How do you do Kaporos?

rainbow baby

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 5:11 am

So this morning we got up, yes everyone at 5:30 to go to Kaporos. Well that's a lie dh got up at 5 to go to the Mikvah. I was just wondering what people use for Kaporos as some people us chickens like we do or money.
Does anyone else use anything else.

de_goldy

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 5:39 am

We use chickens. The next best thing is to use fish but I've never heard of anyone doing that! (I've always wanted to try it). And then comes money. One year I was in a place with no chickens and we had to use money. It felt so strange - not like kapparos at all. But for ppl who have never used chickens I can imagine how strange that would feel!!

mom3boys

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 5:56 am

Chickens. DH goes to shul, picks them up and brings them home. Kids don't have to be up for long and don't have to get dressed. This is our third year doing it this way, and I love it.

In fact we finished about 15 minutes ago, all the boys are back to bed and the house is dark and quiet again. It's just the baby and I uploading the pics and nursing.

supermom

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 6:00 am

We do both chickens and money depends on the year. Like this year my daughters and son went and well my dh and I are going to be doing it on money.

de_goldy

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 6:27 am

I'm so curious. How do you do it? Do you keep the fish in a bag with water? Do you hold it by its tail?

amother

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 8:02 am

This is my first Yom Kippur pregnant so it's the first time I've ever done the 'Kaparot for a pregnant woman'.

We use money, the amount was CHAI and I used twice Chai.

It's silly, but I almost started crying...

I'm glad we don't use chickens... having three flapping over my head would not have been fun, and since we're not telling people yet, those present would have known.

amother

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 8:40 am

I have a question.
For those who live in areas where chickens ARE accessible, why would you use money?

BeershevaBubby

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 8:56 am

Well.. there's no halacha that says it has to be chickens, so even if it is accessable, someone might prefer to use money.

It can also be done at home without first having to go out and get the chickens.

And as someone stated, if a woman is pregnant but isn't say anything yet, doing Kaporot with multiple chickens is generally a giveaway.

rainbow baby

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 9:01 am

How I got out of that was by holding my baby son and doing it with him at the same time. We only get three chickens, one for the three boys one for me and one for my dh. If we got any more we would be spending a fortune that we cannot afford.

Rivki so how do you do Kapporas with a goldfish we were discussing this just now at lunch?

bandcm

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 9:27 am

Rifky we also live in a place with no shochtim but my husband was insistent, he brought down 2 shochtim and we did kaporos with the community, our workers thought we had gone mad, and they are now terrified of us!

Raisin

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 10:57 am

Thge crazy thing is is that we had 2 shochtim by us for shabbos, but we did not know in advance and they didn't have their knives with them, so for once we could have done it with chickens if we would have known.

We put the fish in a bag or a cup of water, and swing it round our head. We get the type of fish that you can tell which is male and female.

ShiraMiri

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 11:06 am

Chickens. A few times we have done money. However, we were taught that if pregnant, you use 2 chickens - one boy and one girl. The girl chicken can count for both me and the baby. Maybe that's why I have so many boys?

Rolling Laughter

healthymama

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 11:13 am

Why does a pregnant woman do kappors for the unborn child- does it have sins ? I always wondered about that.

ShiraMiri

Sun, Oct 01 2006, 11:42 am

healthymama wrote:

Why does a pregnant woman do kappors for the unborn child- does it have sins ? I always wondered about that.

It seems to be more for any sin the mom might have done that affected the fetus:

http://mikvah.org/inside.asp?id=213

[The question is asked - why would an unborn fetus require any atonement? It is explained that if the mother ate a forbidden food while pregnant, this would have been transformed into her own blood and flesh and for this atonement is required - as the food becomes blood in the woman's heart and also in the hart of the fetus.]

shalhevet

Mon, Oct 02 2006, 1:48 pm

amother wrote:

I have a question.
For those who live in areas where chickens ARE accessible, why would you use money?

There are those who hold that today it is preferable to use money.
1. If you use money you can do kapparos on the morning on erev YK which is often not possible with a chicken.
2. Because of the large quantities of chickens being schechted at the same time there is likely to be pressure on the schochtim, which can lead to shailas with the schechita.
3. It is better to give money to poor people than chickens (for embarrassment reasons, although some people do with chickens and give the value to tzedaka).

shira

Mon, Oct 02 2006, 2:21 pm

amother wrote:

I have a question.
For those who live in areas where chickens ARE accessible, why would you use money?

Its a Minhag. The most true to the minhag is to use chickens but its not necessary at all. My husband is so nervous that the chicken is going to poop on his head, he holds that its not kedai- can't even concentrate on what he's saying! So, we live in E"Y where there are chickens available on almost every block, and we use money.

shanie5

Mon, Oct 02 2006, 11:53 pm

money. never chickens (though they are accessible here.
my sis uses chickens and one year one threw up on her............talk about ewwwwwwwwwwwww shock