Senior rabbi speaks out against using fowl in kapparot

jpost.com ^ | 9/15/10

[Nachum]

Rabbi Aviner sends SPCA Israel letter, video explaining why according to halacha it is wrong to use chickens in pre-Kippur atonement rite.

The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel has received a significant halachic backing for this year’s annual campaign against the cruel use of chickens in the kapparot (atonement) ritual.

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the capital’s Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim and rabbi of Beit El, not only provided SPCA Israel with a letter last week showing the faultiness of the rite, basing his arguments on some of the greatest arbitrators, but went on video to expound on the halachic traditions proving why it’s wrong to inflict such cruelty on God’s creations, especially when the underlying motivation is absolution of one’s sins before the same God, as Aviner quotes former Tel Aviv Rabbi Chaim David Halevi.

[guitarplayer1953]

God told them that sin must be covered by blood, God ordered it so are they going to go against God's orders? Yes I know that Christ blood was shed for all and they have placed themselves under the law.

[HiTech RedNeck]

This almost sounds like a quasi-religious superstitious practice, intended to symbolize the ancient temple altar sacrifices of lambs. For those too poor to purchase lambs, sacrifices of small birds were authorized in the bible, but there isn’t any authorization in the bible for use of a chicken this way.