Animal Rights Campaign Over Killing Chickens During Jewish Ritual
Dear friends around the world,
As most of you know, I have always been a strong advocate of animal cruelty and vegetarianism. Please take a moment and read this short article of how animals are treated inhumanely for our needs. I am not here to criticize but certainly sins can be atoned in another manner where animals do not need to be hurt?
Different religions have their own ways doing things and I certainly do not have the authority to say which is right and wrong. In Buddhism, we are taught not to hurt animals because they are sentient beings too who can feel love and pain.
Please always respect and do whatever we can to help the animals.
Tsem Rinpoche
Animal Rights Protesters Vent Their Fury at Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Chicken Slaughter Ritual ‘Kaporos’ Where $5 Birds Are Swung Around Participants’ Heads Before Having Their Throats’ Slit
By HANNAH PARRY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 06:11 GMT, 22 September 2015 | UPDATED: 16:18 GMT, 22 September 2015
- WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
- Demonstrators clashed with Orthodox Jews at the annual slaughtering of chickens as part of the Kaporos ritual
- The birds are waved around the believer’s head three times before being killed to cleanse them of their sins
- But protesters claimed the practice is ‘cruel’ and picketed the religious ceremony in Brooklyn’s streets, New York
- It comes days after a group of animal rights activists lost a legal battle to ban the 2,000-year-old ritual from taking place
Animal rights campaigners have clashed with members of the Orthodox Jewish community on the streets of New York City over the killing of tens of thousands of chickens during a Jewish ritual.
Demonstrators were calling for an end to the annual slaughter of the poultry for Kaporos in the run up to the holiest day in the Judaism calendar – Yom Kippur.
The ritual dictates that believers swing a live bird over their head three times while reciting prayers to God to cleanse them of their sins by transferring them to the animal. The chicken’s throat is then slit with the meat donated to the poor.
But animal rights groups, who claims as many as 50,000 animals were due to be killed over Sunday and Monday evenings, denounced the practice as ‘disgraceful’ and lined the streets in Crown Heights, Brooklyn to protest against the ritual.
Tensions ran high as around 200 Orthodox Jews and 75 protesters faced each other in President Street and Kingston Avenue.
Activists chanted and waved banners as they demanded an end to the ‘cruel’ practice, calling for them to ‘use money, not chickens’. While others activated their car alarms in an attempt to disrupt the religious ceremony.
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/ActivistProtestsRitualKillingOfChickens.mp4
One unnamed protester was alleged to have made anti-Semitic remarks.
There were also alleged reports of Hasidic men intentionally and aggressively bumping into protesters. So far, it appears no arrests have been made.
In one photograph an Orthodox Jew was seen aggressively giving the finger to activist Rina Deych as she films him performing the ritual.
She told the Daily News she was trying to persuade people that they could follow Jewish law by donating money instead of killing chickens when she was approached by the man.
‘(Another) man tried to put a poor, tortured chicken on my head and two others cursed at me,’ she said, adding that the street was left with ‘feces and feathers were everywhere on a public sidewalk and the stench was overpowering.’
One activist later wrote on Facebook she had ‘rescued’ two chickens from the slaughter.
The protest comes just days after a group of Brooklyn residents lost their court battle to try and ban the 2,000-year-old ritual over fears it was inhumane and unsanitary, the New York Post reported.
The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos had attempted to gain an injunction against the ceremony in state Supreme Court, arguing it had grown into a ‘carnival-like and chaotic public nuisance.’ They also alleged that the dead birds were not donated to the poor but were instead left to rot in the street.
Nora Constance Marino, the activists’ lawyer, said:
‘Many of the children cry and sob. The screams of the chickens, as their wings are broken and their throats are slit, are unbearable.
‘As the children cry to their parents as the birds scream, the parents tell the children, ‘They’re not screaming, they’re singing’. Sickening.’
However, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Debra James dismissed the local activist group’s claims and ruled that the Orthodox practice can proceed, knocking down a challenge by a Brooklyn animal-rights group.
‘No one has the right to change our religion, and this ruling proves we can’t be touched,’ Yossi Ibrahim, 27, from the Hasidic enclave of Crown Heights, told the New York Times.
However, the case is not over as the Community News Service reports another court hearing is due next month to deal with the other allegations of illegalities connected to the practice of kaporos.
National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education, NCFJE, Chairman Rabbi Shea Hecht told the Community News Service that it had been his father, Rabbi JJ Hecht OBM, who had brought the mostly forgotten custom back to the Jewish community in Brooklyn – at $5 a chicken for the cleansing ritual.
‘NCFJE is and has always been strongly committed to making kaporos available to the greater Jewish community in and around New York City,’ he said.
He added that Monday’s event had been for men only and tarp screens had been erected during the ritual on Eastern Parkway.
The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur starts Tuesday at sundown.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3244234/Animal-rights-protesters-vent-fury-ultra-orthodox-Jewish-chicken-slaughter-ritual-5-birds-swung-participants-heads-having-throats-s-slit.html#i-6ffc05a474cbff24
For more interesting information:
- Crimes Against Animals the World Doesn’t Want You to Know About
- Marc Ching Shows Us The Way
- Earthlings
- Gadhimai – A Holy Festival?
- These Dying Dogs Need Your Help Urgently
- Heroes Behind the Scenes
- Desensitized?
- Toro Jubilo
- Conveyor Belt of Death
- Chickens capable of empathy
- Australia’s Secret Shame
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
Animals show love for humans! Cow, lions, apes, dogs, bears, parrots and more can all be very affectionate and show surprising emotions when it comes to expressing their love for people. An emotional animals hugging humans video.
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videouploads/comment-1546455946.mp4
It’s horrible act that so many chickens were killed during a supposedly holy session. They can use other methods that do not hurt the birds. While we should respect everyone’s religion I also hope that no other living being needs to go through pain and suffering due to human’s act.
Traditions are part and parcel of every culture and are passed down through the years for different reasons. Whilst traditions clearly serve certain purposes, it must be remembered that traditions are essentially man made set of practices and thus, the staying power of such traditions are clearly dependent upon people upholding it. As such, when the situation warrants it, like where maybe (insanely) brutal traditions that may have started out with good intentions but are actually no longer justifiable now (due to changes in time and also, as people become more learned and informed), such traditions can and ought to be phased out accordingly. Thus, it is a matter of whether people want to effect the change or not.
It has been done in the past (e.g. First Chinese Emperor Qin phased out the brutal tradition of requiring all those directly serving the deceased previous emperor to be buried (alive) together). It has also been done fairly recently, in 2015, Nepal opted to end the world’s largest animal sacrifice event, Gadhimai festival i.e. The Gadhimai Temple Trust formally decided to end such animal sacrifice.
So, there is actually nothing wrong about re-evaluating the relevance of traditions which cause harm to any sentient beings especially those who are helpless. All it takes for people to set aside pride and defensiveness to look into and evaluate the situation rationally.
After all, when people motivated by universal good values of compassion and kindness seek to transform cruel traditions, they don’t risk losing their identity. Instead, their identity is strengthened as they courageously show that their culture cannot be measured by the repetition of stagnating rituals/practices frozen in time by values of the past.
Animals shouldn’t be killed and used for selfish needs of man. They did nothing to deserve to die. For this instance, 10,000 chickens killed during a Jewish ritual which is definitely will not happen in Buddhism. This is because we are taught to be kind to all sentient beings including animals as they can feel love and pain too.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
I think the benefits of living in a multicultural society is that sometimes we encounter people who do things that we may not agree. Of course in the US, when people encounter things they don’t like or support they are bound to take action on it.
