Comments (1)Answers To Kapporot
October 2, 2009Jamie Cohen raises the annual question of performing kapporot with a chicken as opposed to using money (“No To Kapparot,” Sept. 25).
The Mishpacha Magazine Sept. 16 issue noted an early solution for this dilemma. The Ribnitzer Rebbe, Reb Chaim Zundel Rabinowitz, ztl, a saintly Chasidic rebbe who came from Russia to America, would visit a free-range chicken farm to perform kapporot. Holding a chicken need not be harmful for the chicken and shechita is the same as any other time — aside from the large number of chickens to be shechted in a short time, but leaving chickens in small containers for days in distressing and unhygienic conditions should be avoided. Those who are careful to buy only free-range kosher chickens should apply the same ethical standard to chickens used for kapporot.
Joe Feld
London