לתשובת המינים

Kapores

The custom of Kapores is an ancient one in which a chicken is revolved around one’s head while reciting several verses from the T’nakh and the chicken is slaughtered. Christian apologists will suggest that this demonstrates that Judaism understands that blood sacrifice is a precondition for salvation, and therefore illustrates the need for the Nazarene’s “atoning” death, “This concept [the necessity of blood] was so ingrained in the Jewish psyche that to this day many Orthodox Jews around the world still offer a blood sacrifice on the eave of Yom Kippur (or in some circles, the eve of Rosh Hashanah)” ¹

This citation and many others tend to identify this ritual as a “sacrifice”. ² Indeed, the symbolism of this ritual is borrowed from one of the lessons derived from sacrifices, that a person should reflect on the fact that through sin he himself as become worthy of punishment and even death. Nevertheless the word sacrifice does not appear in the phrase and is not used in reference to this ritual. In fact the entire reason why a chicken is the preferred animal for the ceremony is precisely because a chicken is not a suitable offering to be brought as a sacrifice. And as a whole Christians look very unfavorably upon the practice, even while citing it as supporting evidence for their belief. The truth is that while I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that there are, as of writing this piece I have never heard of a Messianic Christian performing the Kapores ritual unlike many other Jewish/ “Rabbinic” customs which they have adopted.

The ritualization of animal slaughter is going to evoke comparison with sacrifice. Indeed the practice made many great halachic authorities uncomfortable, notably Rabbi Yosef Karo ztz”l (the author of the Shulchan Aruch) ruled that the practice should be stopped (ibid Orach Chaim 605:1). Ritualization of animal slaughter outside of the Temple Service raised concerns of non-Jewish practices (Darchei Emori). Nevertheless many rabbinic authorities have supported the practice and guidelines given to distinguish it from sacrifice have been set in place.

A large part of the problem, at least in contemporary times, is that many people have very little concept of sacrifices beyond the notion of a ritualized slaughter of an animal (often related to atonement of sin). Of course the primary symbolism of sacrifice, if it’s correct to call it symbolism, is still seen in its synonym “offering”. A sacrifice is a gift to one’s deity, whether it is the Lord of the Hebrews or (חו"ש) pagan deities. Indeed while Orthodox Jews look forward to the re-institution of the Temple service and its sacrifices and Christians typically see them as having been superseded this has led to a bit of a paradox. The notion of sacrifice in its primary sense, to offer a gift of to God, plays a larger active role in Christianity today than in Judaism. The act of collecting “offerings” in Church is heavily tied to the notion of sacrifice in its primary sense, giving as it where to God. Conversely since Orthodox Judaism restricts sacrifices (strictly speaking) to the Temple service in accordance with Torah law, (in my experience at least) it is less common to hear appeals for charity or maintaining communal institutions be made in terms of “giving to God” (although either community does make use of the term tithe beyond its strict usage in the sacrificial ritual of the Torah). At any rate, in neither instance does the believer act because they believe God actually “needs” their assistance, whether it is an animal or monetary, but because it is good for us to serve Him. Whether it is an appropriate custom or not the ritual of Kaporos is simply not an offering to God, thus not a sacrifice.

While there are general restrictions which cover sacrifices nowhere in the entire Bible do we find a general command to bring a blood sacrifice to atone for one’s sin or any indication that such an offering would be efficacious. If blood is a requisite for atonement it is because the Torah has commanded specific sacrifices where the blood is offered. If there is a way to achieve atonement without having brought the sacrifices prescribed by the Torah, all of which are prescribed for particular situations, there is no reason to suggest that blood is required or effective. Furthermore, one who brings a sacrifice which is not in conformity with the Torah’s commandments regarding sacrifice, whether they are offering a chicken or a human sacrifice, are not only failing to meet the requirements of the Torah they are transgressing the command of the Torah. While the Kaporos is not a sacrifice to God and an animal invalidated for sacrificial purposes is used to emphasize that, the Nazarene’s death is alleged to be a sacrifice despite the fact that there is no command in the law of Moses which it fulfills and several which it runs afoul of.

So while it is asserted that the ritual of kaporos is an indication that blood sacrifice is necessary,³ the blood of the “kaporos” isn’t really part of the ritual. In sacrificial offerings the blood was used in various rituals such as sprinkling it upon the altar. The only ritual associated with the blood of the Kaporos is when a chicken is used the blood must be covered with earth as is commanded in Vayikra (Leviticus) 17:13 with regard to all non-sacrificial blood. Furthermore an early version of this ritual recorded by Rashi (Shabbos 81b) does not use animals at all and contemporary alternative versions of this ritual use money. Accordingly the ritual highlights that neither the Torah nor Jewish thought see blood sacrifice as prerequisite for “salvation” from sin. It is one thing to disagree with Jews about the meaning of the Jewish Scriptures, but it is a little misguided to tell us what our intent really is when performing traditional customs.

The Temple service on Yom haKippurim (Vayikra/Leviticus 16) is the highlight of the service in the Beis HaMikdash (Temple), but it was revealed in response to an immense tragedy (Vayikra/Leviticus 16:1). Two priests, Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron the High Priest took it upon themselves to enter the Holy of Holies and offer sacrifices of their own which God had not commanded. For this they died by a fire from Heaven. The Kaporos ritual can be an appropriate tool to remind us of certain lessons which we also see in the sacrificial service, such as our own liability to punishment for our sins, but it is extremely important to be clear that it is not a sacrifice. The Torah gives us very specific guidelines on how, when, and where to offer sacrifices and while Torah says that those sacrifices can be efficacious for bringing atonement it makes no such general claim regarding sacrifices. Indeed other sacrifices just bring more guilt.

1 Michael L. Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Vo. 2, page 109.

2 Likewise Rich Robinson states, “The Yiddish phrase shlogn kapores translates roughly as, "swinging the atoning sacrifice’” (http://jewsforjesus.org/blog/20090826) although the world sacrifice never appears in the Yiddish.

3 “Those who observed it in the past and those who observe it today do so because of a recognition that blood is necessary for true atonement to occur.” (http://mysterysolvedwithmessiahjesus.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/reflections-on-the-kaparot-prayersacrifice/ )