YOM KIPPUR
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Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, falls on the eve of the tenth day of Tishrei. That’s when the fast begins too. It’s a big one… twenty-five+ hours!. This year (2001), Yom Kippur starts at sundown, Wednesday, September 26th, and ends Thursday evening, September 27th. It is the most solemn day of the year, a day of fasting and prayers, and is only celebrated one day everywhere. (Could you imagine having to fast two days in a row?).
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KAPPOROT
A Minhag (custom) observed on the morning before Yom Kippur is Kapparot (Atonement). (Kapporot may also be observed on any weekday of the Aseret Ymay Tshuva.) You purchase a live chicken, (a white rooster for a male and a white hen for a female), and you revolve the chicken around your head reciting a prayer asking that the chicken be considered atonement for your sins. The chicken is then slaughtered and given to the poor (or its value is given). Kapparot may also be done with money instead of a chicken.
http://www.torahtots.com/holidays/yomkipur/yomkstr.htm
Had I begun my commentary regarding this up-coming event with a profession of astonishment over the "barbaric" practice of animal sacrifice I predict that a HUGE NUMBER of Observant Freepers would have jumped in with the facts regarding the fringe nature of the Temple Mount Faithful - how they DO NOT represent the average Jew - how my "buying into" the animal sacrifice thing was just one more example of "Phil V.'s anti-Semitism" - not far removed from that old canard of drinking the blood . . . . . . and on, and on, and on. . ..
There is just no way to get out of this thing. Go ahead and light the fuse!
The pools of poison deepen daily. I despair for that people.