Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Swingin' religion!
Not what you think.
Heard this Saturday morning on Weekend Edition, and about split a gut:
Rabbi Shea Hecht plucks a chicken off a truck parked behind a synagogue in Queens, N.Y., and demonstrates how to swing a chicken.
"You take it by the wing," says the white-haired Hecht, careful not to get the chicken's feathers or anything else on his black suit and tall black hat. "You put one wing over the other wing. See? It's very relaxed. And you swing it very softly over your head like this."
Hecht holds the bird, waves it three times above his head, and says the prayer of Kapparot (or Kapparos, depending on heritage). He prays that his sins will be transferred to the bird and he will escape the divine punishment that he deserves. The prayer is more than 1,000 years old, and countless Orthodox Jews will recite it in the days before Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, which begins at sundown Sunday. Hecht says waving the chicken isn't the point of this ritual.
"The main part of the service," he says, "is handing the chicken to the slaughterer and watching the chicken being slaughtered. Because that is where you have an emotional moment, where you say, 'Oops, you know what? That could have been me.' "
But then, if you eat the chicken, don't you re-absorb the sins?
Jim Downey
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But this is totally different...
... from Voodoo, right?
I mean, Voodoo is just a bunch of _superstitious_ rituals fused with Christianity, whereas _this_ ritualised animal sacrifice that invokes the law of contagion is a totally respectable _religious_ belief with a proud historical tradition.
Or am I missing something?
I now have the strange mental image of an Orthodox Rabbi with his eyes rolled back in his head, twitching and staggering around as he's "ridden" by Papa Legba, a bottle of Rum in one hand and tobacco leaves in the other.
Ah, there's
a good image for a chuckle, Crosius!
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Not just chickens
But goats as well. If I'm not mistake, didn't the Israelites of the OT send a 'scape goat' with the sins of the nation off into the wilderness to be delivered to Satan?
And if the imputation of sins actually works in this way, could one pass their sins to say, a gerbil or mouse? One could keep a stock of mice on hand and transfer their sins immediately, as soon thereafter as possible after commission.
Of course, even that is still more troublesome and time consuming than saying a few Hail Marys and Our Fathers. If you ask me, the orthodox Jews got the shaft on the 'getting rid of sin' deal.
*puzzled look*
So, sin is a thing that can be physically "transferred"?
Is it deeply spiritual, philosophical, and theological act that transcends mere mortal thought and touches the mind of G*d?
Or, is it simply a stone-age superstitious ritual of sympathetic magic, not so far removed from what the Aztecs used to do when they sacrificed their fellow human beings to Quetzalcoatl?
So hard to decide.
Hence the phrase
sinfully delicious?
Frank Moorman, skeptic
"what is the point of giving persons Freedom of Speech... if you then say they must not utilize same? And is not the Power of Speech the greatest Power of all? Then surely it must be exercised to the full." --Salman Rushdie
Should Have Guessed
We should have guessed: Sin tastes like chicken!
ROTFL!!!
I need to use that line on some of my Orthodox Jewish friends, although most engage in tashlich (throwing bread on the waters) and not chicken-flinging.
Bwahahahaha!
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Yummmm...
Aren't sinful things supposed to taste better?
No, see ...
... someone else eats the chicken and absorbs your sins! Quick and easy way to transmit them - mo muss (well, a little), no fuss. Step right up ... !