Every year as Thanksgiving comes close the turkeys in the US are starting to shake. Here comes the men with the knifes...As far as I know only one gets pardon by the White House.
Every year Yom Kippur arrives in Israel, it is the turn of the roosters, being the victims of the kapparot. A Minhag-custom that as far as we know was a familiar and a known practice of Slashing the rooster's throat to make a blood atonement.
Please note that even though this custom is noted in the written Jewish tradition, as early as the 6Th century many Rabbis tried to stop it. In the 11Th century Rabbi Hai Gaon, who lived in Babylon, stated that this custom is "the ways of the Amorites," ie, originated in an act of idolatry, but the public ignored the Rabbis who opposed and continued the Minhag.
In recent years, following the growing awareness of the suffering experienced by most of the chickens that are used for making atonement, animal rights activists in Israel began to call on the religious public to replace the roosters with money, pointing to the halacha.
The activist in Israel are putting up posters that read: "saving life, not life for life," and "Judaism--a religion of compassion rather than cruelty." The posters, and leaflets are citing many prominent religious scholars of all times who were strongly opposed to the practice because the cruelty to animals that involved in it. The adds also state the abuse that these animals are suffering along the way as they are being transferred without food or water.
Dr. Yael Shemesh, a professor of Bible study in Bar-Illan University and an activist says: " The suffering of the kapparot roosters starts with the way they are raised, continues with them transferred to the markets in small cages for a long time, and ends with them being circled around someones head followed by the slaughter itself. Opposite the slaughter of the roosters, there is a custom of using money given as tzdaka to the poor. We believe that the day of atonement, a day when a person does some soul searching and asks forgiveness should not be marked with an act that contains cruelty to animals."
According to Dr. Shemesh some of the major Poskinm of all time like the RASHBA and the RAMBAN saw this custom as faulty. Joseph Karo, who wrote the "Shulchan Aruch," wrote in this regard: " The Minhag of Kapparot at the eve of Yom Kippur, where they slaughter a rooster for every male child, should be avoided."
Some within the Orthodox community in Israel are having reservations regarding the ritual: " It is inconceivable for God-fearing Jews to participate in an act like this."
If they only knew that their atonement was made already...
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