JTF.ORG Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: muman613 on October 06, 2008, 04:41:38 PM
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Shalom,
I just found the following article which makes some very disturbing claims about PETA. In general I dont think much of PETA and think they are kooks. But it seems they are harassing rabbis with anti-semitic hate emails in an attempt to stop the Kapparot service performed on Yom Kippur.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127888
(IsraelNN.com) The battle lines are being drawn between The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organization and the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) with the advent of the season of Kapparot, the ancient Jewish rite of slaughtering chickens to atone for one's sins before the holiday of Yom Kippur.
PETA zeroed in for the second year in a row on NCFJE's annual Kapparot project. The organization raises funds for its outreach activities by selling the chickens used for the ritual.
In an exclusive interview with Israel National News, NCFJE Chairman of the Board Rabbi Shea Hecht said he believes PETA is really aiming at the Jewish People, however, and not simply the NCFJE. "Jews all over the world are keeping this tradition," he said. "It's not New York they're concerned with. They are really targeting Jews in Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, and everywhere else in the world. That's what I believe."
The chickens are slaughtered after they are gently lifted over one's head in a circle while saying a prayer that notes it is the chicken that goes to its death, as opposed to the person for whom it acts symbolically as a proxy to carry one's sins away.
They are later donated to poor families throughout the area, Rabbi Hecht said. "More than a thousand chickens are donated to local families in neighborhoods here in Brooklyn alone," he said. Thousands more are donated to organizations in the metro New York area.
PETA, however, objects to the project and has made great efforts to put a stop to the practice. Last summer the organization complained to state and city agencies that NCFJE was guilty of cruelty to the birds, as well as a variety of health and safety violations.
No Independent Support for PETA's Claims
According to Rabbi Luzer Weiss, director of the New York State Department of Agriculture's Kosher Law Enforcement division, every Kapparot center is mandated to have a rabbi on site from the time the chickens arrive through the time of slaughter, in order to provide proper supervision. The rabbi is expected to ensure that the chickens are provided with food, water and appropriate shelter.
Last year, special inspectors made the rounds to ensure that the laws were enforced. "It went very well," Rabbi Weiss said. He added that he received no reports of dumping any chickens, including at the NCFJE sites.
New Year, New Tactics in Battle for the Birds
PETA claimed in a formal complaint to the state, however, that NCFJE dumped thousands of dead chickens in garbage dumpsters last year rather than giving them to poor families. In a letter to the division of Kosher Law Enforcement, PETA called on the state to investigate Rabbi Hecht and NCFJE for possible consumer fraud in connection with the organization's Kapparot Center in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.
PETA charged the organization with a triple sin: lying to consumers about donating the chickens to poor families, violating Jewish law by wasting food (ba'al tashkes) and violating civic law by creating a burden for city sanitation workers.
The animal rights group said that on September 20, 2007, NCFJE threw the carcasses of thousands of chickens into hundreds of trash bags, which were then disposed of the next day by Greg's Express trash collection service. "These are chickens that consumers expected to be processed for meat that would be distributed as tzedakah, or charity," read the letter by PETA.
PETA's Video: Sins of Omission?
Rabbi Hecht bluntly denied PETA's claims that NCFJE wantonly wasted chickens, and noted that PETA's "investigative methods were not so kosher themselves." The video footage shot by the animal rights group that allegedly showed the violations, he said, was itself misleading.
Greg, the owner of Greg's Express, also said that the charge was unfair, and inaccurate, stressing that no one could possibly have any way of knowing what was in the bags or containers. "To my knowledge, the waste did not contain 'thousands of chickens,'" he said.
Rabbi Hecht also noted that PETA had instigated a major email and fax campaign by thousands of its supporters that jammed the "in box" and phone lines in the office. "We also received one of the most vicious, anti-Semitic messages I have ever seen," he said.
That letter, also apparently from a PETA supporter, had been faxed after the sender was unable to get it past the email spam checker on September 24, 2008.
Handwritten at the top of the printed page was the following: "I guess you are 'blocking' all e-mails from PETA. Go ahead and 'Hide' like the little '[expletive deleted]' you are. Go molest your sisters.
