Draw the line at an unholy ritual
Brooklyn: Thank you for publishing the excellent op-ed piece by Dr. Ethan Ciment (“Cancel the Kaporos chicken slaughter once and for all,” Sept. 18). Not only does this practice break 15 city and state laws, but it violates mandates and imperatives in the Torah and Talmud, not the least of which is tsa’ar ba’alei chaim. These chickens are packed into transport crates which are callously thrown to the ground when delivered, often breaking off the birds’ toes. The crates are stacked and remain that way for many hours or days. The birds have no access to food or water, and many die from dehydration, heat prostration, starvation or infection. The survivors are yanked out by their delicate wings (which often break) and swung around a practitioner’s head three times, then handed to a shochet (ritual slaughterer) who cuts their necks and throws them upside down into an inverted cone to choke on their own blood and die an agonizing death.
Aside from the heinous cruelty, this ritual provides perfect petri-dish conditions for the proliferation of harmful bacteria and viruses. The 18 generations of rabbis in my family never used chickens in the ritual, but rather a sack of money. How can the mayor and health commissioner allow this? Clearly, politics are thicker than blood. Rina Deych
founding member, Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos
Empirical evidence
Whiting, N.J.: Voicer W.J. Van Sickle hopes that those of us planning to vote for Joe Biden aren’t doing so out of personal dislike for Trump. No worries W.J., Trump has set the bar so low that there is every reason to believe Biden can and will do a better job than a man who disparages his base, insults the military, minimizes minorities and women, fails to represent states where he didn’t carry the popular vote and tramples on norms and the Constitution. Nothing personal.
Fleeced treaty
Bill McConnell
Bronx: To Voicer Melissa Vieux: Trump brokered peace treaties between countries that were never at war. What’s next, a treaty between the United States and Canada?
Flawed lessons
Richie Nagan
Newark: I’ve not responded to stupidity in years, yet I find myself responding to Voicer Mary Jane Hopkins’ ignorant comment. Simply put, statues glorify. If your argument is correct, let’s put up a statue of, let us say, Adolf Hitler in Times Square and learn from our mistakes. Nitwit!