Kaparot: The Jewish Chicken-Waving Ceremony To Absolve Sins (PHOTOS)

Yom Kippur, the Jewish fast-day of repentance, begins at sundown on Friday (Oct. 7), and some Jews are preparing with ... chickens?

The Kaparot ritual, which traditionally takes place one day before Yom Kippur, consists of waving a live chicken above one's head while reciting scecific verses from the Mahzor, a special holiday prayerbook. Kaparot literally means "atonement," and the practice is meant to transfer one's sins to the chicken. Following the ritual, the chicken is slaughtered and donated to the poor.

In Haredi Jewish communities, the Kaparot ceremony is still commonplace, but other streams of Judaism have discarded the practice or substituted the chickens for money, which is also given to the needy. Some citics of the custom argue that it is not mentioned in the Torah or Talmud, while others view the practice as violating the Jewish ethic of tsa’ar ba’alei chayim, treating animals with compassion instead of cruelty. "You cannot perform a commandment by committing a sin," Rabbi Meir Hirsch, a member of the Neturei Karta sect in Jerusalem, said in an AP report on the custom.

The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos says the practice runs counter to the mood and meaning of the Jewish High Holidays:

While the Jewish tradition is filled with concepts, prayers and actions during the Rosh Hashanah-Yom Kippur period that stress the importance of rachamim (compassion and sensitivity), the message of kapparot using chickens to those who take part and view it, including children, is a lesson of insensitivity to the feelings of other living creatures.

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Comments

[iLdoRight]

01:09 AM on 10/22/2011

Caption suggestion; " Fly Dead Chicken Fly, Take Me To The Sky "

[shergenius]

01:23 AM on 10/21/2011

You are not going to believe this but this ritual is also done in VooDoo ceremonies..

[Stephen Rifkin]

04:28 PM on 10/14/2011

But we still get to slaughter a sheep on the front lawn for Eid et Mubarek, right? Or are we too scared some building will explode to the ululating rhythms of the religion of peace to mention that?

[bbertaud]

06:07 PM on 10/15/2011

Sorry...you'll have to be content with blowing the choffeur

[bbertaud]

08:46 PM on 10/10/2011

Choking the chicken on Yom Kippur....that´s what I call a celebration

[George Genung]

01:27 PM on 10/08/2011

We just received a brochure from my wife's parish concerning changes to the catholic liturgy.
While not waving chickens, I couldn't help but think it will have the same affect on the outcome of the universe.

[NyJimbo]

09:36 AM on 10/08/2011

I guess I'm gonna have to keep an eye on the coop now that the Weinsteins moved in next door.

[Dan Slander]

06:23 AM on 10/08/2011

Blame the chicken is part of what religion? Besides the cruelty aspect, pretty whacked.

[Gay Iberian]

01:37 AM on 10/08/2011

Weird!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lastwarning2earth rev14]

08:46 PM on 10/07/2011

I was born Jewish.
I'm influenced only the bible.
I now totally understand that Jesus is the Mesiah.

These teachers waving a chicken are in every religion.
If Jews would only reject these misguided rabbis, maybe the veil would come off their eyes and they would see.
And Christians have a veil on their eyes also.
The Sabbath of all humanity is the 7th Day and as never changed to Sunday in the New Test.

[shergenius]

01:26 AM on 10/21/2011

you are very misguided. Look at this ritual that is all that it is.. No veil here.

[suebeedue]

07:19 PM on 10/23/2011

When you mentioned veil- it made me think of the scripture I am partially quoting at
2 Corinthians 4:3: "if the good news we declare is veiled, ..........it is veiled among the unbelievers that the illumination of the good news about the Christ....... may not shine through". When you wear a veil- you see only hazy outlines but not a clear picture. 2 Corinthians 3: 16 says: "But when their is a turning to God, the veil is lifted.

From my understanding of the scriptures -Jesus was the end of the Mosaic Law covenant, (which included the ten commandments). Since the Old Law Covenant would be replaced by the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:15), then no longer would one have to follow the restrictions of the Mosaic Law Covenant.(Gal. 3: 19-24). This would include celebrating the Sabbath day (Galatians 4:9-11), whether it be Saturday or Sunday. Sunday was the day decreed by Constantine the Great who was fusing pagan teachings (pagan ritual of celebrating the venerable " day of the Sun) with catholic rituals.