The letter, addressed to a former member of the Crown Heights kosher certifying agency and faxed to NCFJE, continued:
LISTEN UP [expletive deleted]. I'M "GERMAN", AND I WOULD LOVE TO EXECUTE EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU… MAYBE WAVE YOU OVER GERMANS' HEADS IN APPRECIATION OF THE HOLOCAUST. HOW DOES THAT SOUND? STOP DISGRACING THE JEWISH COMMUNITY BY INHUMANE TREATMENT OF CHICKENS. "KOSHER" MEANS "KOSHER"… YOUR PRACTICES ARE A DISGRACE AND I HOPE YOU, RABBI LEVERTOV, RABBI YOSSI BROOK, & LET'S NOT FORGET, RABBI ZALMAN OSDOBA (rabbis in the community –ed.), ALL ROT IN HELL. HAVE A [expletive deleted] LIFE. LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT ME TO E-MAIL YOU AGAIN, I WOULD LIKE THAT.
The cruelty at your kapporos center, year after year, is a disgrace. Please make the compassionate decision to use money instead of live chickens at the NCFJE kapporos.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit has opened an investigation into the correspondence.
'Sins of Commission'
Meanwhile, apparently PETA is also not quite straightforward about its own record of dealing with animal rights. An opposition website called "PETA Kills Animals," notes that the organization euthanized more than 90 percent of the adoptable animals in its care in Virginia in 2007 "rather than take the trouble to feed, shelter and place them in loving homes," noted Rabbi Hecht.
"Clearly, it hopes to switch the spotlight away from the trouble in its own backyard by attempting to instead create trouble where none exists," Rabbi Hecht commented.
'PETA Aiming at World Jewry'
Rabbi Hecht said that PETA members told him that it was because his organization was the most easily identifiable group carrying out Kapparot that it became a target.
"For this purpose, as a Lubavitcher Chossid, as chairman of the board at NCFJE, I suppose I represent world Jewry to these people," he said. "We will not be threatened."
As for whether the NCFJE will continue its project, which it has carried out in various Brooklyn neighborhoods for decades, Rabbi Hecht was equally firm. "As long as there is a Constitution in this country, and there is a First Amendment that guarantees me the right to practice my religion, and my religion includes the tradition of using chickens for Kapparot, I will continue to use a chicken.
"That is my Constitutional right under the United States law, it is protected by the First Amendment, and I am going to do it, and make sure that other Jews have the same opportunity. Thank G-d for this country that guarantees us that right, to practice our religion as our forefathers commanded us."
I'd like to take down PETA if this is true. Has anyone else heard things like this?
muman613
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I am for animal rights, I have no problem with it, but PETA makes partisan claims which hurts their movement.
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PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals.
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yes i love animals and love dogs but peta makes it hard for both Jews and Christians to defend animals with their insane propaganda
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I think this chicken issue is a minor point.
PETA wants to ban kosher butchering. This organisation is a cult, that is practizing a modern form of selling of indulgences.
They are marxist atheists that try to get rid of their sins by fighting for animal rights.
And while they doing this they are loosing every relation of human rights in relation to so called animal rights.
:o
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PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals.
:eat:
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Peta is filled with radicals. They are harsh when it comes to even Kosher Slaughter. Which is the most humane PETA once said that if someone has Flies on their head they should take each one off and try not to hurt them.
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Peta is filled with radicals. They are harsh when it comes to even Kosher Slaughter. Which is the most humane PETA once said that if someone has Flies on their head they should take each one off and try not to hurt them.
I'm too lazy
*splat!*
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Fly-swatter.jpg)
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I love eating tasty animals.
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What about killing innocent carrots and apples?
How does PETA know they don't hurt?
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Peta is filled with radicals. They are harsh when it comes to even Kosher Slaughter. Which is the most humane PETA once said that if someone has Flies on their head they should take each one off and try not to hurt them.
Yes i remember that they said that about mosquitos and roaches as well :o :o
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What about killing innocent carrots and apples?
How does PETA know they don't hurt?
end the genocide of the poor vegetables!
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I dont believe animals have any rights. Who is it who gives them these rights? Are we to go an protect the prey of the lion from the lion? Animals, including my cats, are carnivores and eat the meat of their prey. Humans have grown in strength because we eat meat. There is nothing wrong with eating meat.
Judaism has many laws which extend kindness to the animal. This is not because animals have rights, any more than humans think they are owed 'rights'. We are kind to animals because it instills kindness in us, I wrote a blog entry on my blog about all the mitzvahs in Torah which relate to our treatment of our animals.
