The Minhag Chopping Block

There are some seasonal topics that just never get old. Every year the press, and blogs and other places of commentary, rehash the same old topics and arguments discussing why the common minhag is wrong, is bad and the like.

Some of the more common ones are:

• kitniyot on Pesach
• Tashlich
• staying up all night learning on Shavuos night
• traveling to Uman for Rosh Hashana
• upsherin

among others..

The one that is about to come under fire, now that Rosh Hashana is behind us, is Kapparos/Kapparot. Obviously nobody has anything against doing kapparot with money, as I and many others do. The opposition is to those who perform the kapparot minhag using live chickens.

The opposition is based on the idea that the chickens are treated cruelly, I would say inhumanely but they are not humans but chickens so I will say inchickanely, cooped up in little boxes, thrown aside, not fed enough and not given enough water to drink.

Chickens used for kapparos should be treated properly. causing unnecessary pain to animals is prohibited, and there is no allowance for causing it just because the chicken is going to be used for kaparos. However, the minhag is not going anywhere. Kapparos is not going to be going the way of the dodo bird. Greater people have unsuccessfully considered banning this minhag, to no avail. 

Even though using chickens for kapparot is not my minhag, and not my preferred method, I support the continuation of the minhag. I recognnize that my minhag, no matter how correct and appropriate I think it is, is not the only minhag. Judaism is blessed with so many different groups of people from different backgrounds with each bringing its own flavor and style and set of minhagim to the nation. 

It might be more worthwhile to try to regulate the kapparot industry, and make kapparot merchants adhere to hygenic and animal protection standards, but banning the minhag has already proven to be a futile endeavor.

(I wrote this post yesterday and scheduled it for today, and already last night we had a debate raging on twitter about the legitimacy of this minhag and the issue of tzaar baalei chaim)