Dear Congregants,

Throughout the ages, the Kol Nidrei service has been the most powerful and significant service of the liturgical year. Held on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, it is the only service named for the opening words of its prayer: Kol nidrei (All vows).

Its words, set to a stirring melody, seem to tug at Jews in poignant and inexplicable ways. Yet, when we examine the literal translation of the prayer, we do not find passion in its meaning. Translated from the original Aramaic, the Philip Birnbaum edition of the traditional service reads:

All personal vows we are likely to make, all personal oaths and pledges we are likely to take between this Yom Kippur and the next Yom Kippur, we publicly renounce. Let them all be relinquished and abandoned, null and void, neither firm nor established. Let our personal vows, pledges and oaths, be considered neither vows nor pledges nor oaths.

Most of us would recoil to know that, according to this prayer, we proactively and publicly renounce all the pledges we will make in the year to come. The power of this prayer, therefore, resides not in the words but in the personal memory - the community gathering as a Jewish people and our desire to be profoundly honest about ourselves as we seek forgiveness for our moral weakness and wrongdoing.

This year’s Kol Nidrei prayer service will be different than before. It is our aim as Central Synagogue’s clergy to augment the meaning, place and experience of the Kol Nidrei service by evoking three concepts we believe undergird our intensely visceral and emotional response to the chanting of Kol Nidrei. We presume that the prayer evokes memory, feelings of vulnerability and a sense of returning home. These are the themes that will be woven through the newly designed Yom Kippur eve – Kol Nidrei – service.

We hope and believe that these changes will encourage each of us to feel a strong and personal engagement in the significant meaning of this solemn Holy Day. In anticipation of this new tradition and so that you may glean a deeper understanding of the Kol Nidrei service, I invite you to take advantage of the resources offered here on our Web site.

Warmly,