I am one who feeds my animals before I eat. This is a Jewish custom which I believe was mentioned in the Talmud. But to think that animals have universal rights is completely without basis. Animals , according to Torah, were put on the land to be used by humans.
muman613
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What about killing innocent carrots and apples?
How does PETA know they don't hurt?
end the genocide of the poor vegetables!
Come to think of it, what do PETA members eat?
Do they eat? Or do they just inject themselves with vitamins?
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A while back PETA had a campaign where they compared the slaughter of chickens to the Holocaust. They put Jewish (human) lives on the same level as that of a chicken.
They feel that it's really a crime just as much as the Holocaust is to kill millions of chickens because they believe every one of those chickens has the same right to life that you or any other human being does.
The campaign was called "Holocaust on your plate"
http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_hate.jsp?id=724
The display, titled "Holocaust on your Plate," was launched in February on the West Coast, drawing immediate outrage. It consists of eight 60-square-foot panels, each showing photos of factory farms next to photos from Nazi death camps.
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Yes, peta is antisemitic and completely loony.
Once, Arafat, yimach shemo, strapped a bomb to a donkey and used it in a terrorist attack that killed Jews, and PETA wrote him a long letter complaining that he hurt a donkey.
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What about killing innocent carrots and apples?
How does PETA know they don't hurt?
(I believe the source is from the Talmud, maybe somehwere else, but I have heard this)- that when vegetables and fruits get ripped from the trees/ground, they make a huge scream that can be heard all over, but G-d made our ears not to hear that scream (We really hear and see a small percentage of what really is out their- even scientists will say the same today, that we dont see all the things around us, for example the waves from a microwave, etc.). If we would hear it, we probably wouldn't eat fruits and vegetables.
Also about peta- They are insane! Do you people know that they actually do Kill innocent animals just so that "they wouldn't feel pain". These people are retarted and should be put in a mental house. If anyone from Peta ready my message- I would like you to know that I will be eating chicken tonight, and it usually tastes soo good- Too bad. Do us a favor- just stop eating everything- Meat- vegetables, grains, etc. Dot even drink water, then maybe I will listin to you.
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What about killing innocent carrots and apples?
How does PETA know they don't hurt?
(I believe the source is from the Talmud, maybe somehwere else, but I have heard this)- that when vegetables and fruits get ripped from the trees/ground, they make a huge scream that can be heard all over, but G-d made our ears not to hear that scream (We really hear and see a small percentage of what really is out their- even scientists will say the same today, that we dont see all the things around us, for example the waves from a microwave, etc.). If we would hear it, we probably wouldn't eat fruits and vegetables.
Also about peta- They are insane! Do you people know that they actually do Kill innocent animals just so that "they wouldn't feel pain". These people are retarted and should be put in a mental house. If anyone from Peta ready my message- I would like you to know that I will be eating chicken tonight, and it usually tastes soo good- Too bad. Do us a favor- just stop eating everything- Meat- vegetables, grains, etc. Dot even drink water, then maybe I will listin to you.
Shalom Tzvi,
I have heard of this. I have also heard that it is not good to pull leaves and flowers off a plant for no reason. I do not condone cruelty to animals {as I said I have taken care of cats for 20 years} but I dont think that they have 'rights'. We should prosecute those who abuse their animals.
muman613
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What about killing innocent carrots and apples?
How does PETA know they don't hurt?
(I believe the source is from the Talmud, maybe somehwere else, but I have heard this)- that when vegetables and fruits get ripped from the trees/ground, they make a huge scream that can be heard all over, but G-d made our ears not to hear that scream (We really hear and see a small percentage of what really is out their- even scientists will say the same today, that we dont see all the things around us, for example the waves from a microwave, etc.). If we would hear it, we probably wouldn't eat fruits and vegetables.
Also about peta- They are insane! Do you people know that they actually do Kill innocent animals just so that "they wouldn't feel pain". These people are retarted and should be put in a mental house. If anyone from Peta ready my message- I would like you to know that I will be eating chicken tonight, and it usually tastes soo good- Too bad. Do us a favor- just stop eating everything- Meat- vegetables, grains, etc. Dot even drink water, then maybe I will listin to you.
Shalom Tzvi,
I have heard of this. I have also heard that it is not good to pull leaves and flowers off a plant for no reason. I do not condone cruelty to animals {as I said I have taken care of cats for 20 years} but I dont think that they have 'rights'. We should prosecute those who abuse their animals.
muman613
I agree, it is unnecessary to be cruel to animals. I deplore it also. That is one of the reasons I like kosher meat, because it is very ethical.
