The annual pre-Yom Kippur attack on the minhag of "Kapparos" is coming early this year..
Kikar is reporting that the Ministry of Agriculture is set to ban slaughter in the streets. Anybody who performs a shechita in the streets anyways, will have the rest of his chickens confiscated and will be fined to the tune of 730 NIS.
In Jerusalem the veterinary services have warned all the slaughterhouses and businesses that normally operate the kapparos centers around the city. They will not be allowed to bring the chickens/roosters/hens from the coop to the streets. They have to be brought from the coop to the slaughterhouses - straight.
One of the complaints against the new directive is that the Muslims are allowed to slaughter sheep on their holidays and nobody put an end to that, but they decide to suddenly ban and put an end to a Jewish customs hundreds of years old!.
The Ministry of Agriculture responded saying that they will soon issue instructions explaining how the minhag of kapparos can be performed according to all the relevant health standards and proper treatment of animals.
I wonder if the new directive only applies to slaughtering in the streets, or also on private property. Maybe they could use schools and shuls courtyards, or parking lots of buildings that are willing to allow it... when they slaughter so many chickens in the street it always reminds me we live in the Middle East. Israel strives to be more like a developed Western country, but we are not that dissimilar from countries like Jordan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq and the like...
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