מנהג של שטות

 מנהג כפרות בערב יו"כ מנהג של שטות הוא 





"Minhag Kaparos on Erev Yom Kippur is a Minhag Shtus"

The Mechaber in Shulchan Aruch O.Ch. Siman # 605, writes that you should refrain from the Minhag כפרות with chickens.

In the Bais Yosef on the טור he quotes the Ramban who writes that it is
אסור because of דרכי אמורי.

The Rema defends the Minhag and says it is an old Minhag and we should follow it since it originates from the Gaonim.
It is interesting that Sephardim who always follow the Bais Yosef and
yet when it comes to כפרות they follow the Rema.

The first eighteen editions of the Shulchan Aruch (first 4 during the lifetime of the Bais Yosef)  had this header 
 "מנהג כפרות בערב יו"כ מנהג של שטות הוא"
In the later editions of the Shulchan Aruchs, the words מנהג של שטות הוא was removed.

It is unknown who decided to remove it. We have today numerous new
editions of Shulchan Aruchs reprinted with corrections on the text etc.
Not a single one of them put back the original text of this header.

From the Shach in חו"מ שפ"ו ס"ק ד, we see clearly that he held that the Mechaber(Bais Yosef) himself is the one who wrote the headers for every Siman in Shulchan Aruch.