Christian Message Boards: READY FOR ATONEMENT

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Posted by MIGUEL ANGEL CHAPARRO (Member # 47) on :

THE NEW YORK TIMES

IN A RITUAL PERFORMED BEFORE YOM KIPPUR, WHICH BEGAN AT SUNDOWN LAST NIGHT, A MAN SWUNG A HEN OVER HIS DAUGHTER IN JERUSALEM. THE RITUAL EXPRESSES A RECOGNITION OF ONE’S SINS BEFORE THEY ARE TRANSFERRED TO THE HEN.

THIS IS CRAZY!!

Posted by helpforhomeschoolers (Member # 15) on :

Kaparot
It is an ancient custom to perform Kaparot before Yom Kippur. Kaparot can be performed any time between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur but the preferred time is just after dawn on the day before Yom Kippur.
The Kaparot ritual involves taking a chicken (a rooster for a man and a hen for a woman) or money in your right hand and revolving it over your head while reciting a prayer. The prayer finishes with the following declaration:

"This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This chicken will go to it's death (or, if using money, "this money will go to charity") while I will enter and proceed to a good long life, and peace."

The chicken is then slaughtered and it (or its cash value) is given to the poor.

The point of using a chicken is to show us the volatility of life. One minute the chicken is alive the next minute it's not. And if God had ruled by strict justice, our lives might have gone as fast as the chicken's!

This ritual is meant to symbolically express our recognition that we have sinned and are no longer deserving of life. By killing the chicken we are stating that, in truth, this should be our fate but that G-d has given us the opportunity to return to Him through teshuva and Yom Kippur.

It is important to realize that Kaparot is not a magical means of removing your sins. Only teshuva can do this. Kaparot is a way of inspiring and expressing teshuva.