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Kapparot (Hebrew:כפרות,Ashkenazi transliteration:Kapporois,Kapores) is acustomaryatonementritual practiced by someOrthodoxJews on the eve ofYom Kippur. This is a practice in which either money is waved over a person's head and then donated to charity, or else achicken is waved over the head and then slaughtered in accordance withhalachic rules and donated to the hungry.[1]
Kapparah (כפרה), the singular ofkapparot, means "atonement" and comes from theSemitic rootכ־פ־רk-p-r, which means 'to cover',[2] the derived meaning being one of covering or blotting out sin.
On the afternoon beforeYom Kippur, one prepares an item to be donated to the poor for consumption at the pre-Yom Kippur meal,[3] recites the two biblical passages ofPsalms107:17–20 andJob33:23–24, and then swings the prepared charitable donation over one's head three times while reciting a short prayer three times.
In one variant of the practice ofkapparot, the item to be donated to charity is arooster. In this case, the rooster is swung overhead while still alive. After thekapparot ritual is concluded, the rooster is treated as a normalkosherpoultry product, i.e., it isslaughtered according to the laws ofshechita. It is then given to charity for consumption at the pre-Yom Kippur meal. In modern times, this variant of the ritual is performed with a rooster for men and a hen for women.
In this case, the prayer recited translates as:
This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This rooster (hen) will go to its death, while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace.[4]
In a second variant of the practice ofkapparot, a bag of money is swung around the head and then given to charity.[5]
In this case, the prayer recited translates as:
This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This money will go to charity, while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace.[6]
The practice ofkapparot is mentioned for the first time byAmram ben Sheshna ofSura Academy inBabylonia in 670 and later byNatronai ben Hilai, also of Sura Academy, in 853. According toJoshua Trachtenberg, the rite probably originated toward the end of theTalmudic period.[7] Jewish scholars in the ninth century explained that since the Hebrew wordגבר[8] means both "man" and "rooster", a rooster may substitute as a religious and spiritual vessel in place of a man.
Kapparot was strongly opposed by some rabbis, among themNachmanides,Shlomo ben Aderet, and theSephardi rabbiJoseph ben Ephraim Karo in theShulchan Aruch. According to theMishnah Berurah, his reasoning was based on the caution that it is similar to non-Jewish rites.
The Ashkenazi rabbiMoses Isserles disagreed with Karo and encouragedkapparot.[3] In Ashkenazi communities especially, Rabbi Isserles' position came to be widely accepted, sinceAshkenazi Jews will generally follow the halachic rulings of Rabbi Isserles where the Sephardic and Ashkenazic customs differ. It was also approved byAsher ben Jehiel (c. 1250–1327) and his sonJacob ben Asher (1269–1343) and other commentators. The ritual was also supported byKabbalists, such asIsaiah Horowitz andIsaac Luria, who recommended the selection of a white rooster as a reference toIsaiah1:18 and who found othermystic allusions in the prescribed formulas. Consequently, the practice became generally accepted among theAshkenazi Jews andHasidim ofEastern Europe. TheMishnah Berurah agrees with Rabbi Isserles, solidifying support for the practice amongLithuanian Jews as well. The Mishnah Berurah only supports the use of money (i.e., not a chicken) if there might be a problem with theslaughter due to haste or fatigue.[3]
In the late 19th-century workKaf Hachaim,Yaakov Chaim Sofer approves of the custom for Sephardi Jews as well.
Some Jews oppose the use of chickens forkapparot on the grounds oftza'ar ba'alei chayim, the principle banningcruelty to animals.[9]
The American nonprofitPETA has made the claim that more than two-thirds of all the slaughtered birds are simply thrown in the trash, while thekapparot organizers claim that the sites donate the dead chickens to feed the poor.[10]
On Yom Kippur eve 2005, a number of caged chickens were abandoned in rainy weather as part of akapparot operation inBrooklyn, New York; some of these starving and dehydrated chickens were subsequently rescued by theAmerican Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.[11] Jacob Kalish, an Orthodox Jewish man fromWilliamsburg, Brooklyn, was charged with animal cruelty for the drowning deaths of 35 of thesekapparot chickens.[12] In response to such reports of the mistreatment of chickens, Jewishanimal rights organizations have begun to picket public observances of animalkapparot, particularly inIsrael.[13][14]
Proponents of the animalkapparot ritual in the United States argue the practice to be constitutionally protected as an exercise offreedom of religion in the United States, which is further supported by a 1993Supreme Court of the United States decision in the case ofChurch of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah. In that case, the court upheld the right ofSantería adherents to practice ritualanimal sacrifice, with JusticeAnthony Kennedy stating in the decision, "Religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection" (quoted by Justice Kennedy from the opinion by JusticeWarren E. Burger inThomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division,450 U.S.707 (1981)).[15] However, the Supreme Court's principal concern in its decision was that theCity of Hialeah specifically targeted a religious ritual, curbing the religious rights of a specific community, which conflicts with the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation, cover over with pitch
... alternatively been practised with coins which are then donated to charity.
Some efforts, though, have been made to point out that the ritual is not religiously required and can instead be performed with money.
