Posted on 09/14/2010 11:06:47 PM PDT by 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 years annual campaign against the cruel use of chickens in the kapparot (atonement) ritual.
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the capitals 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 its wrong to inflict such cruelty on Gods creations, especially when the underlying motivation is absolution of ones sins before the same God, as Aviner quotes former Tel Aviv Rabbi Chaim David Halevi.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
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.
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