I’m not sure what’s stranger: The belief that swinging a chicken over your head before the start of Yom Kippur will somehow absolve you of your sins? Or the belief that a newborn baby has somehow transgressed enough that they deserve the fowl-flinging ritual of kapparot before they’ve even left their hospital cradle?
As The Forward reports, there’s some disagreement over where this video, uploaded to youtube by Yeshiva World News, was filmed, with some claiming it took place in the ultra-orthodox New York town of Kiryas Joel, and others claiming Israel. Either way, it’s hard to imagine what sort of hospital would allow a rooster in their maternity ward.
Swaddled baby. Swingin’ chicken. Befuddled everyone else.
[h/t Josh Nathan Kazis/The Forward]
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