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Kol Nidre 5785

Kol Nidre 2024

One of the most beautiful and heightened moments of the High Holiday experience is hearing the melody of the Kol Nidre. As the words are chanted, a certain feeling overwhelms us. We have now entered the most important and holiest days of the year. We understand and connect to the countless numbers of individuals who, throughout the centuries, came to shul to hear the melody and to find a spiritual connectedness to this moment in Jewish tradition.

The words themselves speak quite loudly and softly at the same moment. We often find ourselves committing to promises that we will be unable to fulfill. Depending on the Mahzor, the translation suggests promises unkept in the past or promises that we will be unable to keep in the year to come. As we have come to shul, we acknowledge this truth and often as we read the words, we are already asking for forgiveness. As we ponder the different translations, the question becomes even more important as during the next twenty-five hours, we will sit in contemplation. What was my world like in the past year? What will my world be like in the year to come? What promises will I make that I will be able to fulfill. Which ones will I fall short on completing?

As the Kol Nidre is chanted, we take out the sifre Torah and they are held by members of our community. By holding the sifre Torah they have been given the responsibility of serving as members of a beit din, a Jewish Court of Law. It may not be that they are learned; it may not be that they are fully committed to the mitzvot. In our shul’s case, they have been committed in the past or present to the maintaining the Jewish community. The Torah that each one holds provides them with the religious teaching, the ethical lessons, and the historical connection to represent the beit din.

As the words are chanted, it is pronounced that both the Heavenly beit din, and the one present before us holding the sifre Torah, recognize that we will have made or will make promises that will be unkept, whether or not intentional, or by lack of commitment to them. We are all joining together at this heightened moment in a truth. And the words continue that both battei din (courts of law) permit the community to welcome sinners, those who have not fulfilled their promises or won’t fulfill their promises in the year to come.

That is what makes the moment so real, because it is an honest moment for each and every one of us. Not that we are allowing those who are less than perfect to participate with us in the service, but that it is okay to acknowledge the truth that there will be moments in our life in the past year and in the upcoming year that we fell short or will fall short of our own expectations for ourselves. Perhaps we fell short of expectations of others as well.

The words of the Kol Nidre acknowledge that it is simply a part of being human. If we can accept this fact then we can find the way to traverse the next year with a hope that perhaps we will do everything in our power to fulfill more of the promises and obligations. At the same time, we accept that we are only human.

While the words of the Kol Nidre do not acknowledge the positives of this past year in our individual Sefer Hayyim, our own Books of Life, as we hear the words intoned perhaps we might want to reflect on those achievements in life as well. For a good balanced reflection of successes and challenges is a healthy outlook for the year ahead.

I look forward to your joining us this Kol Nidre evening and tomorrow on Yom Kippur as we join together as a community, both of those with promises unfilled and deeds accomplished for the betterment of our own selves, for others, and for our world.

Gmar chatimah tovah, may your Book of Life be filled with such a signature.

L’shana tova yoter.

Bring them home!

Am Yisrael Chai.

Rabbi Kideckel

Wed, November 13 2024 12 Cheshvan 5785