The Custom of Kaparot
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Question
What is 'Kaparot' and what is its significance?
Answer
This is a very ancient custom [mentioned in early sources about 900 years ago] where a rooster is taken before Yom Kippur and slaughtered as atonement.
The purpose of this is to awaken a person to repentance and to remind us that what is done to the rooster should have been done to the sinner. In the books of the Kabbalists, other aspects of this custom are mentioned according to the teachings of mysticism.
Source
Mordechai (Yoma, ch. 563), Piskei HaRosh (Yoma, ch. 8, sec. 23), Tashbetz Katan (sec. 125), Rashba (Responsa, part 1, sec. 395) and others.
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