[OtayPanky]

01:03 PM on 10/07/2011

Speaking from an anthropological perspective, what we have here is one of countless examples of what many would call magick (with a K). It involves an imaginative projection of some sort of consciousness into an object, and then treating the object as if it were what you imagined it to be.

Animist religions do it all the time. The Roman Catholics do it in the transubstantiation during their Mass. Muslims do it when they throw stones at a big rock, working themselves up into a yearly frenzy, during which people inevitably die.

And now, we see how some Jews do it with chickens.

Aleister Crowley would be proud.

Oy vey!

[bakdoc1980]

11:12 AM on 10/07/2011

We atheists have a tendency to focus on christians , because they are numerous and fun, but this is an illustration of the insanity of ALL religion ...... except the worship of Zeus -- Hail Zeus!

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

12:00 AM on 10/23/2011

The Romans used to sacrifice onions to Jupiter. In the explanation of the ritual the Romans said that Jupiter had asked for heads and the Romans decided that heads of onions were easier to come by than human heads.

All Hail Jupiter Optimus Maximus!

[suebeedue]

07:23 PM on 10/23/2011

All humans have a spiritual need, since we were Created by a Spirit Person (God). Some fill this need with rituals and teachings that have nothing to do with God, but are like "junk food". Good spiritual food comes from the Bible. Atheists have a spiritual need as well-- but it seems to be the need to destroy the spiritual expressions of believers. This proves very well to me that God is the Creator of us all and deny it as we might, we can never destroy the fact that their indeed is an Alimighty God, our Creator and Sustainer of life, who offers everlasting life to those who turn to Him and are obedient to Him in truth.

[erehwon man]

10:24 AM on 10/07/2011

Hooboy! What can you say about such a preposterous practice? Once again the time
honored method of removal of sin reveals itself----scapegoating. Or should we call it
scapechickening?

As ridiculous as this looks there lurks a very deep shadow here, for history shows
how this idea has transferred to humans and not just individuals. And it seems to
have some connection to the idea of martyrdom as well.

Killing for food is difficult enough. Why taint the process with a barbaric ritual that only
highlights one of religion's most egregious flaws?

[Dr steve bart]

12:35 PM on 10/07/2011

First of all this practice is in rememberance to the actual scapegoating that god said to do (when the temple was still arround they used to push a goay off a cliff hence the term scapegoat)

Secondly, yeah; cause religios jews are the ones that go around killing people in the name of religion, oh no wait that was the christians (during the crusades) and the muslims (the current jihad is actually number three) (and no jesus doesnt count historically the truth is that the romans did it)

[erehwon man]

01:00 PM on 10/07/2011

I knew someone would accuse me, an atheist, of being anti-Semitic, which
I most emphatically am not. Where in my post did I mention or imply Jews,
Hebrews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Druids, Pagans, or any specific religion?

Dear Doctor, I find the IDEA of scapegoating reprehensible because it leads
precisely to the crimes which you so ably enumerate. And the IDEA that this
practice was instituted by God himself is what any sane person would, upon
reflection, find to be a moral failure, to say the least.

[Gay Iberian]

01:40 AM on 10/08/2011

You gotta admit this is weird practice, flailing a chicken in the air to get rid of sins is an act that could be seen in vaudeville.

[shergenius]

01:27 AM on 10/21/2011

i would say that is not the only flaw that this religion has!

[JoePenn]

09:24 AM on 10/07/2011

Waving chickens - that's funny! But this isn't: "According to the Lurianic Kabbalah, the world was created solely for the sake of Jews, and the existence of non-Jews was subsidiary."

[shergenius]

01:29 AM on 10/21/2011

See this is what I am talking about.. Read some of their spoken part of their religion. It is scarier than chicken tossing

[americawasgreatonce]

06:07 AM on 10/07/2011

Boy oh boy the Semites sure have a bunch of crazy beliefs. Islam and Judaism sure take weird to the max. Wait thats not fair... so does Christianity, Scientology, Moonie and wetpantonlogy.

[puffadder]

06:54 PM on 10/06/2011

They should wavwe a few of the hassidics over their heads instead. This is an absolutely cruel and intolerable abuse against a creature who cannot defend itself against such abuse.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

12:04 AM on 10/23/2011

Chickens are dumber than socks, tossing them around may ruffle their feathers but it does them no harm.