When a New York Times piece is titled “A Raw Deal for Chickens As Jews Atone for Sins” the thought that comes reflexively to mind is “Okay get ready here it comes….” And given the record of the “paper of record” on coverage of the Orthodox Jewish community such a thought is not without basis.

But fast-forward to the final two paragraphs of the story which appeared shortly before Yom Kippur and that headline appears in a very different light:

Many people purposely leave their chickens with the store knowing that they will be given to people in need or to organizations that could use them.

So maybe not a good week to be a chicken getting stuck with human failings. But not so bad for hungry people without money in their pockets. Just inside the door to the store a shopping cart was filled to the brim with plastic-wrapped chicken parts. The stickers listed the price: Free.

With that rather touching conclusion writer Jim Dwyer makes it clear that his reference to the feathered ones’ “raw deal” wasn’t alluding to any sort of fowl play neither in terms of mistreatment of the birds nor their eventual slaughter. What he meant was that although it may never be a good week to be a chicken — that is a deep deep question beyond the remit of this column.…the first days after the Jewish New Year are a particularly bad time to be one in parts ofBrooklyn. Between Oct. 4… and Yom Kippur… an estimated 50 000 chickens will be sacrificed inBrooklynas part of a penitential ritual performed by some Hasidic Jews. The practice called kapporos or kapparot is meant to transfer a person’s sins to the chicken.

Now like most every Judaism-related story in the media this one doesn’t get everything right. The practice for example isn’t performed exclusively by “some Hasidic Jews.” (And if it were its alternative pronunciation wouldn’t be “kapparot ” but “kappuris.”)

Nor for that matter is the practice “meant to transfer a person’s sins to the chicken.” If that were so it wouldn’t be the case that as one interviewee explained “If you’re pregnant you take an extra one ” since the not-yet-born surely have not yet sinned either.

In truth then there aren’t any chickens walking around during Aseres Yemei Teshuvah weighed down by the unbearable burden of some Jew’s sins. But not only are the poultry drafted for kapparos duty not getting the raw deal of “getting stuck with human failings” they’re actually coming out ahead (which sure beats running around without a head). They’re being used for the most meaningful indeed elevated purpose a chicken can serve which is to be served — to humans.

Mr. Dwyer quotes a young fellow named Yossi Cohn who expresses the Jewish view of things simply but clearly: “We are all here for a purpose and the chicken is here for a purpose. We eat them.” What a refreshingly succinct morally unambiguous statement.

To support animal rights including the right to be free from human consumption requires a starting premise that there is not a Creator Who brought everything into being with a specific spiritual purpose in mind. Hence for one randomly evolving creature to kill and devour another one is morally unacceptable (although the question begs as to what “morality” consists of in such a meaningless existence).

But Judaism has a very different set of starting premises beginning with the knowledge that there is such a Creator and that “we are all here for a purpose and the chicken is here for a purpose.” Further we humans are at the apex of the pyramid of His creations because we possess an ability to enter into a relationship with Him that animals do not. From this it follows that the chicken’s purpose is to help us achieve ours.

This latter point is crucial because it reveals the animal rights position to be a contradiction in terms. This is best exemplified by Rabbi Akiva Tatz’s anecdote of the time he was served a meat meal aboard an airplane flight and his seatmate a doctrinaire vegetarian sniffed that he would never stoop to “eat other animals.” To which Rabbi Tatz’s quick response was “But why ever not? Other animals do.” The more sensitive one is to the “plight” of animals that serve as human food the more one shows himself to be anything but just another mammal blissfully free of such compunction.

From the Jewish perspective the animal rights movement turns out to be downright anti-animal. How else to describe those who prefer that Bessie the Cow live out her days grazing at pasture when she could be a vehicle for fulfilling the very purpose of all of Creation by enabling one human being to help another poor human being to quiet his hunger or a Jew to gain the health and strength needed to serve his Creator?

It’s doubtful whether many Times readers fully understood the depth behind Yossi Cohn’s deceptively simple words about chickens being here for a purpose. As for his opening words — “we are all here for a purpose” — how often do such straightforward words of truth appear in the pages of the Times so full of sophisticated cultured nothingness?

But who knows if those words didn’t achieve their purpose when some Jewish Times reader saw them and they entered deeply into his heart.

TWICE A YEAR Many of us are still “under the influence” —of a beautiful Simchas Torah that is full of shirt-drenching dancing and hoarse-throat-inducing singing and feeling a hisorerus to make this our best sweetest year of limud haTorah ever.

But there is a group of young men in Klal Yisrael for whom this was actually the second simchas Torah in recent months. They experienced their own personal version of this exhilarating Yom Tov six months ago thanks to the indefatigable dynamo named Rabbi Dovid Newman.

But before I continue let me digress to share a story from times past about two young bnei Torah who sat down to study a bit of Gemara together with no particular goal or end time in mind. As they sat together in cramped quarters they opened to daf beis of Maseches Succah and began to learn. Then they learned some more and continued learning and kept on learning until they finally stopped… but only because they had finished the masechta. It was eight and a half hours and 55 blatt later.

And now for full disclosure: The “times past” of which I speak was this past September and the two young bnei Torah from Monsey were on an airplane bound for Eretz Yisrael where they’ll be spending this year learning Torah. They switched seats to be able to sit together and as passengers all around them dozed and stared out the window and ate a meal and watched something make-believe called a “movie” and did the crossword puzzle in the in-flight magazine and looked in a sefer and davened and slept and woke up and ate another meal these two very normal teenagers just sat and learned for eight and a half hours (with a 15-minute break to daven Minchah).

And if this story sounds like something from the back of the Olomeinu (for those old enough to remember) or from a story book that tells you that despite what people say times have not changed and people have not changed from three hundred years ago. But most importantly zos haTorah lo sehei muchlefes the Torah has not changed — we just lost the key to unlock the otherworldly addictive sweetness within it.

But Reb Dovid Newman with one astounding concept called V’haarev Na has found the key — which was right there all along in dozens of maamarei Chazal instructing us on the overriding importance of constant chazarah — and returned it to this generation’s young men in 35 yeshivos worldwide.

Shortly before Pesach these young men — a thousand strong — gathered in a Monsey chasunah hall to celebrate the finding of that key each one a chassan Torah being feted at his own chasunah replete with a joint siyum festive banquet and impassioned dancing. I have no doubt that just days ago in shuls and yeshivos around the world those bochurim were reliving the unrestrained joy of that simchas haTorah once again.

And speaking of finding the right key Rabbi Baruch Levine composed a special niggun for the occasion (that has now been listened to over 70000 times in the month since its posting). A snippet to savor what this revolution called V’haarev Na is all about:

A tiny ray of hope soon begins to show

When his rebbi says chazarah is the key to help you grow

To gain clarity and cheishek you must constantly review

And you’ll love to learn Gemara when the words speak back to you

With chazarah of his learning his spirit is revived

As the words of Torah penetrate and slowly come alive

His excitement is rekindled and he’s shteiging with his peers

He can finally feel that passion that was lost for all those years