Are Kapparos Pagan?

probably

I’ll begin with a short disclaimer: don’t take anything I write in this blog post as the definitive truth on any subject, you should always do your own research and come to your own conclusions.

Before Yom Kippur it has become a common practice in many Ashkenazi communities to perform a ritual called “כפרות” (lit. atonements). This ritual¹ involves taking a chicken (or rooster depending on if the individual is male or female) and swinging it overhead while chanting “This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This rooster (hen) will go to its death, while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace.” The chicken is then supposed to be slaughtered and given to the needy.

Before getting into the origin story of this practice, in my mind even as a child there was always a very basic problem with this practice. Do we really believe that we are somehow exchanging our bad deeds of the entire year with this poor chicken and getting off scot free? Even further, what sort of G-d would entertain such a practice, let alone enshrine it to be performed before the holiest day in the Jewish calendar? I think if you were or are hearing about this practice for the first time, you would instinctively place it into a bucket with other aesthetically pagan and backwards practices.

To start, the ritual of Kapparos is not mentioned anywhere in the Torah, Prophets, or Biblical Writings. Neither is it found anywhere in the 37 volumes of the Talmud. So where exactly did this practice originate from?

Some argue that Kapparos were instituted after the Jews could no longer perform the Azazel ritual before Yom Kippur and therefore exchanged the goat sent into the wilderness for a chicken over the head. And from a simple reading of the verses this seems to make sense:

Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a designated man. Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.

(Vayikra 16:21-22)

But Maimonides makes it clear in his Guide for the Perplexed that this was not a functional practice but rather a symbolic one²:

The goat [of the Day of Atonement] that was sent [into the wilderness] (Lev. 16:20, seq.) served as an atonement for all serious transgressions more than any other sin-offering of the congregation. As it thus seemed to carry off all sins, it was not accepted as an ordinary sacrifice to be slaughtered, burnt, or even brought near the Sanctuary; it was removed as far as possible, and sent forth into a waste, uncultivated, uninhabited land. There is no doubt that sins cannot be carried like a burden, and taken off the shoulder of one being to be laid on that of another being. But these ceremonies are of a symbolic character, and serve to impress men with a certain idea, and to induce them to repent; as if to say, we have freed ourselves of our previous deeds, have cast them behind our backs, and removed them from us as far as possible.

(Moreh Nevuchim 3, 46:10)

The problem is that Kapparos seem to hold a functional value for those that practice it nowadays not a symbolic one as we see from the prayer that is said. Before we try to untangle the possible origins of this practice, I would like to present a brief section on ancient “scapegoating” practices to show just how common these practices were in pre and post biblical non-monothiestic religions and civilizations.

Zoroastrianism, which was the ancient religion of Persian people held a deeply dualistic conception of the world, where the forces of good (Ahura Mazda) and the forces of Evil (Angra Maniru) were locked in a constant struggle and human beings could affect this battle between good and evil by performing various sacrifices and rituals.

Here is an excerpt from a book written by Mary Boyce, considered the foremost authority on Zoroastrianism discussing the Varasyaji ritual of the Persians:

In the Varasyaji rite, a white bull was chosen because it represented purity and righteousness within Zoroastrian tradition. This bull was used in a complex purification ceremony, which involved the symbolic transfer of impurities onto the animal. By involving the purest of animals, Zoroastrians believed that the sins or impurities of an individual or community could be absorbed and then ritually cleansed through the death or expulsion of the bull. The white bull acted as a sacred intermediary in restoring cosmic and personal purity."

Keep in mind that Zoroastrian practice and belief is considered by some to go back close to 10,000 years,

Another example of a common scapegoating practice in the ancient near east comes from the Mesopotamian beliefs of the Babylonians and Assyrians. The ancient Babylonians and Assyrians bordered Israelites to the north. They believed in a polytheistic cosmology, whereas many gods were in control of various aspects of reality and each had to appeased. Here is Jean Bottero, a renokned expert on the ancient near east on the role of gods in the ancient near east:

"In Mesopotamian belief, the gods were neither distant nor indifferent to the plight of human beings. Rather, they were intimately involved in the running of the cosmos, governing the natural and social orders. Each god held authority over specific aspects of life, and their favor or wrath could directly impact the fortunes of individuals and communities. The need for constant ritual observance and sacrifice reflected the precariousness of human existence in a world where the gods' will determined fate."

