the holiday.

WARNING: SOME PICTURES MAY BE GRAPHIC

comments(149)

Comments

[MalloMel]

Who would want to eat a chicken that's been stuffed full of sins. I know I wouldn't.

[Ventoi]

Where are the animal rights groups for the tiny chicken?..­.

you have to be the size of a panda or a whale to get their help.

[LazyLearner]

If they were doing it with chicken nuggets, this post would have ten times less comments

[Ventoi]

Which religion threw their sins into the pigs, then?

Religion is powerful..­.we may be poisoning ourselves.­..or other people if we, who throw our sins on an animal, don't eat it ourselves.

REFRAIN from sinning...
or hold it all yourself..­.
to see what happens.

'a new religion that'll bring you to your knees'
If you please.

The Protestant

[pisceanmind]

As primitive and cruel as this may seem, unless you're 100% vegan, you don't have a right to judge.

[CigarGod]

Have you listened to your carrots, lately?

[Myoho]

How very brave and Manly!

Not

If there really is a "God"... I am quite sure the slaughter of the most innocent among us would not be pleasing to the "All Mighty".

These "Abrahamic" religions (Christian, Jewish, Islam) are one in the same. A bunch of hyperbole and contradictions.

God is to be feared. He brings dread and death upon the world. Therefore, provide him with a blood sacrifice for it smells good to him and is pleasing.

A shame... really, these three "Abrahamic" religions do not see the true nature of reality.

[lentinelia]

People should watch a documentary by Frederick Wiseman called, "Meat".
It details the process that turns a live cow into hamburger.

[EngineerBill]

All that is missing is Sarah Palin being interviewed while this is going on in the background.

[mommadona]

It IS the 21st Century.

No need for this. Absolutely no need other than ego needs of elders to keep "tradition".

ORGANIZED religion - the bane of civilization.

That child's face says it all.

[janehenry]

So does the chickens.

[Artemis34]

Yet another reason not to be orthodox anything.

[JLennon4Life]

This is where the term "scapegoat" is derived, as in ancient times the sacrificed animal wasn't a chicken but rather a goat. Many scholars interpret Jesus who "died for our sins" as a movement within the temple to bring back the scapegoat.

[einstein10]

And shame on the photographer that exploited these people, betrayed their trust and took their beliefs and traditions out of context to sensationalize them.

If you condemn these people, yet eat any animal flesh (especially Thanksgiving turkeys!), you are guilty of hypocrisy.

[JohnMayer]

Well, then, looks like its a good thing I happened by so I can these people, since I don’t eat any animal flesh (or eggs or milk, either). I did as a boy, but we didn’t torment our farm animals this way. Silly and cruel. Elsewhere on today’s Huffington Post those morons from Westboro Baptist Church are shown picketing synagogues. Those religious zealots and these are cut from the same cloth.

[Readbetweentheelevens]

What if you stop short of condemning them and just think the practice stupid?

[JeanRR]

Hey, I do not condemn these people for killing a few chickens because I do eat the Thanksgiving turkey. I can find many, many other reasons to condemn orthodoxy--whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim. Just for a start, that a look at how women are treated in this community.

[einstein10]

Leave these people alone. Leave the Pope alone. Americans are a bunch of xenophobic meat-eating hypocrites who only worship the dollar.

[Trueheart]

The story says thousands of chickens are consumed in this manner each year.
Does that mean they are eaten? If so, I don't see a problem.
As a farmer friend of mine says, "If you couldn't kill it yourself; then you shouldn't eat it."
If they just kill 'em and throw them away, that's pretty wasteful.
But if the chickens are full of sins, maybe you wouldn't want to eat them.
Seems close to voodoo to me.

[AnimalLover6]

Revolting. As cruelty always is. My husband is Jewish and he finds this as disgusting as I do.

[Rand]

Most Jews would agree. We're talking about a TINY sect of Judaism here