Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau has called for more humane treatment of chickens used in the Kapparot ceremony performed by many religious Jews every year shortly before Yom Kippur.
The ceremony, the name of which means “atonement,” involves taking a chicken and lifting it above one’s head three times in a circular motion while reciting a prayer, after which the chicken is slaughtered and frequently given to a charity for use in the preparation of meals for the needy.
However, concerns are frequently expressed about suffering caused to the birds before and during the ritual.
Animal rights group Let the Animals Live recently wrote a letter to Lau on the issue, saying that every year the organization receives complaints about the treatment of chickens intended for the ceremony. It added that the birds can be left for hours and even days in small cages, frequently without food and water, and often outside in the sun.
In a letter directed to anyone involved in the supply of chickens or facilitation of the ceremony, as well as anyone performing it, Lau said that mistreatment of the birds would constitute a mitzva performed through committing a sin.
“I am turning to those accustomed to preserving the traditions of their fathers by doing Kapparot with an animal to remind them of the holy obligation that exists throughout the year to refrain from causing suffering to animals, to prevent any unnecessary pain and suffering to animals to ensure their delivery in a fitting manner and to ensure appropriate treatment of them,” Lau wrote in his letter.
“If they are not treated in an appropriate manner, it is clear this would be a ‘mitzvah through a transgression, which was not the intention of the sages in the mitzvah of Kapparot. Therefore it is incumbent on traders and those fulfilling [the custom] to be especially strict in this regard.”
The ceremony is meant to symbolically transfer one’s sins onto the chicken, although the practice is not mentioned in the Torah or the Talmud, and is believed to have originated among Jewish communities in the 9th century in Babylon.
It can, however, be done with money – donated to charity afterward – waved above a person’s head.
Several important rabbinic figures have opposed the practice, including the 13th-century Spanish sage Nahmanides and Rabbi Yosef Karo, a 15thcentury scholar who lived in Spain, Turkey and Israel and is renowned for his comprehensive guide to Jewish law, the Shulhan Aruh.
Karo wrote that the tradition of using a chicken for Kapparot should be avoided, out of a concern that it was originally a non-Jewish practice.
Rabbinic authorities from Ashkenazi communities nevertheless approved of the custom and ruled that it should be continued.
Lau concluded his letter by saying that atonement is only obtained by repenting one’s sins.
“My prayer is that we will be able to fulfill [the precept that] anyone who is merciful toward God’s creations will himself merit the mercy of He Who Dwells on High.”
you could arrange massive bus convoys to a local chicken farm prepared for the purpose and shecht them there early in the morning. It takes money, but might be more educational. That’s often what they did in the old days too, except you bought the chicken and brought it (personally) to a shochet, or the shochet camped outside of the farm and handled the shechita for all the chickens. the mistreatment of the chickens isn’t necessary, and it, as lau said, assur. (whether in a packing plant, or erev yom kippur.) it also renders many of the chickens traif, whether… Read more »
You are right, I am sorry. I meant the videos (or pic) of the Shechita.
We could make a pshoro we could make sure to only carry one chicken at a time
do it the way its done in melbourne each chicken has its own individual cardboard box
Correct you are. The protests have nothing to do with chickens and everything to do with religion. Unless you raise your own chickens, “cage free chickens” and “grass-fed free-range cattle” are being tossed around just like your kapporos bird; no sense in getting excited about one while eating the other.
Mistreatment of animals is absolutely contrary to Jewish law. And that goes for Kapparot, factory farms or any other method whereby God’s creatures are harmed for profit in the name of Kashrut. A big, yashar koach to Rabbi Lau. We’re supposed to be a light unto nations and it’s great to hear some of our Torah leaders speak out against cruelty.
S/he will ask his father why he doesn’t use chickens, and his father will explain to him the concept of tzar bal lchaim. The child will be proud of his father whose sensitivity to other living creatures overrides any social pressures, and the child will be a healthier, smarter and better person because of it.
I do Kaparos on money and join the PETA group on Kingston Ave. It’s disgusting how many of the Crown Heights people mistreat the chickens.
Nothing will happen. Especially when the father will explain the reasons why they do it with money.
what a bright future for the chief rabbinate!
We all do Kaparos with Money! I can’t stand to see what the chickens go through.
Really , you saw a vid of The Rebbe circling the chick around his head?
I refuse to use a chicken…
There is no video of the Rebbe doing kaporos because it done in private in his room. The Rebbe only came out for the shchita.
thats a very slippery slope.
what will your kids think when all the other father do one way and you do it different?
Are chickens treated any better on their way to and at the slaughterhouses, kosher or non-kosher, where much larger volume of chickens are being porcessed daily? I doubt it. There’s a wholesale operation in CH (East New York Ave. between Kingston and Brooklyn) that sells live chickens to restaurants in Chinatown and elsewhere. Are those chickens getting any better treatment than the kaparos chickens? Kaparos is achas b’shana, and they operate daily, has PETA ever shown up there even once to protest? It’s only a 5 to 10 minute walk from kaparos on Eastern Parkway or President St… The PETA… Read more »
i was raised on a chicken farm. where when emptying a barn of chickens they are always picked up by the wings or sometimes even legs three to four chickens in each hand. They are then put into those small cages which are pilled up on top of each other on a flatbed of a truck and brought to a slaughter house. it is impossible to feed or water them along the way. The concerns about these issues are simply part of the industrial process of modern commerical chicken farming and not isolated to kapporus. so if you dont like… Read more »
Looking at a video of the Rebbe doing Kaporos, I can clearly see the respectful way he handles and holds the chicken, gently circling it around his head. Many of us are manhandling and hurting these animals during Kaporos, causing them unnecessary pain and suffering. Aside from the Aveira of Tzar Balei Chaim, it shows on a lack of respect and dignity for life and Hashems creations (which perhaps is one of the intents with the prohibition of Tzabl”ch).
There is something called Tza’ar Ba’alei Chayim. Apparently those who run Kapparos do not care much for that.
I don’t agree with radical PETA loons, but in this case we are indeed mistreating the chickens.
My tatty told me that there were in the past chief Rabbis and even not chief rabbis what would write these things called teshuvos in which they would describe and support their decisions using halachic sources. And then other rabbis — not even chief rabbis!–would analyze them and decide whether or not they agreed. And sometimes they would even respond. In writing!
And then simple citizen, like Citizen Berel, could go to his rabbi–who isn’t a chief rabbi–and ask him for an opinion.
The Rebbe did not hold the chicken by the wings, He used to put his hands around the chicken and hold the wings in place. the picture shown with the article is an example on how not to do it,The chicken is uncomfortable and oftrnthisis how the wings break aking it treif.
I use money instead of a chicken every year because of the way the chickens in Crown Heights are treated. They’re crammed into crates where they bake in the sun for hours without food or water. Young bachurim are in charge of moving the crates around, and they regularly drop full crates of chickens from a height of several feet. The chickens are missing half of their feathers for who-knows-why. Kaparos done on a treif chicken is invalid. I eat meat and am not against using chickens for kaparos, but I don’t support the way I’ve seen it done in… Read more »
‘Repenting one’s sins’ can also mean being most particular with all the wonderful customs of old including doing Kapporos with a chicken. Remember chickens were made for man not the reverse. Of course be careful too not to harm the chicken.
just like the protestors!