What sort of rituals did they perform to appease their gods? Here is Thorkild Jacobsen, a Danish Mesopotamian historian to explain the Puh ritual, a ritual where an animal (generally a goat) would be used to transfer a person’s sins onto:

"The scapegoat in the puḫ ritual served as a physical vessel for the transference of guilt or ill fortune. The priest would recite incantations as the sins or impurities were placed upon the animal. Once the scapegoat had been marked by these transgressions, it would be either sacrificed to the gods as an act of expiation or sent into the wilderness, ensuring that the impurities were removed from the community."

Keep in mind that there is evidence of these rituals from pre-biblical times, dismantling the idea that these rituals could have been a cultural exchange from the Israelites.

There are tens of more examples from around the world of various ancient, usually pagan or polytheistic cultures performing similar sin transference rituals, so why exactly were Jews doing them?

The answer is that no one really knows, as we will see, even many of the Jewish sources that allow for Kapparos to be done were clearly uncomfortable with the origin of the practice.

Here are some of the Jewish sources related to the practice of Kapparos, bear in mind that the oldest source is from the late Geonic period, only 1300 years ago!

Teshuvot of Rav Shishna Gaon (9th century):

You have asked about the custom to slaughter a chicken on erev Yom Kippur, and we don't know why (or we don't know what text to attribute it to). You have also asked if there is a difference between using fowl and cattle, and this is also a difficulty....

Rashi wrote on a custom involving beans?! (Shabbat 81b):

This parpisah- It is a perforated flower pot in which people plant. In the responsa of the geonim I found that they made baskets with palm leaves and filled them with dust and dung. And 22 or 15 days before Rosh Hashanah they would make one of these for every minor in the home. And they would plant in it, Egyptian bean or another legume and they call it "porpisah". After it sprouts, on Rosh Hashanah, each takes his or her own and spins around his/her head seven times and says: "This is instead of this, this is my replacement, this is my exchange" and then flings it into the river.

but nothing on chickens.

Teshuvot HaRashba 1:295

Mar, the Master already wrote: I have found that this custom (kapparah) was widespread in our town, that they would slaughter an old chicken for the sake of atonement over a young man, they would cut its head and hang it by its feathers at the door with garlic. And this is nonsense in my eyes like the ways of the Ammorites. I've pushed this custom out and by the grace of Heaven, they listened to my word and none of these practices remain anymore in our city.

I have heard from different people from Ashkenaz who sit with us in the beit midrash (house of study) that all of the rabbis of their land do this on erev Yom Kippur...I still withheld this from our town.

The famous Shulchan Aruch, calling it a “foolish custom” that should be stopped (Orach Chaim 605:1):

That which [people] are accustomed to perform kapparah before Yom Kippur by slaughtering a rooster on each male and to say verses over it, you should prevent the custom ((and it is a foolish custom) removed from later editions)

The Rema fights back:

There are some geonim who listed this custom (as a proper custom) and likewise many of the aḥronim listed it thusly. And likewise it is the custom in all these lands,. and it is not to be changed because it is a custom of the pious.

Except that we can see that the Geonim that listed this custom said they were unsure of its origins.

Here is what is most likely going on in my opinion. Like some other very popular now Jewish rituals (Hint: Lag B’omer Bonfires) the origin of this practice lies outside of the Jewish tradition. So, what happened? Once the Jews begin spreading outside of the land of Israel after the destruction of the second temple there begins to be something of a cultural/religious exchange between the nations of the world and the Jews. This exchange is largely done by the non-learned/peasant class (as we can see from the total lack of discussion of this practice in the Talmud, the elite writings of the Jewish sages). For whatever historical reasons, this practice became very popular among the townsfolk of Ashkenaz. The Rema being the Posek Hador (legal scholar par excellence) was not comfortable condemning his entire community and therefore wrote that the practice could continue but you can see from the way he phrases his response to the Shulchan Aruch that he wasn’t necessarily excited to defend the practice, said that he was relying on older sources for backup, and went on to delineate a very specific way of performing Kapparos (probably to remove as much non-Jewish influence as possible)

If you are going to be waving a chicken over your head tonight, you now might know why!

1. This essay will specifically be addressing Kapparos with chickens

2. This piece from the Guide as well as the one on animal sacrifice should be the foundation of every Jews understanding of the Torah. Without them, the Torah remains a book that seems heavily influenced by outside polytheistic and pagan sources.