It’s one of the pivotal moments of the Jewish calendar. Worshippers flock to their synagogues, many dressed in white, and wait for the cantor to start singing Kol Nidre. But why has a prayer that is concerned with annulling vows and oaths become so famous? Some insights today from the World Wide Web.
The prayer associated with Yom Kippur has actually been the source of controversy for centuries. Eliezer Segal explains that although the annulment of vows dates back to the Mishnah, its association “with Yom Kippur probably reflects a popular feeling that unfulfilled obligations would impede the atonement process.”
However, many rabbinic authorities opposed Kol Nidre. The prayer didn’t conform to normal requirements of annulment of vows, which include individual interrogation and the expression of regret. But in the end, “the rabbis were compelled to make a difficult choice between insistence on respect for one’s word and compassion for those real people who urgently needed such a procedure for easing their consciences and permitting their forgiveness.” Segal’s essay is at www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/910906_Kol_Nidre.html
I was surprised to find that Kol Nidre has also generated quite a controversy beyond the Jewish community. There are many non-Jewish Web sites that are alarmed by the existence of this prayer and what they feel is a license to lie and deceive year after year. The “Explaining Kol Nidre” Web site — www.angelfire.com/mt/talmud/kolnidre.html
— goes through the prayer line by line and clarifies that it applies exclusively to personal vows made by an individual to God and not between individuals.
Stephen Butterfass of Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, N.Y., writes that “Reform Judaism initially banned Kol Nidre from the High Holiday prayerbooks as an embarrassment and as a symbol of all that Jews represented to the modern gentile world.” It was not officially reinstated into the liturgy until the 1978 edition of the Gates of Repentance, in use today. Butterfass adds, “If some of the ancient rabbis were correct, that ethical and legal objections are outweighed by the need to forgive ourselves for unfulfilled promises in order to attain the necessary state of atonement during Yom Kippur, then Kol Nidre will be with us for a long time.” His essay, written for “Religious Living on the Web,” is at www.uahc.org/ny/tinw/ReligiousLiving/kolnidrei.htm