During Elul, a month of preparation before the coming High Holy Days, we hear the call of the Shofar as a reminder: awaken! We hope this Shofar Blast of weekly messages from the clergy will help your Elul preparations.
Dear Congregation Beth Ahabah,
Last week, the Rabbi wrote about a famous prayer at the beginning of Rosh Hashanah evening services called Hin’ni, and its message of humility and reflection. Believe it or not, that prayer has long been the subject of spirited conversation in the cantorial community, discussing the relative merits of singing Hin’ni in a virtuosic musical styling which can feel at odds with the message of humility. This week, we will focus on another famous prayer which is often performed in a highly formal and technical way that does not quite match up with its meaning, this time during the Yom Kippur evening services: Kol Nidre.
Kol Nidre is unique in that it is not actually a prayer. It is a paragraph of Aramaic rabbinic legalese annulling any vows we may have made to God in the last year which we were unable to keep. Our prayer book’s translation includes the word “God” (“...that we promise and swear to God...”) but no word or name for God appears in the actual Aramaic. In fact, in my cantorial studies we were taught, only half-jokingly, that Kol Nidre is the only prayer in the entire Jewish year where the melody matters more than the words in terms of which is more important to people attending services. (Do you agree?)
The premise of Kol Nidre springs from the enormous importance that Jewish tradition places on our word: being cautious to give our word and committed to keeping our word. Judaism strongly discourages oath-making in just about every circumstance, because of the seriousness of making an oath and not being able to keep it due to circumstances outside our control. Yet, Judaism is a pragmatic tradition whose leaders have understood through the many centuries of our existence that no matter what you tell people, some of them will still do things that they oughtn’t. Thus, we have the concept of T’shuvah, repentance, atonement.
In Judaism there are two types of atonement, one for mistakes made between people, and another for matters which are entirely between an individual and God. Kol Nidre falls under the latter category. It has been around since at least the 9th century CE, and its literal meaning is a formula of release for people who have been unable to keep an oath they made to God. I imagine that this purpose is likely just as relevant today as 2,000 years ago. How many of us have been careless in our words and made promises to ourselves or to God which were not able to keep?
Kol Nidre has remained a touchstone of the High Holy Days in no small part because of its longstanding musical tradition stretching back many centuries, to a time before recordings or sheet music. Every Cantor has their own take on the exact way they intone the melodies, but we know better than to stray too far from tradition. To hear or to sing Kol Nidre is a contemplation of the tension between the familiar or nostalgic and the new or different, between idealistic intention and practical realism, and between our desire to be more yet knowing our own limitations.
Whatever Kol Nidre means to you, I hope you will take some time during this month of Elul to consider the impact that our words have, both on ourselves and on others. When we hear Kol Nidre played by the piano and cello, sung by the Cantor and choir, what are the messages we wish to take away from that experience? If we transformed Kol Nidre from a legal paragraph into a heartfelt personal prayer, what would that prayer be for you?
Shanah Tovah,
Cantor Sarah Beck-Berman Cantor & B'nei Mitzvah Coordinator
Congregation Beth Ahabah
For more on the melodies of Kol Nidre, including some recordings, CLICK HERE.
