I'm Missing Something...

No Stranger Than Dunking People In A River, I Suppose.

OK, the following photo was posted on MSNBC, with the accompanying caption:

An Orthodox Jewish couple in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood begin the Kaparot ritual by reciting a prayer and then twirling a chicken over their heads to release the sins accumulated over the past year, ahead of the Yom Kippur holiday, which is the Day of Atonement.

I keep trying to make sense of the chicken-twirling, but every time my brain's logic functions get into gear, it gets derailed by an image of Topol as Tevye singing "TRADITIONNNNNN!!!!!!"

I can't help wondering if you need a bunch of chickens, or can you pass the chicken along to someone else after you've given it a spin? Do you eat the chicken afterwards, or has it acquired a foul taint after being wafted through all those airborne sins? If you can't eat it, do you end up with a bunch of sin-ridden chickens wandering the streets of Jerusalem?

I may need to consult with Elisson and the Brooklyn Jooette to help me out here...