זקן האדמו"רים הרבי ממשכנות הרועים לאחר כפרות במעונו בשריפת הנוצה של התרנגול, כחלק מהמנהג לעשות זכר למיתות בי"ד ע"י זריקת התרנגול, שריפת הנוצה, והרג וחנק - שחיטה pic.twitter.com/7cJSjuq4u7

— משה ויסברג (@moshe_nayes) October 3, 2022

The elder Admor, the Rebbe of Mishkenot HaRo'im, after performing the kapparot ritual in his office - burning the feathers of the chicken, as part of the minhag to perform a "zecher", a symbolic memorial, of the 4 deaths meted out by beis din for various sins on the kapparot bird - by throwing the bird (like skila), burning feathers, strangulation and beheading - both of which are memorialized by the shchita of the bird.

The City of Tel Aviv published on its municipal website instructions, guidelines and relevant information for the upcoming holiday season in Tel Aviv. Some of it is informative, some generous, and some cute and quirky and not necessarily traditional.

This story on Hamechadesh is pretty crazy. It reminded me of a scam that happens around Pesach-Shavuos time. In recent years a hakpada (I dont want to call it a chumra) has become trendy by which some people won't buy chametz form the stores if it had been sold to a non-Jew for Pesach.  Rather, they insist that the chametz they buy after Pesach is from freshly ground post-Pesach flour.

Kapparos is a weird enough ceremony that it always is good for providing weird experiences, and even some controversy.

Sarah Chandler of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center has come up with a new procedure for kappparos. Instead of grabbing the chicken and whipping it through the air, as she says, one would say the kapparos and then embrace the chicken while confessing the sins. A hug solves all ills.

Just to be fair, I would protest the use of the terms grabbing the chicken and whipping it through the air. I rarely see people whip it through the air. Most people wave it gently and uncomfortably. Also the grabbing it is unusual. Most people pick up the chicken very hesitatingly and cautiously.

Back to the hugs, even though hugging the chicken is not the Standard Operating Procedure, I don't think hugging the chicken is really any weirder than waving it over one's head. Or any weirder than waving palm fronds, confessing sins over a body of water with fish (and throwing crumbs in or not), eating a fish head or any of the other symbolic customs we perform on our holidays...

Still weird. I am not hugging a chicken, though I am also not waving it over my head...

They used to say that what the Reform do today, the Conservative will do in 15 years, and the Orthodox will do in 30.

While we often hear criticism of the Reform for their "bark mitzvas", with the same few videos on Youtube being pointed to as proof,  the trend of sharing our religious experiences with our pets has eventually found its way to Orthodox Judaism...

What are MKs Yiroel Eichler and Menachem Eliezer Mozes goign to do next time they talk about the Reform bark mitzvahs and this gets thrown back at them?

I wonder... if I do kapparos with a Braekel chicken, do I keep my sins or do they go onto the chicken? Does it depend which rabbi I follow and which hechsher I eat? What if I eat from both the hechsher of the people who oppose the Braekel and from the people who certify the Braekel as kosher?

If you plan on doing your kapparos with a chicken, you had better plan to do it almost anywhere besides for Petach Tikva. Petach Tikva is once again joining Tel Aviv in banning the practice of kapparos with a chicken from its streets, due to the "tzaar baalei chaim" involved in the practice.

City Hall of Petach Tikva is actually only banning the slaughtering of the chickens, but the practice of kapparos with a chicken without slaughtering it will be allowed but only with a permit from the veterinary services. Permits for this should be requested no later than September 9. I am not sure what people with permits are going to do with the chickens after the kapparos if they will not be allowed to shecht them, but I guess they'll figure something out.

City Hall recommends changing your minhag to do the kapparos with a donation of money to tzedaka instead of using the chicken.
Source: Srugim

It must be Elul already....

cute

According to Kikar, an interesting, and weird, incident happened at a Kapparos location in Jerusalem.

A family went to do their annual kapparos with a chicken ceremony. When performing the ceremony over the 1.5 year old son, immediately after saying the phrase "this rooster will go to its death", the rooster died in their hands.

The father freaked out a bit, as anybody would, and went and replaced it with a different rooster. Upon performing the ceremony again the same thing happened a second time - the rooster died in their hands immediately after saying the phrase "this rooster will go to its death".

As they say, third time is a charm. The third set worked and the rooster did not die until they killed it.

Afterwards the father went to his rav to ask what it all signifies, if they must be concerned. The rav's answer was very rational and instead of saying he has to do tshuva for something or it shows someone was meant to die, God forbid, but received forgiveness, or anything like that, he railed against the kapparos ceremony as performed today saying it is prohibited to do kapparos in the street, the chickens are left in the heat and not given water to drink, they are left outside in the heat for 15 hours, cages on cages... it is tzaar baalei chaim..

Either way, it would freak anyone out...

cute

The City of Tel Aviv has decided to allow the minhag of kapparos to be fulfilled in the streets of Tel Aviv but they are banning the slaughtering of the chickens in the streets.

According to Behadrei, the city spokesperson said that they will not allow slaughtering or harming of animals in the public and open spaces of the city. Tel Aviv is a city that leads the way in the protection of animal rights and will do whatever necessary to prevent the harming of animals and damaging their rights. They also, therefore, do not allow the use of animals in circus performances in the city.

The Haredi representative in Tel Aviv rejected the claim that Tel Aviv is working to prevent the performance of the kapparos minhag, explaining that they are allowing kapparos to be done just not allowing the shechita to be done in the streets - indoors, in a private house, a butcher shop or in a shul is perfectly fine though. To quote Natan Elnatan - "there is no halachic oblogation to shecht the kapparos chicken in the street".

Elnatan also said that the fact that in Mea Shearim they take the coops out to the street and shecht there does not mean that it has become a tradition from our forefathers. In Bnei Braq also, he says, the merchants have taken over Rabbi Akiva street and you cannot pass by because of the shechting of chickens - not in Tel Aviv.

I love his answer. So sensible.