With regards to this, if I lived in a community and people are slitting chicken throats where I live I may protest against it too. One of the biggest supporter of veganism is Gary Yourofsky also of the Jewish faith, and he claimed that people exacted genocide over animals, and that is happening on a daily basis. Couldn’t agree more.
This is indeed an eye opening post. While I do not understand the rationale behind this practice, I do welcome the opportunity to learn about other faiths. After all, it is the diversity that enables us to practice patience, acceptance and being non-judgemental about others.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. Although this ritual is 2,000 years old it is still cruel to kill chickens as a scarifice to the gods and the fact that the children`s parents lie to their kids saying that the chickens are singing. The person might have a lot of bad karma.
Thank you Rinpoche for this article. We know we cannot and do not have the rights to say anything about other religions but in Buddhism we understand that sins cannot be wash away with just one ritual. We have a lot to do for the sins that we created for example purification practices and to do more Dharma work.
With folded palms,
Vivian
I agree with the Rabbi. This practice is cruel and outdated and should be banned. If people believe in karma, they would not sacrifice animals. It is better to donate money instead.
For me. Any rituals or religion that need to make animals as sacrifices is not religion. Religion doesn’t teach any to harm anyone. It is something illogical to make animal suffer and die for the sake of rituals. We are doing the rituals which is supposed to cultivate benefit ourselves but yet in the process we are harming others.
All these should end especially in these days of era where people can think more logical and gauge themselves. It is something similar to the mass killing of dolphins, eating monkey brains alive etc.
Taking others life (even is an animal) to make yourself better, does this sound logical? Just has a role play that if you are the chicken, how do you feel? All animal has pain and love just like many of us love our dogs and when sometime feel sad when they are sick. Chickens also have feeling otherwise they would not scream when humans treated them badly.
There are many ways to clean our sins, release other from their suffering by care, by donation and many others ways taught by the religious. I personally y feel that cruel to the animal is just enforcing our cruel and this can’t bring any peace to the world. Please stop all these animals sacrifice .
How one pays homage or purify their sins is up to what is taught in their religion. It is their right and part and parcel of their religion so long as no one has to suffer for it. In any case of animal sacrifice, it the the animals that faces the suffering of fear and death. If it is an alien race’s religion to sacrifice humans, then and only then humans wake up. Until then every step taken to stop sacrifice of animals will meet with resistance. Humankind has had that practice for too long.
I do agree that in these days of age, we must have freedom of choice & everyone is free to make his or her choices in whatever practices that they wish to do. However, slitting the throat of a life chicken to take away our sins sounds very much unbelievable & illogical too. In buddhism, we believe in non killing & all living beings have feeling & can feel pain, the act of killing itself is a negative actions, how can a negative action produce a positive results? This is like saying the universal law of karma doesn’t exist. I am not making a judgement or criticise the practice of other’s belief but i do think that on such auspicious day, we should carry out virtuous activities rather than such cruelty to animals to clear our sins.
Dear Rinpoche,
That is so out of our mind , by right when celebrate a holy day is suppose to be full of love and kindness but it end for the practitioner to commit a crime of killing the innocent animals, that is such a bad idea by right religion practice should teach us to be kind and compassion so please stop all these animals sacrifice because it really very inhuman.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing the article and surface out the sufferings and pain which thousands of chickens had to go through before they were tortured and killed brutally. The Jewish Kaporos ritual will only implant more seeds of hatred, angersome and malice into the organizers’ mind and all the participants’ mind as these chickens were screaming in pain during their final moments of death. The entire ritual does not seem to have cleansed one’s sin with the cruelty acts but only induce more sins among the organizers as well as the participants who supported on this ritual. How on earth by taking the animal’s life can purify one’s sin?
I truly hope and pray that the Jewish Kaporos ritual will be stopped and banned permanently as this ritual is against the animals rights in the first place and secondly, there is no conscience to torture and kill animals in order to purify one’s sin. There are many types of religious practices, charity and social work activities which we can participate if we really want to purify our sins or past wrong doings, but not taking the lives of animals. Let’s be more caring and fill up our mind with compassion and love for others.