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Yes, I do believe PETA members should stop eating.
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A while back PETA had a campaign where they compared the slaughter of chickens to the Holocaust. They put Jewish (human) lives on the same level as that of a chicken.
They feel that it's really a crime just as much as the Holocaust is to kill millions of chickens because they believe every one of those chickens has the same right to life that you or any other human being does.
The campaign was called "Holocaust on your plate"
http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_hate.jsp?id=724
The display, titled "Holocaust on your Plate," was launched in February on the West Coast, drawing immediate outrage. It consists of eight 60-square-foot panels, each showing photos of factory farms next to photos from Nazi death camps.
this is ridiculous. the idiots at PETA need to be sued. if they are harassing, violating a Jewish tradition with rants, phone calls, or stalking, or "shouting down," as Obama would call it, then a lawsuit should be filed. sounds to me like the rights of the people who worship during that holiday, should be able to do so in peace. "Holocaust on Your Plate" is going too far. Why don't they go harass Pam Anderson who is a spokesperson for them and tell her to take off those fur coats in 90 degree weather in Los Angeles. Talk about crazy. THIS TOTALLY MAKES ME ANGRY. How dare PETA compare a chicken to a human life.
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Yes, I do believe PETA members should stop eating.
:::D
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ALL leftist organizations are ANTI-Semitic, this I DONT get with Liberal-lefty Jews- WHAT are they THINKING?? Do you people have ANY idea how much I WEEP over our liberal brothers & sisters?? It makes me want to VOMIT.
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ALL leftist organizations are ANTI-Semitic, this I DONT get with Liberal-lefty Jews- WHAT are they THINKING?? Do you people have ANY idea how much I WEEP over our liberal brothers & sisters?? It makes me want to VOMIT.
they are ashamed of their Jewishness, perhaps? like some celebs. they hide it when it benefits them, then they show it when they feel safe. i'm not inside these peoples' heads, but they MIGHT be trying to hide the fact they are Jewish. they don't feel safe among the people they are with, and, if repeated over and over again, it becomes part of their subconscious minds. very sad, if that is the case.
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I think that the Kapparot slaying must be stopped. I wish it was forbidden by law. it is utterly disgusting wasteful foreign custom. It is not a real Jewish minhag but a foreign and superstitious one.
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I think that the Kapparot slaying must be stopped. I wish it was forbidden by law. it is utterly disgusting wasteful foreign custom. It is not a real Jewish minhag but a foreign and superstitious one.
Zelhar,
This is your opinion. According to the Rabbis I follow it is a well established minhag. I will find for you several examples of this:
From Aish.com
http://www.aish.com/hhYomK/hhYomKDefault/Wings_and_Prayers.asp
So what's with the chickens?
Well, the definitive primary Jewish legal text, the Shulchan Aruch, or "Code of Jewish Law," notes the custom of Kapparot, but disapproves of its practice. The authoritative glosses of the Rama (Rabbi Moshe Isserles), though, which present normative Ashkenazic practice, note that the custom has its illustrious defenders, and maintains that where it exists it should be preserved.
The custom's intent and meaning are elucidated in the widely accepted commentary known as the Mishneh Brurah , written by the renowned "Chofetz Chaim," Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan. Citing earlier sources, he explains that when one performs the ritual, he should consider that what will happen to the bird -- its slaughter -- would be happening to him were strict justice, untempered by God's mercy, the rule. As a result, the supplicant will come to regret his sins and "through his repentance" cause God "to revoke any evil decree from him."
So it seems that the Kapparot-custom is essentially a spur to meditation on the need for atonement, and intended to stir feelings of repentance and recommitment to the performance of good deeds. Indeed, it is customary to provide the slaughtered chicken to a poor person.
Similar to Kapporot is the Rosh Hashana custom of Tashlich, which is likewise commonly misconstrued -- even by people who should be better informed about things Jewish than The Times -- as a magical "casting away of sins." The practice of visiting a body of water and reciting verses and prayers, however, has no such direct effect. It, like Kapporot, is an opportunity for self-sensitization to our need for repentance. The verse "And cast in the depths of the ocean all of their sins," prominently recited in the prayers for the ritual, is a metaphor for what we can effect with our sincere repentance and determination to be better in the future.
As Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchok Sperling writes in his classic work known as the "Ta'amei Haminhagim," or "Explications of Customs," Tashlich reminds us that the day of ultimate reckoning may be upon us far sooner that we imagine, just as fish swimming freely in the water may find themselves captured suddenly in the hungry fishmonger's net -- and that we dare not live lives of spiritual leisure on the assumption that there will always be time for repentance when we grow old.
All too often we moderns tend to view ancient Jewish laws, customs and rituals as quaint relics of the distant past that evoke, at most, warm and nostalgic feelings of ethnic identity.
From Chabad:
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/407513/jewish/Kapparot-The-Chicken-Thing.htm
What makes Judaism and the history of the Jewish people so fascinating and colorful is that it is so very, very old. One of these vestiges of the past is kapores or kapparot, "the chicken thing."
Whether one calls it religion, custom or mysticism is not really important. Kapores is still carried out in various forms by many Jews depending on whether they trace their roots to a place where the custom was popular. Kapores probably goes back to about the 9th century C.E. and was practiced almost exclusively by Ashkenazi Jews. It is not mentioned in the Talmud at all.
It may be that you are not of Ashkenazic background which is why this custom is foreign to you. But that is no reason for you to besmirch our minhag, thank you.
muman613
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Actually I'm Ashkenazi but since I'm secular it make very little difference to me. However not all ashkenazi jews follow this minhag. The rabbis who approve the continuation of this minhag do so for tbecause they object to any change and especially they fear that people might deduce that since kapparot is not necessary so are Terilin, Tzizit etc.
Last year I read that one of the rabbis wrote about kapparon. I think basically he was in line with the quotes which you have brought. However he also adressed the issue of animal rights and he said that there is no tzaar baalei chaim involved and without a doubt the salin chicken would be very happy to die for the purpose of redeeming a Jewish soul. I thought this is complete nonsense but my religious friend who is very clever said it makes sense from his perspective. And he also said that if he had been a cow then his wish ould be to become food for humans since that would fulfill the cow's purpose.
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Actually I'm Ashkenazi but since I'm secular it make very little difference to me. However not all ashkenazi jews follow this minhag. The rabbis who approve the continuation of this minhag do so for tbecause they object to any change and especially they fear that people might deduce that since kapparot is not necessary so are Terilin, Tzizit etc.
Last year I read that one of the rabbis wrote about kapparon. I think basically he was in line with the quotes which you have brought. However he also adressed the issue of animal rights and he said that there is no tzaar baalei chaim involved and without a doubt the salin chicken would be very happy to die for the purpose of redeeming a Jewish soul. I thought this is complete nonsense but my religious friend who is very clever said it makes sense from his perspective. And he also said that if he had been a cow then his wish ould be to become food for humans since that would fulfill the cow's purpose.
Zelhar,
You must be one who does not believe in Torah Baal Peh, or Orah Torah. It is very clear about the mitzvot of Tefillin and Tzittzits which you seem to brush off. These are VERY, VERY important mitzvahs and they are straight from the Shema prayer.
Do you say Shema? Maybe you should investigate this and discover that the Shema describes three important mitzvahs which you discount. The prayer which begins "Shema Yisroel Hashem Elokaynu, Hashem ECHAD!" contains the mitzvahs of Tefillin {Bind these words to your arm as frontlets between the eyes". Shema also contains the mitzvah of Mezuzah {Write these words on the doorpost of your house}. And it also contains the mitzvah of TzitTzits which the whole third verse describes.
From Aish.com @ http://www.aish.com/literacy/mitzvahs/Shema_Yisrael.asp
The full Shema is comprised of 3 paragraphs from the Torah. The first paragraph, Deut. 6:4-9, contains the concepts of loving G-d, learning Torah, and passing on Jewish tradition to our children.
These verses also refer specifically to the mitzvot of tefillin and mezuzah. While praying, we wear tefillin as a visible sign of G-d close to our hearts and close to our brains, to show that our every thought and emotions are directed toward G-d. The mezuzah scroll is affixed to our doorposts to show that we are secure in G-d's presence.
The second paragraph, Deut. 11:13-21, speaks about the positive consequences of fulfilling the mitzvot, and the negative consequences of not.
The third paragraph, Numbers 15:37-41, speaks specifically about the mitzvah to wear tzitzit, and the Exodus from Egypt. Tzitzit are a physical reminder of the 613 commandments in the Torah. This is derived from the numerical value of the word tzitzit (600), plus the five knots and eight strings on each corner, totaling 613.
