Once,
people would take a chicken before Yom Kippur, hold it over their heads,
and ask that the chicken be a substitute for them and receive all the
punishments that they deserve. Then they would cook the chicken and feed
it to poor people, who didn’t have enough food for se'uda hamafseket.
This was called kapparot, or atonement. People still do kapparot today,
though they generally use money instead of a chicken, then give the money
to poor people to buy food.
Once,
people would take a chicken before Yom Kippur, hold it over their heads,
and ask that the chicken be a substitute for them and receive all the
punishments that they deserve. Then they would cook the chicken and feed
it to poor people, who didn’t have enough food for se'uda hamafseket.
This was called kapparot, or atonement. People still do kapparot today,
though they generally use money instead of a chicken, then give the money
to poor people to buy food.