This is a drawing of a man performing the kapparot ceremony before Yom Kippur. The man is holding a prayer book in his left hand and a chicken in his right hand with the face of Tsar Nicholas II. The Hebrew text underneath the drawing read: “This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement” which is the central part of the kapparot ceremony. The phrase continues: “This chicken should go to its death and I shall proceed to a good, long life and peace.”
This satirical postcard can be viewed in various ways. It could be mocking the Tsar who was known for his bad treatment of the Jews. It could represent the problems of the previous year or express the wish that all of our sins and misfortunes be transferred to the Tsar just like they are transferred to the chicken in the kapparot ceremony. The card could also be suggesting that the fate of the Tsar should be like the fate of the chicken at the end of this ceremony.
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Kapparot – This ceremony takes place in the days leading up to Yom Kippur in some Jewish communities and involves the custom of swinging a chicken over one’s head to symbolically transfer one’s sins to the chicken. The chicken is then slaughtered, and the meat is donated to a needy family. An alternative option is to use coins wrapped in a handkerchief instead of a chicken and to then donate the money to charity. Over the years there has been much rabbinical discussion about to the performance of this ritual. There are those who object due to concern for the suffering of the animals; others worry that people will not truly repent if they know they can simply transfer their sins to an animal. While performing kapparot is not mentioned in the Torah or the Talmud, giving tzedakah (charity), especially during the ten days of repentance, is one of the three ways of doing teshuvah (repentance) along with prayer and fasting.
Yom Kippur – Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the Jewish year. The date of Yom Kippur is 10 Tishrei, and it marks the end of the ten-day period beginning with Rosh Hashanah which is called the High Holy Days and the Ten Days of Repentance. According to tradition, God evaluates each person’s life and writes their name in either the Book of Life or the Book of Death during the Ten Days of Repentance; on Yom Kippur, the books are sealed. While reflection and prayer take place throughout the ten days, Yom Kippur is the most solemn day, and it is traditional to pray, fast, and refrain from bathing and wearing leather shoes. It is also traditional to give tzedakah (charity), during this time period. Another unusual custom is wearing a tallit for all of the prayers, when it is usually only worn during the day, and in some communities men wear a special white robe named a kittel. There are five services on Yom Kippur, beginning with the Kol Nidrei prayer and the Maariv service in the evening. Prayers are resumed the following day with Shacharit (morning service) and the Musaf (additional service) which includes a description of the special ceremonies that took place in the Temple on Yom Kippur. Later in the day is the Mincha service, during which the Book of Jonah is read, and the day comes to close with the Neilah service, considered to be the final opportunity to ask God to be written in the Book of Life, which ends with the congregation saying the Shema and the blowing of the shofar.
Tsar Nicholas II – Nicholas II (1868–1918) was the last tsar of Russia and was killed, along with his wife and five children, by the Bolsheviks following the Russian Revolution. When Nicholas became tsar in 1894, the Jewish community had hopes that he would not be as anti-Semitic as his father, Tsar Alexander III, but they were soon disappointed. Nicholas faced many military struggles during his reign including the Japan War, the Russian Revolution, and World War I. He saw the Russian revolutionary movement as being a Jewish movement and took a very anti-Jewish stance, allowing and then perpetrating pogroms. Tsar Nicholas II’s relationship with the Jewish community led to the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Russia, many to the United States.
