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Op-Ed: Before You Go to Kapores Tonight…

by Miryam Elisheva Segal

The first time I did Kapores, I awoke in the middle of the night, my Shluchim picked me up in their 15 passenger van with all their little kids, and we drove over a hour to a farm in the next state. The car was silent with sleeping children, my Shluchim, and myself, the lone college student who wanted to do Kapores “the real way.”

My Shlucha went over the meaning of Kapores, what intentions one should have, and answered my few questions. I did not really know what to expect but I definitely felt awe at what was about to take place. As I read the English translation in my Tehillat Hashem Siddur, I thought I understood what was about to take place.

There at the farm there were a group of chickens set aside. All the “local” Shluchim in the area (within an hour’s drive or so) came to this farm to shlug Kapores.

As the sun rose over the sky line, I huddled together in a bunch with my Shlucha and her daughters, and as our Shliach swung one chicken over our gathered heads, my Shlucha recited Kapores word for word with her daughters and I repeating after her. The little ones screamed at the bird swinging over their heads. I was newly frum, trying to digest all that was coming at me – the screaming children, the squawking hen, the loshon of Kapores, the worry that I wouldn’t mess it up. I knew in that moment what it truly meant that that chicken was my exchange, my substitute, my expiation.

The Shliach then went on to do Kapores for himself and his boys huddled together in one group.

Then we quietly got back into the car. The Shliach explained that later in the day a shochet on his way to the other end of the state would pass through and shecht all the chickens that had been used for Kapores by my Shluchim and the others. We would not get the mitzvah of covering the blood.

* * * * *

We rode the rest of the way in pretty much silence, the sun rising as we drove. I thought back to my grandparents a”h who surely performed Kapores in der alter heim.

My grandmother, one of 13 children and my grandfather, one of 17 children, were both the children of poor Jewish farmers. When the family used even just one hen and one rooster for Kapores it must have been a HUGE stress on their finances. The chicken that provided eggs for the family to eat or sell, the rooster that helped make more chickens, to use them for Kapores was something they truly felt in their wallet.

These were no city Yidden, these were country Yidden who knew about their animals, were not afraid of them, and to a certain extent had a relationship with them. These were not some nameless animals taken out of a cage – they were animals they had reared for many months or years. They knew the halachas of caring for their animals, they were taught the halachas of tzaar baalei chaim.

With disease, Cossacks, war, and poverty hanging over them, they must have davened to truly live another year. Surely they felt awe, surely they knew it was their expiation. I davened that I had the same kind of kavonos my grandparents a”h had when they did their Kapores.

* * * * *

It’s 16 years later. I’ve performed Kapores in Crown Heights for the last 15 of them. I’ve done them as a single woman, as a married woman, as the mother holding a 6 week old baby, as the woman covertly having a box with 3 chickens swung over her head, and so on. Every year I take the chicken into my hands and I recite Kapores and daven that Hashem will allow me to live another year.

Each year I have watched the Kapores go down and down. Frankly, it is often a carnival-like atmosphere. Competing Ice Cream trucks at Kapores? Vendors hawking goods on Kingston, President, and Eastern Parkway? Diapers put on chickens? Trash left all over the streets? Groups of screaming teenagers? I see children and adults who have little or no exposure to live animals who have no idea how to behave with them.

This is nothing to speak of how the chickens are generally treated. Left to stand in crates for several days, with little to no food or water, and then taken out and treated in a manner that borders on tzaar baalei chaim.

I am the last person left in my family who does Kapores with a chicken. I take my chicken, I recite Kapores with as much as kavanna I can muster in the atmosphere around me on the street, and bring it to the shochet. I cover the blood, recite the bracha, tip the shochet and come home saddened by what I see around me.

Where has the awe gone?

Ask yourself before you go to Kapores tonight – when you leave Kapores how do you want to feel? If our bubbies and zeydies or alter-bubbies or alter-zeydies saw us now, how would they react?

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26 Comments

  • not so fast

    dont you see ?? we need desperately? its come to the point that the golus is so dark we cant even swing a chicken properly!!! and we dont know why!!

    so lets not be negative. with the world shokling its time…..

    RIBBONO SHEL OLAM BRING THE GEULAH NOW WHILE WE ARE STILL SWINGING CHICKENS IN THE DARK!!!

    gmar chasima toiva!!

  • ND Hecht

    Miryam Elisheva, spot on. That’s exactly what’s missing – the awe. What Kapores has become in many places is missing the point. Maybe people would have more awe if it had to be a $100 bill.

  • So what are you saying?

