Issue Number 22 --- Erev Yom Kippur, 5756
Compiled and Published by Kollel Menachem - Lubavitch (Melbourne, Australia) in the zechus of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, o.b.m.
The following aspects of kaporos will be dealt with:
Rashi [1] mentions a custom mentioned by the Geonim that "twenty two or fifteen days" before Rosh Hashono people would take baskets - one for each child - and plant legumes and the like, and before Rosh Hashono would wave them around their heads and say, "This should be instead of this [person], and it should be my exchange, and it should be my substitute." The baskets would then be thrown into the river. In this Rashi we find the concept of saving oneself from a harsh Heavenly decree by it being effected on another object.
The Maharal writes [2] that the Gemoro [3] implies the same. The Gemoro brings the story of Rabbi Akiva who was travelling with a donkey, and rooster and a candle. Upon being refused entry to a certain city, Rabbi Akiva had no choice but to sleep overnight in the woods outside the city. During the night a lion killed the donkey, a cat devoured the rooster, and a wind extinguished the candle. The next morning he learned that the city had been attacked by murderous thieves and he had been miraculously saved. The Maharal explains that the same terrible fate that the townspeople had suffered, was to befall Rabbi Akiva as well. However, he was substituted by his donkey (representing his physical body), his rooster (instead of his soul) and the candle (instead of his intellect). The Maharal concludes that from this Gemoro we have an "absolute proof to take a chicken for a kaporo for the soul on erev Yom Kippur."
The Remo brings this custom in Shulchon Oruch [4] and writes that it is a custom of pious people and should not be disregarded.
There are various authorities who argue that the custom of kaporos should be discontinued.
The Ramban [5] writes that it is considered "darkei Hoemori" (following customs of the gentiles).
In Shulchon Oruch [6] the mechaber writes that this custom should not be followed.
The Orchos Chaim (Kahana) assumes that the Mechaber was opposed only to the custom of using chickens, and therefore writes that even those who follow the ruling of the Mechaber, should fulfil this custom by waiving money (the value of the chicken) instead, and thereafter giving it to charity.
However, the Pri Chodosh [7], commenting on the custom mentioned in Rashi (in which plants were used), writes that without question this custom should be abolished, because of darkei hoemori.
The Pri Chodosh, therefore, opines that the custom, in any form, is prohibited.
The Alter Rebbe [8] writes that the concept of darkei hoemori would only apply if one were to search specifically for white chickens. (He writes that it is preferable to use white chickens as the Posuk says "Even if your sins will be as scarlet, they will become white as snow".) Therefore, he continues, one should choose white chickens only if they are readily available.
The Kaf Hachaim [9] writes that medical experts write that the healthiest fowl for consumption are chickens, and even more so if they are white. Now the halocha is [10] that regarding matters with medical value, we don't apply the concept of "darkei hoemori". Therefore, concludes the Kaf Hachaim, the same applies to using white chickens for kaporos.
In addition to the afore-mentioned dimension of kaporos being a "substitute" for the individual (as the Mishna Berura writes [11] that the individual should imagine that all that is transpiring to the chicken should in fact have happened to him), there is another reason which is brought down in Eliya Rabo [12], that the kaporos is an atonement for the sins of the person. This being the case, it is likened to an obligatory sacrifice that each individual has to bring. (The halachic implications of these opinions will later be discussed.)
However the Kitzur Shulchon Oruch [13] writes that the individual should not think that the chicken is literally his atonement. It should merely serve as a reminder that all of these things should have happened to him, thus arousing him to repent fully.
In Eliya Rabo [14] it is stated that two people can not fulfil their "obligation" with one chicken. The reason being that Kaporos is similar to a sacrifice that is brought as an atonement for oneAEs sins. Thus it is comparable to an obligatory sacrifice.
A similar thought is mentioned in Da'as Torah [15] with proof thereof from a Tosfos [16] that when two people wish to pay "kofer" each has to pay the full amount as an entire kaporo for each is required. Thus we see that if the function of "kaporo" is wished to be achieved, it has to be done in full by each individual.
This is also inferred in what the Mordechai [17] writes that one slaughters chickens according to the amount of members of the household.
Similarly in Rashi (which was brought earlier) where he quotes that it was done for each and every child.
