The Jewish Journal Of Greater Los Angeles
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=11224
Kaparos
Rabbi Shneur Zalman Schmukler asks why, when chickens are being slaughtered all the time in Los Angeles, do people criticize the chicken-swinging ritual of kaparos ("Human Atonement or Animal Cruelty?" Oct. 3). One reason is that the ritual and the complacent rhetoric of the practitioners toward the chickens are inimical to making life a blessing for ourselves, for those around us and for God's other creatures. The "kind attributes" ascribed to God by Schmukler are withheld from the victims of kaparos. That this cruel ritual is a medieval custom, not a Jewish law, makes it even more reprehensible.
Karen Davis , President United Poultry Concerns Machipongo, Va.
United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes
the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl.
http://www.upc-online.org
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