Kaporos Pt. 2











Yesterday I returned to the community where Thursday's controversial photo was taken. I knew they would recognize me, but I was okay with it. They were truly surprised to see me again, but after talking to a few folks they were mostly ok with it. Hey, everyone understands making a dollar. I returned because I really want to see the chicken after slaughter, it's important to me to know that the chicken is actually used, not just discarded like so many have accused them. I waited an hour, which was pushed to 2 then to 3 hours so by the time they might have allowed me to observe, I was too tired. Maybe that was the tactic, maybe it wasn't. I don't know, but the gentlemen that was helping me was really trying. Maybe I should have stayed...







On my way home I stopped by the protest of The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos. A small-ish group of 30+ protestors who were drowned out by the sheer amount of folks out and about on a Sunday night in Crown Heights. Everyone was mostly respectful of each other, conversations were had with both sides defending their stance, some listened, most heckled. One elderly couple I spoke with didn't understand the controversy, especially in a world that eats a LOT of chicken. She used a chicken, he used coins. They were both vegetarians for a period of time after some bad chicken in Israel and witnessing the abuse of animals on a farm upstate... but that is easy to forget over time. If it hadn't been so dark by the time the protest started I'm sure they would have made a much larger impact.

I'm still not sure what to make of the ritual of Kaporos. In my heart, I wish this wasn't happening... but I do eat chicken. It's a hard reality when you see the animals we eat prior to a sterile package in the store. We need to respect all animals, whether we eat them or not... actually even more so if we eat them. They should live lives of honor, not cages of shame.

I’ve never read the Torah, nor the Bible, but the rituals of all religions intrigue me. From Bahia back to Brooklyn, I find myself using photography to understand our differences, I try not to judge but observe and learn. Tonight I found Kaporos in Borough Park.

This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement.

This rooster (hen) will go to its death, while I will enter and proceed
to a good long life and to peace.

               -The Complete Artscroll Machzor: Yom Kippur, p.4

Kaporos is a Jewish act of atonement during the week prior to Yom Kippur. Here is Wikipedia's definition from Shulchan Aruch on the practice of Kaporos:

On the afternoon before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement of the world, one prepares an item to be donated to the poor for consumption at the pre-Yom Kippur meal., recites the two biblical passages of Psalms 107:17-20 and Job 33:23-24, and then swings the prepared charitable donation over one's head three times while reciting a short prayer three times.

In Brooklyn, Kaporos started today and will go through the eve of Yom Kippur. That is a lot of poultry, some estimate 50,000 chickens. At one point today, there was an argument between a protestor and the man managing the chickens about what the Torah says or doesn’t say. I can’t get involved in that end of the discussion, my biggest concern was the waste. Did the chickens actually get slaughtered for consumption or not?



They swear to me that the chicken is used after the Kosher slaughter. One woman told me that the ticket that is attached to the leg before the ritual is so they can retrieve the chicken parts afterward to eat. Another woman told me that the chicken is all donated to feed the homeless. And yet the man managing the chickens told me that it all goes to the school to feed the kids and that if I wanted to witness, to come back at 7am. I just might. Although… I’m not much of a morning person.

After doing some research on the history and practice of using a chicken for atonement, I would find it strange that they would eat their own sins. According to one translation of the prayer, their sins are transferred to the animal. So, then, wouldn’t eating it retransfer those sins back to you? Or maybe that’s not how it works. They do have the option of using coins that would be collected afterwards for charity, which is far more simple and cleaner, so I don’t understand using a chicken. Again, I’m not anti-chicken ritual, I just don’t understand and until I see the reuse of the meat, I feel there are better options.

"I'll take money over culture any day..." - anonymous at the Moore Street Market in Williamsburg.
My heart collapsed for New York City...









Countries have lost their culture because what they wanted was money. Money became the running theme in every country and culture was sacrificed.
- Yoko Ono

We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that
is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today.
- Henry Ford

then light the fire.

It was too early to go home, but too late be so far, so I rode. Through the quiet of Queens into the life of Willyb, passing party after party I'm sure I should know about but kept riding until I passed a party I couldn't pass up. Just off of Kent Avenue on the south side of Willyb there was a party of another sort getting started, Lag Ba'ome - a bonfire celebrating the life and death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai. After a few pushes and shoves from the women, I eventually stood my ground and managed to capture the celebration. A bonfire built of pallets in the road only ending when the FDNY arrived to extinguish the flames.











even more on flickr, of course.

No Free Rides.

Bring on the leaves!










When I was a kid I loved to lay in the field amongst the leaves. Pile em up. Jump on them. Hide and scare Mom & Dad. All of it! So when I saw these kids in the leaves it made my day. I left the house a little lost, unsure where to go or what to do. It's been since August without a job so filling the days is getting harder and harder, thankfully this is New York and there is always something, just need to walk that extra block and say hello. Next thing you know you have 40 kids around you, throwing leaves, laughing and putting a smile back on the face.

play ball.



About 8 years ago I happened upon a baseball game in Williamsburg of young Hasidic men. It was a first for me and if you saw them play, a first for most of them. But it was amazing. The Hasidic community is seldom seen in the hipster side of Willyb and as an outsider, the Hasidic world seems very formal with no time for such things as baseball. So when I spotted them on the ball fields last night I had to stop. It was a friendly game between Williamsburg and Borough Park and other then the white shirts, hard to tell who was on what team. Their skills have certainly improved. As crazy as they thought I was photographing them, I think they liked it... well, some of them. -A slide show of more images here-