With folded hands,
kin hoe
There are some religions that have the practice of slaughtering animals to atone for their own sins. It makes me wonder how that logically works. Is it that easy? Kill a chicken or goat or cow and all your bad deeds are wiped off the slate overnight? It’s like saying you’ll make someone else suffer for your sins and you don’t need to take responsibility for them.
They do it without guilt. They seem to do it thinking it is the right thing to do because their religion or sect says so and it is easy enough to follow.
This Koporos ritual reminds me of Yulin dog meat festival and other similar customs, when it comes to animal rights campaigners vs tradition/custom/religion and so forth, it’s always lots of obstacles to overcome, because it has interwined with another’s religion, custom or practice which has practiced for so many decades.
For Koporos ritual, it involves Jewish who is not minority in America in term of their influence and social status, and given the complexity and sensitivity of anti-semetic history..the campaign to urge to stop the ritual surely not an easy one. As for others long-practiced ritual or customs which involves animal cruetly and such to be stopped, it must definitely not doing by force, it should be always starts from education and awareness. It’s just like fighting to abolish the slavery system, it took long time to see changes, for in the process it will involves fighting against mainstream culture, some cololonization practice, economy structure of that time, racial issues and so forth.
Many have putting in effort for more to have awareness about love and kindness is some core values which we should have in our life, so to create a more loving and happy planet to live harmoniously along with our environment, human, and non-human like animals and so forth.. This day will surely comes 🙂
I am really shocked to hear that such rituals still occur nowadays.
Chickens are beings which have feelings, which means that they can feel pain, love, hate ETC ETC…
How can your sins be purified by taking another being’s life? Instead of purifying your sins you create even more sin due to the cruelty involved in the ritual!!
We need to understand that by taking another beings life we will never achieve our goals..
I really hope that the Jews will stop taking lives for granted and stop the mass murders of chickens.
謝謝Rinpoche的分享。在世的眾生都會有感覺,包括小動物也能感覺痛苦。人類在眾生當中,是最有智慧的,我們能夠獨立思考,分辨是非。所以,在具備天生的良好條件,我們應該在能力範圍內,給予弱勢的小動物救助,善待動物。
老舊的傳統宗教文化和儀式,存有很多不人道和迷信,這包括殺害小動物來完成拜祭儀式。在現今的社會,我們走向文明,自由民主,和個人權益。在眾生都是平等的原則上,是時候把傳統觀念糾正過來,採用符合現代價值觀的方式來進行宗教儀式,這樣可以避免無辜的小動物受苦,我們也能夠累積善因。謝謝。
We must help to lessen or prevent ceremonies like this from happening without forcing these people through campaign to create awareness and through education program about animal cruelty in shopping malls, social media and in school. Therefore more know about the ritual/tradition brings sufferings to animals. However we should not focus on telling then their religion is wrong and ours is right. We could also exchange our views with Jewish friends in schools or online about the animal cruelty & respect all sentient beings.
This actually makes me so sick. I cannot believe that people are still doing such terrible acts and “rituals” in the name of religion these days. This is such extreme cruelty and mass murder. It is even stated in the article that people can give money instead of killing the chickens and it is said that this ritual is not needed to “clear sins”.
These kind of things need to stop. It is so sad and cruel to keep doing this to living things. They are in extreme fear and trauma before they are brutally and terrible killed. It is so horrible. Why? Please… We need to cleanse this earth from acts like this that make me feel ashamed to be human.
As Rinpoche always teaches us with empathy – No one wants to suffer; To feel pain; or to die. To make them suffer, feel painful and killing them will invite the same fate. Karma is blind to race, creed, religion, background, status and understanding. It is universal! Never harm or do anything hurtful. Karma is said to be always recording our deeds! This was the main reason which made me to become a vegetarian. I had no regrets since. Rinpoche had shown us recording of research showing that chickens are capable of feeling empathy which scientists had proof to believe its true!