The specific words come from Numbers 15:37-41 which read:
37 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 38 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them throughout their generations fringes in the corners of their garments, and that they put with the fringe of each corner a thread of blue. 39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the L-RD, and do them; and that ye go not about after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go astray; 40 that ye may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy unto your G-d. 41 I am the L-RD your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your G-d: I am the L-RD your G-d.' {P}
If you dont believe this you are surely denying the very essence of the Jewish idea of mitzvot.
muman613
PS: If I am wrong please tell me, you may be one who keeps them but just dont understand why. I am one who happens to keep these three mitzvahs and feel they are essential for Judaism to continue to exist.
PPS: I hope the Rabbis do a good job of explaining the difference between Minhag {Customs} and Mitzvot {Commandments/Ways to come close}.
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A while back PETA had a campaign where they compared the slaughter of chickens to the Holocaust. They put Jewish (human) lives on the same level as that of a chicken.
They feel that it's really a crime just as much as the Holocaust is to kill millions of chickens because they believe every one of those chickens has the same right to life that you or any other human being does.
The campaign was called "Holocaust on your plate"
http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_hate.jsp?id=724
The display, titled "Holocaust on your Plate," was launched in February on the West Coast, drawing immediate outrage. It consists of eight 60-square-foot panels, each showing photos of factory farms next to photos from Nazi death camps.
That's just sickening. I couldn't give a flying crap if Hitler had slaughtered 6 million chickens. That would have made for one hell of a feast! The loss of six million human lives, however, is indescribable. Who knows what those people would have accomplished.
I had read that kosher slaughtering was much more humane than the methods used by industrial slaughterhouses. I'll have to find the article again.
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I think that the Kapparot slaying must be stopped. I wish it was forbidden by law. it is utterly disgusting wasteful foreign custom. It is not a real Jewish minhag but a foreign and superstitious one.
Why? It is not wastful at all. If you eat chicken or meat, then I dont see any difference between that and doing Kapparot. The food was(is) given to poor people. My Rav is not technically again't it, but we dont do it in shul, he says to do it with money instead and then the $ is donated becuase we dont want them to eat chicken with our sins (so to speak, its symbolic, but still).
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I think that the Kapparot slaying must be stopped. I wish it was forbidden by law. it is utterly disgusting wasteful foreign custom. It is not a real Jewish minhag but a foreign and superstitious one.
Maybe you've never actually seen it done and only read reports about it. I just saw about a hundred people do this ritual and not a single chicken was harmed.
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Zelhar, I also don't know how you can call schecting a chicken a "slaying" ? Is it a 'slaying' when you have chicken soup? This isn't any different except the chicken is elevated even more beforehand and you do a little atonement with it.
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I have butchered by myself. My Uncle did it weekly on his small farm near Hannover.
I think the success of this Peta-clowns is founded in our seperation from the natural world. If you never see the butchering, only the steaks, it is unusual for you.
Another point is that this sick leftists people humanize animals. Hollywood has twisted the people totally. There was i.e. a movie with a speaking piglet.
(http://www.tonstudio-holly.at/Website/images/babe1_big.jpg)
They are unable to get the great distance between us and i.e. a piglet. So this evil PETA people accept that humen will die in order to save a few apes from medical tests.
It has become a sick world.
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@Muman: I know that tefilin is from the bible it wasn't my point, I said that the rabbis who are afraid to cancel the Kapparot minhag do so for fear that it would lead to people 'canceling' real mitzvas like tefilin. Anyway I don't think people have the right to come out with man made minhagim that involve slaying innocent animals (If they did this minhag with cockroaches that would be fine by me).
@KWRBT: The chickens used for kapparot are often slain by untrained individuals and the carcasses are not always used for food.
Why can't they all use inanimate objects like Tzvi's rabbi had suggested using money, is it really necessary to kill animals for this ritual ?
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@KWRBT: The chickens used for kapparot are often slain by untrained individuals and the carcasses are not always used for food.
A shochet is supposed to properly slaughter the chickens and yes it is given to the poor. In some places like Meah Sharim, you can have it shechted right in front of you. These people are scrupulous in mitzvot, especially the kind like this, they aren't going to hack it up for no reason and certainly not publicly break the rules of slaughter. Some people get it shechted in front of them checked to make sure it's kosher, de feathered, and then they can eat it themselves (if the money they purchased it with goes to tzedaka).