The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1238 page)

 
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Kapil
vastu
,
Kapilavatthu

(Skt.; P
li). The early home of the
Buddha
. It lies between the foothills of Nepal and the Rapti river. It is one of the four major places of Buddhist
pilgrimage
.

 
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(1881–1983).
Founder of the Jewish
Reconstructionist
movement. He was born in Lithuania, but was taken to the USA when he was 9. He studied at the
Jewish Theological Seminary
, and was appointed
rabbi
to an
Orthodox
congregation. But the erosive power of so many ideas around him (
Durkheim
, Darwin,
Freud
,
Marx
, and
Wellhausen
in particular) led him to leave his congregation and work as a teacher at the JTS. His radical views led to a further break with
Conservative Jews
, and in 1922, he initiated the Jewish Reconstructionist movement, although at that stage not wishing it to be a separate organization. The laws remained important, but as a means to an end. He thought that Jewish élitism was a mistake, and argued that all reference to ‘the
Chosen People
’ should be dropped from the liturgy. He was a profound influence on generations of Conservative rabbis, although some extreme Orthodox repudiated him, excommunicating (
erem
) him and burning his revised Prayer Book. His views were expressed in his many books, the best known of which is
Judaism as a Civilization
(1934).

 
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Kappa
(period of time)
:

see
KALPA
.

 
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(Heb., ‘atonements’). Folk custom in Judaism, involving a cock or hen, to secure atonement before the
Day of Atonement
, so that an adverse judgement would not be reached on that day. In Yiddish, a bad event is often met by the words, ‘Oyf kapporos’, may this be an atonement, i.e. a sufficient punishment to remove the need for any more.

 
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