Thank you for highlighting to us once again that we do not need to kill ANYTHING to CONNECT with the DIVINE. I particularly liked the video of a rabbi who spoke out against Animal Cruelty and that there is no need to hurt or kill any animals to make “God” happy. I think that is the moral of the story. No matter what religion you follow, I think all religion teaches kindness and compassion. Hence, shouldn’t that compassion be extended to animals too? After all they too have the right to be on this planet and have happiness just like us humans.
This blog post is not so much about Jewish, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Chinese, or whatever, it is about the very act of killing something to gain one’s peace, prayers answered, wishes fulfilled is not right. Why is it not right, because the very act of “killing” which is taking away someone’s life is negative, so how can all that pain, negative and hurt cause something positive in return for one. If it did, it would be very strange kind of God, or it is just short lived, just for that particular wish to come true and then you will need to sacrifice more and kill more. Hence, the yearly massacre. But in reality we actually do this killing every single day whether we believe in a God or no God, because we choose to eat meat. We are actually no different and in fact worst than those that sacrifice once a year, because we do EVERY DAY and we believe it is our right. We sacrifice them for our SELVES which is even worst. It’s not even for a “God”.
Hence the point is this… no killing for oneself to eat or for God is justifiable. Killing is killing and the karma for that is still heavy and it will return to us. And this negative act of killing will never wash away our sin. negative + negative = negative not positive, although my math is bad, but I think this makes logical sense. Hence, we must continue to educate people in may ways why it is just not logical.
Also I find it amazing to see so much rage and anger from those who wants to kill, this is across the board, in slaughter houses, in any race/religion. It only seems logical to think (based on Buddhist principals) that the energy of killing creates so much negative energy that it comes back to the person, making them aggressive, cold, heartless, they become more angry and more brutal as the act of killing is so brutal towards the animals. So the karma on them is therefore brutal and extremely negative.
Only Jewish Ritual? How about the even bigger animal sacrifice of Muslim Haji’s ritual? Every year all of the Muslim country, lamb cow camel etc been killed cruelty globally on this day, and your site still kept silence of it?!
Dear Never Bias,
One of this blog’s functions is to share the information with people, this article is just one of those articles that are meant to educate people about things happening around the world.
Take for an example, if the blog shares an article about an incident of animal cruelty, it does not mean the blog is responsible to share every single article/ news/ information about animal cruelty that’s happening every day around the world. Of course, we will do our very best to spread awareness on animal cruelty.
Please understand this is just to educate the public, do feel free to visit the Animals and Vegetarianism section- https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/category/animals-vegetarianism for more information. Thank you 🙂
Dear Never Bias,
Thank you for your comment on tsemrinpoche.com. However, please do not be offended by this post. We are not here to highlight any particular race or religion but rather the cruel act of animal abuse, torture and animals being harmed/killed. Just like what Ms. Beatrix said, this blog post main focus and education is on Animal Cruelty. It does not mean we are biased and only showcase a certain group and not another because that is never been our agenda.
It is not about Jewish or Muslim that we are highlighting, it is the animal cruelty act itself. Our aim is to spread awareness on animal cruelty as much as possible, though we may not be able to cover every single one of them that happens daily. Our believe and motto is EVERY sentient being on this planet deserves happiness. Thank you and I hope you do explore the diverse categories on this blog.
Dear Never Bias,
I agree with you. Please highlight this to PETA and other animal rights group to do something about it. A more effective way is also write in to the many governments where they have large muslim communities to create awareness and your plea. I believe all religious animal sacrifice should be stopped.
Many religions in the world demand sacrifice of animals in their rituals. Either as offerings or to cleanse the practitioners’ sins. I find it a questionable why are the animals need to be the sacrifice. Does it really appease their Gods? I mean, if their Gods are enlightened without self-grasping then why would need the death of another being to please them? If the God is pleased with blood or death, then what is the difference between this God and a ghost, a vampire or even a pontianak? Sorry I am not being offensive but just curious.
