I want to be on time
For this service, Kol Nidrei,
On this night of all nights,
On this Sabbath of all Sabbaths.
Preparations for this night are intentional—
Dinner planned out ahead of time,
Leave work early, don’t rush,
Ease calmly into this night.
No daily uniform
Of suit and leather shoes.
No worldly luxuries
To comfort me tonight.
A white, linen kittel to wear,
Reminiscent of a burial shroud—
A reminder of my mortality
And need for teshuvah (repentence).
White cloth shoes, inexpensive and basic.
White—an emulation of angels.
Repentance shall make our sins
White as snow, Isaiah 1:18.
Ironically, I am more comfortable
Without worldly luxuries
To bind and constrain,
For that is the antithesis of Kol Nidrei.
With the sun near the horizon
We don our tallit
For this night of sincere repentance,
On this Sabbath of all Sabbaths.
Tonight, is a night of paradoxes,
We arrive alone but we stand together,
Righteous and unrighteous
Before the Heavenly and earthly courts.
To annul our vows and oaths
Not YET made—
But those TO BE MADE
In this new year.
Why Kol Nidrei?
Why do we do this?
Exempt from vows and oaths? If so,
For what purpose does Yom Kippur serve?
The words of Kol Nidrei
Offer no absolution
Of vows, oaths, and commitments
To one another.
We are accountable
And need to seek forgiveness
From each other
For missing the mark.
The words of Kol Nidrei
Address the vows and oaths
Not YET made
To ourselves and to God.
Free will to plan and promise,
We can feel powerful.
No way to predict the future,
We can feel helpless.
Kol Nidrei foresees
What we cannot—
Like the riptide current
That will drown our earnest attempts to fulfill promises.
Kol Nidrei absolves
What we cannot—
That which the riptide has made
Unhealthy and unwise to pursue.
We cannot be enslaved
By these pursuits.
If Yom Kippur allows us to start anew
With forgiveness for confessed misdeeds of the past;
Then the ritual of Kol Nidrei assures us
That mercy and forgiveness will be ours in the future.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Synagogue or Board of Directors.