Whispers with chickens...

Last Wednesday, I received the most unbelievable joy in accompanying the LGA Kitah Gan (Kindergarten) over to one of the student's houses to witness a young person's version of kapporot. For those of you who don't know what kapporot is. It is the ancient tradition at Yom Kippur where a person seeks atonement for their sins via a chicken. The chicken from what I understand is waved above a person's head and the following blessing is recited: "This is in exchange for me, this is instead of me, this is my atonement. This Rooster (or Hen) shall go to its death, and I shall enter in and go to a good, long life and to peace."

Now, I am sure some people are thinking how could we teach a class of 5 and 6 year olds about killing another living thing and rest assured nothing was killed last Wednesday. As a matter of fact, quite the opposite happened. We spent the afternoon really respecting animal life!

The Gan faculty taught the kids an age-appropriate version of kapporot. Their lead teacher, Amy approached me about doing this and explained that Rabbi Susan Schnur explained to her a modern-day approach to kapporot which involves whispering things you want to atone for from the past year into a chicken's ear therefore confiding all of your "sins" in a chicken, who the last time I knew would keep your secrets quite safe.

On a beautiful and cloudless day, the entire class caravanned over to their classmate's house in the center of Northampton. Now while I have explained that the valley is more or less a rural place, there are many parts that are quite built up especially nearer to the town center. Houses are close together and you are in the middle of a densely populated neighborhood (for where we live). So there we were traipsing through the back yard to a chicken coop where our confidantes lived.

Mr. W explained to the class about the chickens and allowed the class to pet them. Rabbi Riqi came and helped the kids contextualize what they were about to do. And then one by one, each student (and the adults!) whispered in the chicken's ears. After the confessional was complete, there was a tzedekah box for us to put a few pennies in the pushke. Our youngest students most definitely had an experience they won't forget any time soon. For them, Judaism was brought alive in a completely different way. They interacted with an ancient ritual in a completely age-appropriate yet significant and creative way. Thank you Rabbi Schnur for sharing your ritual with our LGA kindergartners!

I can only imagine the stories those three chickens told each other later that day. I sure hope my secret is safe with them!