Mitzvoth, Minhagim, and Their Dangers

In a previous essay I mentioned the dangers of useing chumrot (stringencies) to hide personal shortcomings. In a different sense we are also confronted with similar problems with how some people observe some well-established minhagim (customs), and even mitzvot.

Every morning, the Jewish male covers himself with a tallit, a prayer shawl which has at its four corners long tzitzit (threads), in which certain religious beliefs are represented. (This tallit should cover the entire upper body and not just be used as a shawl around one’s neck.) The proper way to don the tallit is first to cover one’s head with it, while keeping the face uncovered. Next, one takes the corners of the garment and moves them over the left shoulder. A common practice is to throw these corners with some force so as to make sure that the tzitzit will reach the back of the human body. Obviously, this should be done with care, making sure the person standing behind does not get hit by your tzitzit in his face or eyes. Unfortunately, this happens all too often in synagogues. At such a moment, a religious tragedy takes place of which many worshipers do not seem to be aware. In their attempt to fulfill a mitzva, they are, in actual fact, transgressing the law of being concerned about the welfare of one’s neighbor.

On other occasions, we find worshipers running to kiss the scroll of the Torah when it is removed from the Hechal (Aron ha-Kodesh, synagogue ark). In order to get there as fast as possible, or to make sure they will get close enough to be able to kiss it, they often push people aside or step on their feet. It would have been better if they had stayed where they were.

The Talmud calls such an act a “mitzva ha-ba be-avera” ([fulfilling] a commandment which comes with a transgression). In such a case, the mitzva has turned into an irreligious act and has lost all meaning.

One of the minhagim (religious customs) observed by the Ashkenazi community before Yom Kippur is the custom to shlog kappores. This is a custom mentioned by Rema, one of the most important commentators on the Shulchan Aruch of Rabbi Yosef Karo (who actually condemned the practice), and regarded as the main and decisive authority for Ashkenazi Jewry. The minhag of “kappores shloggen” is to take a live chicken and wave it around one’s head as a kind of symbolic atonement for one’s sins throughout the previous year. (It is reminiscent of the atonement sacrifices in the Temple, although not a replacement for these sacrifices.)

The obvious intent of the code is to do this very carefully, so that the chicken does not get hurt or scared. There is, after all, a law which states that it is absolutely forbidden to cause any unnecessary pain and anguish to an animal or any other creature; this biblical prohibition is called tza’ar ba’alei chaim.

Not uncommon is the sight of people, in their eagerness to fulfill this custom, picking the chicken up and mercilessly waving it around, scaring the chicken and often hurting it. Sometimes the chickens are kept in small plastic boxes, within a confined space, without adequate food or water. One wonders how these people can enter Yom Kippur in the right frame of mind. They seem to convince themselves that this mitzva will earn them even more merit in the eyes of the Almighty. I wonder if this does not invoke rather a different response from the Heavenly Court.

Perhaps it is time for kosher consumers to no longer just look for glatt kosher supervision, but also for “mercy glatt.” Too many animals are raised in inhumane conditions. While it will be difficult to change these conditions, and meat may become more expensive, rabbinical authorities should consider this possibility. Consumption of kosher meat from animals which are raised in these inhumane conditions, is, in the eyes of the Jewish Law, a contradiction in terms. When asked if he was a vegetarian for health reasons, Isaac Bashevis Singer replied, “Yes, for the chicken’s health.”