Page 160 - Chayei Adam LAYOUT sivan 5782

Chayei Adam - K’lal 144 - Laws of Erev Yom Kippur

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night exhausted and don’t feel the knife. If people would listen to me, those
who don’t want to cancel this custom, are better off encircling their heads with
money. There is in fact a source for this as we find the early generations would
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encircle their heads with seeds. This is considered tzedaka, and they won’t
stumble in eating neveilah, God forbid. Certainly then, according to the custom, it
is proper to give [the chicken] to the poor or to redeem it and give the money to
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the poor. If someone wants and can, the best thing is to call the shochet to his
house early in the morning, and he will juxtapose semicha to shechita. He should
not, however, think that this achieves his atonement. Rather, he should think that
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he really deserves whatever happens to the chicken and that Hashem, in His
incredible mercy accepts his teshuva and fulfills the decree in [the slaughter of]
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the chicken. One also shouldn’t be particular to use white [chickens for]
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kaparos. It has become widespread among women not to use any other
chickens, and they pursue white chickens and pay a lot of money for them and
this a violation of darkei ha’Emori and following the rules of avodah zara. People
should be careful of this. Only if he happens to have the opportunity to buy
[white chickens] just as easily and for the same price, then he may buy them but

םדו רשב
the Mishna Berura who cites these words of each child in the family and plant beans in it a
the Chayei Adam. few weeks before Rosh Hashana. By erev Rosh
Hashana, the beans had sprouted and they
19. Which can impede the shochet’s ability would take each parpisa and encircle the head
to slaughter properly, rendering the chicken a of the corresponding child, declaring that “this
neveilah. should be in exchange for me, etc.” and then
toss it into the river. From here we see that
20. Chayei Adam’s note: As the Magen kaparos can be done with something other
Avraham writes in the name of Rashi than a chicken, and in this light, the Chayei
Shabbos 81b. Adam recommends using money which will be
The gemara there deals with the laws donated to tzedaka. The prevalent custom of
of moving a ‘parpisa’ on Shabbos which can those who don’t use chickens for kaparos, is to
potentially violate a Torah prohibition. Rashi use money instead.
explains what a parpisa is: The common
custom was to form a pot out of reeds for 21. For by slaughtering the chicken and

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