The Jerusalem Post - Israel News

Kapparot

A Yom Kippur memory of Jerusalem

Forty years ago, in modern Israel, in Jerusalem, Israel’s ancient and modern capital, the ceremony of kapparot took place. It doesn't today in Mahaneh Yehudah — for it has been outlawed.

|BySYBIL KAPLAN
A man performs the Kapparot ceremony in Jerusalem.
Ultra Orthodox Jews perform the Kaparot ceremony on September 26, 2020, in Beit Shemesh. The Jewish ritual is supposed to transfer the sins of the past year to the chicken, and is performed before the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, the most important day in the Jewish calendar.

Ahead of Yom Kippur, Jewish activists debunk Kapparot misconceptions

The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos has fought for years to end the practice to no avail. Now they do outreach to educate Jews about the ritual make sure it is done as humanely as possible.

|ByAARON REICH
A flock of chickens (Illustrative).

300 chickens found on Brooklyn intersection after falling off truck

The chickens are believed to be used for Kapparot, a Jewish pre-Yom Kippur ritual involving the slaughtering of a chicken after it takes on one's sins.

|ByAARON REICH
Kapparot being performed a day before Yom Kippur.

Israelis sacrifice chickens to atone for their sins - watch

Kapparot involves the transfer of one's sins to something outside oneself in a short but elaborate process.

|ByOMRI RON, JERUSALEM POST STAFF