Kapparot

There are a lot of things I should write about, but I'll just tell you about one cool thing that we did today. This evening marks the start of Yom Kippur, aka the Day of Atonement. As a celebration of the holiday a small number of ultra-orthodox Jews participate in a ritual known as Kapparot. In this ritual, a man takes a chicken by its feet and swings it around over his head while reciting a prayer. The prayer goes something like this . . . "This chicken is taking all of my sins, this chicken will now suffer for my sins." The chicken is then slaughtered and either made into chicken soup or donated to the poor.

Although many prominent rabbis decry the practice as inhumane and superstitious, there are a few who still practice it. Today we had a chance to see the bloodbath. This morning at 5:30 a group of us left the center headed to the Me'a She' arim--an ultra orthodow neighborhood in West Jerusalem. Below is a little taste of what we saw. We had to be very careful about taking pictures, but I managed to get a few.

These are pictures I took before and after the ritual. I took pictures with a different camera for most of the morning. I will post those when I get ahold of them.

This is the sign we saw when entering the city.

"To women and girls who pass through our neighborhood we beg you will all our hearts . . ."
It then defines acceptable clothing. "Closed blouse, with long sleeves, long skirt--no trousers, no tight fitting clothes."

This is a guy who was selling chickens in the city. We felt a little nervous about asking for this picture since we were considered quite unwelcome in the neighborhood.







Man with chicken.