[Avodah] Kapporas on Tisha B'Av

[Prof. Levine]

I thought that I would add this tidbit to the discussion about kapporos.

The father of one of the lawyers who works at the same firm as my 
wife told my wife that on Tisha B'Av his father was going to Queens 
to shecht some animals. His father is the rabbi of the Meshhedi 
community in Great Neck.

I was curious as to why, so I spoke with the son after Tisha B'Av and 
asked him the reason for this. He told me that he thinks that this is 
exclusively an Iranian custom. This past Tisha B'Av his father 
shechted two sheep and a goat. (He told me that there is a place in 
Queens where on the first floor they have the larger animals and on 
the second floor they have chickens.) He told me that the animals are 
used in a Kapporas ceremony that is similar to  the one that is 
performed on Erev Yom Kippur. Similar words are said. In my 
ignorance, I asked, "How do you lift the animal over your head?" He 
explained that this is not done. One apparently puts one's hand on 
the animal and says the appropriate words. I am not sure if this is 
done before or after the shechita, but I think it is probably before.

This was the first time I had heard of anything like this.

Yitzchok Levine