    What is the point of this self-righteous drivel?
    Get a life and stop feeling/thinking your are better than your comunity!
    I am sick and tired of these pointless OpEds.
    I love Crown Heights, and I love all Yidden. We are the epitome of humanity – cause we follow the Torah. With all due respecet to Baalei Teshuvo, (I hope to become one one day…) they must stop lecturing FFB’s all the time with such a condesending tone. Yes you were a college student, who got egnited by a local shliach. Our “screeming teenagers” stuck it out through thick and thin. You have much to learn from our families.

  • the tora was given for the kis not gramp

    yea well if you were a bit more like moses you would be like woah they still do that im so impressed now i must humble myself before the creator, instead of bemoaning the state of affairs you should celebrate them the way our master moses has already done!

  • Couldnt have said this better myself

    LOVE THE ARTICLE!!! I take my kids early in the morning, erev yom kippur… I always end up crying for me, for the chicken, for Golus. After we are all done, I tell the kids that now that we did this great mitzvah, we will walk home, and buy danishes, so we can make a brocha, and isnt it beautiful that we can do such a mitzvah,, I want them to see both sides, the seriousness, and the joy,,,

  • Reuven

    Very moving, and a great thing to read on the noght before my first time doing kappores. Thanks for posting it.

  • Chaim Tovim

    I’m one of the ones doing it with money. I don’t think it borders on tza’ar ba’alei chaim. It IS tza’ar ba’alei chaim and a mitzvah haba be’aveirah

  • sprintza

    Miryam Elisheva, spot on! I do kaparos every year, because the Rebbe stessed it’s importance, and to remind myself of my limited perspective. But every year, I am sickened by the way these poor animals are treated. I am ashamed at the flippancy and blatent disregard that so many in our community treat this holy act, meant to remind us of the sanctity of life. They miss the whole point of what it is supposed to be about. And to treat living things like that,for days, no water, almost no food? I always ask myself how the Rabbi’s can condone this. I wonder what it would take for all the people here to be kind, as the Torah teaches us to be?

  • Leah

    I completely agree. The way kappores is handled in Crown Heights (and most other big cities), is completely anti-Torah. We should absolutely be using money instead. (and I do).

  • To #3

    Did you read the op-ed at all? This is a member of our community for the past 16 years with children. Hardly what I would call a newly ignited college student.

    Just curious, how many years does someone have to be frum in your mind in order to be taken seriously? She says she does kapores with chickens. She is concerned about the lack of meaning it has taken on for so many.

    I don’t think she meant to be condescending, I think she meant it as a wake up call.

  • Well said

    Ignore the Amaleik comments because the point of the op-ed was well said. A gut yor and as the Rebbe always stressed, the first halacha in Alter rebbe Shulchan Aruch is not to be influenced by the mockers.

  • The good old times.

    2
    Of all the articles printed here this really is very accurate in describing our Matzav.

    Why is everything so commercialized?

    Go into 770. It is a flea market. The gaboiim are busy with much more important issues then retaining some respect for 770.
    (9/24/2012 6:59:31 PM)

  • Why is everything a problem? @#11

    No, we should NOT be using money if live chickens are available. People who don’t have access to chicken use money, I did as a child in a backwater but here in Crown Heights we should use a live chicken. That doesn’t mean that it should be a circus or the chickens should be without food & water, one thing has nothing to do with another. Shlugging kaporos with a chicken is the way it’s supposed to be. Leah, are you a paskening Rav? If not, don’t presume to dictate what should or shouldn’t be done and what is or isn’t “anti-Torah.” Such arrogance! Ms. Segal wrote a powerful article but I don’t see anyplace where she said do not use a live chicken. She was talking about something entirely different.

  • to #3

    This piece hit a sore spot, didn’t it?

    Those of us that “stuck it out through thick and thin” have much to learn from those who “got ignited by a local shliach”.

  • Milhouse

    Spot on. Yasher kocheich Mrs Segal, you have hit the nail squarely on the head. We should all pay more attention to the haftoroh of Yom Kippur, which makes much the same point.

  • Mendel

    I agree 100%. I wish we could do kappores in a way that is respectable to both “baalei chaim” and the inyan of kappores itself. Until then, my family will do Kapporess with Mr.Jackson.

  • Dina

    How do you know the chickens are stuck in there with no food or water for days? They get shechted right away so it’s not even a day?

  • Abolish the cruel practice of

    Abolish the cruel practice of Se’ir La’azozeil. It is just plain cruel. G-d is definitely not “with it.” We need the new Gods of PETA who only kill fetuses.

  • To #3

    It’s comments like yours (and some others) that makes me (FFB with Geshe and Yichus) loose faith in the people I grew up admiring.

  • to #11

    The point was not that money should be used, but rather, that the chickens should be treated in a respectful manner.