Kapparot (, Ashkenazi transliteration: , ) is a customary atonement ritual practiced by orthodox Jews on the eve of Yom Kippur. This is a practice in which either money is waved over a person's head and then donated to charity or a chicken is waved over the head and then slaughtered in accordance with halachic rules. Etymology (), the singular of , means 'atonement' and comes from the Semitic root , which means 'to cover', the derived meaning being one of covering or blotting out sin. Practice On the afternoon before Yom Kippur, one prepares an item to be donated to the poor for consumption at the pre-Yom Kippur meal, recites the two biblical passages of and , and then swings the prepared charitable donation over one's head three times while reciting a short prayer three times. Using a rooster In one variant of the practice of kapparot, the item to be donated to charity is a rooster. In this case, the rooster would be swung overhead while still alive. After the kapparot ritual is concluded, the rooster would be treated as a normal kosher poultry product, i.e., it would be slaughtered according to the laws of shechita. It would then be given to charity for consumption at the pre-Yom Kippur meal. In modern times, this variant of the ritual is performed with a rooster for men and a hen for women. In this case, the prayer recited translates as: Using money In a second variant of the practice of kapparot, a bag of money is swung around the head and then given to charity. In this case, the prayer recited translates as: Sources The practice of kapparot is mentioned for the first time by Amram ben Sheshna of Sura Academy in Babylonia in 670 and later by Natronai ben Hilai, also of Sura Academy, in 853. According to Joshua Trachtenberg, the rite probably originated toward the end of the Talmudic period. Jewish scholars in the ninth century explained that since the Hebrew word means both "man" and "rooster", a rooster may substitute as a religious and spiritual vessel in place of a man. Historical controversy Kapparot was strongly opposed by some rabbis, among them Nachmanides, Shlomo ben Aderet, and the Sephardi rabbi Joseph ben Ephraim Karo in the Shulchan Aruch. According to the Mishnah Berurah, his reasoning was based on the caution that it is similar to non-Jewish rites.