And if the animals were to atone their sins, then why don’t they bear the responsibilities of their own sins rather than cast it onto the poor animal who had to lose its precious life without consent. If the people had not committed the sins, then there will not be any need to commit the sacrifice right? And how does the sin get transferred onto another beings when the action of sinning was by the human. Isn’t killing also another sin? Customs of the past sometimes should be re-examined to check for faultless reasoning before passing it on to the next generation. No one should interfere with another’s person’s religious practice but when it encroached upon the lives of another being, are we not allowed to question?
This reminds me of the Dorje Shugden practitioners having to face persecution from the Central Tibetan Administration (government of Tibetan-In-Exile) and the Anti-Shugdens. The Shugden practitioners faced fear everday of abuses, threats and persecution daily. They are denied their basic rights to practice their religion in peace, denied their rights to, denied travel papers, denied medical aid, financial aid denied schooling for their children, etc. The Shugden practitioners don’t even sacrifice animals for their rituals so why are their rights taken away?
Thank you Rinpoche for your eye-opening article of the bloody customs of another religion. May we learn to practice real love and kindness to all, including animals that also seek happiness.
Yes, however, you look at it, holding the chicken in a vice and then swinging over the head three times, must have put the chicken in great pain and terror. Then amid the pain and terror, its throat is brutally slit! How horrendous and cruel!The the chicken is thrown into a cone and left to rot!
As there is an alternative – using money instead of slitting the throat and killing the chicken, why can’t this more humane practice be followed?
Don’t these chickens have feelings? For sure they do!It is to be hoped that this practice will not endure. The cruelty of it all and the pain inflicted are too much and needless too.
Very sad ….the orthodox practice of 2,000 year old ritual still exist. The orthodox Jewish community believe the annual ritual will cleanse their sins, thats inhuman.Killing it self is a sin, no matter how much they do in this ritual, the sin will always be there. Its just a belief that runs down from their ancestors. Animal Rights Campaign did a good job trying to stop and calling for an end to the annual slaughter over chickens. Even though they lost,i do hope the activist will continue their campaign to stop the killing of chickens during Jewish Ritual.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this.
This is horrifying and sad. Why such cruelty ?
The suffering is so terrible.
I am not in any position to comment on the ritual of another faith but the suffering and pain caused onto the poor chickens is too apparent to be ignored. Something deeper had eluded the whole process of this cleansing ritual is the cultivation of compassion and kindness towards all sentient beings, including chicken as well as fellow mankind. It does not feel right for someone to show vulgarity and arrogance when one is atoning one’s sin. Thank you Rinpoche for this article that reminds us that following ritual blindly without mind transformation is not spiritual.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing this information about this tradition in Judaism. It is very sad to see other men would actually believe that by swinging a bird over their head three times and then slit it’s throat can clear up their sins. I am fortunate to be born near dharma and in dharma now.
Delusions in samsara are very scary as they lead us on a path of no return. We create negative karma by acting on our delusions which in turn the negative karma created will create more delusions. It is a never ending cycle unless we apply dharma. I am truly fortunate to have dharma in my life.
Humbly,
Chris
Thanks Rinpoche and the writer team for sharing this.
Every living beings feel, no one likes pain and sufferings. I respect every culture has their own way in certain rituals, but how can the action of killing brings blessings or clears sins? The action itself is inflicting pain to another being and it’s already a sin; how does a sin clear another sin?
Same goes to Gadhimai festival, a sacrificial ceremony that was held every 5 years in Kathmandu, Nepal. Luckily the worldwide protests have been a great success and the “festival” has stopped since 2015.
I wish the protests on Kaporos gain victory one day by the continuous efforts. I agree very much that you can give money to the poor the gain blessing than to slit the poor chicken.
Thank you.