However the Mogen Avrohom [18] in the name of the L'vush states that one may take one chicken for a number of people.
In the Mekor Chaim [19] he expounds that the reason for this leniency is due to the fact that we do not find any obligation to do kaporos anywhere in Gemoro, it is merely a custom and one may therefore be more lenient.
In Da'as Torah [20] we find another reason for the leniency. Since the entire idea of Kaporos is merely a "donation", and not an obligation which is being fulfilled many people can therefore do it together (unlike an obligatory sacrifice).
The Alter Rebbe in his Shulchon Oruch brings both opinions without concluding which to follow. However in his Siddur he writes that each member of the household should have a Kaporo - a rooster for each male and a hen for each female.
The Remo writes that for a pregnant woman two chickens should be used, one female and one male.
The Mogen Avrohom explains that if the unborn child is a male, a male chicken is needed (in addition to the female necessary for the mother). If the child is a girl, then the hen used for the mother is sufficient for both mother and daughter. (This follows the ruling of the Mogen Avrohom, mentioned above, that two people may use the same chicken.) But, the Mogen Avrohom continues, the Arizal would use three chickens for a pregnant woman.
The Eliya Rabo explains this saying that the kaporo is likened to an obligatory sacrifice, and the daughter may therefore not fulfil her obligation with same chicken as her mother, as explained earlier.
The Biur HaGro and the Machatzis HaShekel explain that a separate chicken is not needed for the daughter because of the Talmudic dictum that "a foetus is [considered merely as] a leg of the mother". The daughter, therefore, does not have the halachic status of a separate person, and no special kaporo is necessary.
In answer to the question why an unborn child would need a kaporo (especially according to the view that it comes as an atonement), the Lubavitcher Rebbe explains in Likutei Sichos that the foetus is not considered an independent entity, but rather effects that the mother is considered to be one person comprising two entities. (For this reason, the Rebbe explains, a pregnant woman may not be a shushbin - unterfirer at a chupa: because we need two shushbinin, not three.) The mother, therefore, for her own atonement, needs two (or three) chickens.
It is obvious from the authorities that the main part of the custom of kaporos is the slaughtering of the chicken. Especially considering the above- mentioned objective of kaporos, that the individual realise that everything happening to the chicken should have happened to him.
Furthermore one of the criterion mentioned with regards to kaporos is that it should be conducted in the early morning. Both these points are evident in the words of the authorities.
In Shulchan Aruch [21] he writes that this which they are accustomed to do kaporos on the eve of Yom Kippur to slaughter a chicken etc. Similarly in the Mogen Avrohom [22] in the name of the Ari Zal and the Shalo.
Likewise it is evident in the words of the Alter Rebbe in the siddur that on the eve of Yom Kippur it is a custom to slaughter a white chicken in the early morning.
The Sdei Chemed however maintains that it is preferable to perform the Shechita a day or two prior to Erev Yom Kippur. He reasons that as a result of the great demand of all the people wanting to have their chickens slaughtered on Erev Yom Kippur, the Shochtim are not able to properly check their knives etc. and therefore it would be preferable (as he himself was accustomed to do) to do the kaporos at an earlier time.
Similarly the Kaf Hachayim writes that since the masses had the misnomer that the atonement of Yom Kippur lies in the custom of kaporos, they were therefore very demanding that their chickens be slaughtered regardless of the physical limitations of the Shochet, thus resulting in Halachic questions regarding the validity of the Shechita. He therefore concludes that it is preferable to use money instead.
In the same vein concludes the Mishna Berura, that he who does Kaporos with money has done a righteous act.
Footnotes:[1] Shabbos 81b s.v. Hai, quoting a Geonic responsum [2] Nesivos Olom, Nesiv HaBitochon, ch. 1 [3] Berochos 60a[4] O.C. 605:1[5] quoted in Beis Yosef, ibid.[6] ibid.[7] 605[8] 605:5[9] 605 11[10] Orach Chaim 301:27[11] 605:2[12] 605:8[13] 131:1[14] 605:8[15] 605:2[16] B"K 40. s.v. Kofer shalem[17] beginning of Yuma[18] 605:4[19] 605:1[20] ibid.[21] ibid.[22] 605:1
The above is not intended to decide halachic questions, but rather to clarify them in a clear and concise form. Please refer all your practical questions to your local Rabbi.
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