by Cantor Elizabeth K. Sacks

A crowd of people slowly streams into the synagogue. Inside the sanctuary, the lights are dimmed to reflect the sun setting outside. A hush falls over the congregation as the clergy, robed in white, open the ark to reveal the white-cloaked Torah scrolls. The rabbi gently hands each scroll to a member of the congregation. Everyone on the bimah turns to face the community.

And the cantor begins to sing.

The melody is at once familiar, soothing, and chilling. As the music gradually builds, the distance between the current moment and the same moment in years past slowly melts away. The scene is set. The memories of all of our Yom Kippur days swell inside us as we sing the Kol Nidre prayer.

Jewish music is infused with memory. Just as a particular scent or visual cue arouses specific memories, the music of our tradition links us to our Jewish experiences. A favorite tune can remind us of the camaraderie of Jewish summer camp, or the awe of a first trip to Israel, or the familiar warmth of Shabbat services. However, in addition to inspiring powerful individual memories, Jewish music also furthers our collective memory – the memory of our history and traditions as the People of Israel. This concept of collective memory manifests itself most clearly in our liturgical music through a series of melodies known as the MiSinai tunes.

MiSinai tunes, melodies thought to have come down from God to Moses on Mt. Sinai, unite Ashkenazi Jews of all denominations. We sing them consistently, year after year, and though the arrangements may change, the essence of the melody never dies. Mainly heard during High Holy Day and Festival services, examples include the High Holy Day Mi Chamocha, the Great Aleinu, and the opening paragraphs of the N’ilah Amidah. The tunes are exceedingly simple yet profound. They are moving because they have endured and they have endured because they are moving. For many people, it is not a complete holiday until they have heard these melodies. The MiSinai tunes are our collective musical memory. We have named them such because no one can remember a time without them.

One of the most famous and memorable MiSinai tunes is the Kol Nidre. Although this prayer is now the centerpiece of our Yom Kippur Evening service, the Kol Nidre was not always looked upon so favorably. In fact, as Rabbi Larry Hoffman explains in his commentary to Gates of Repentance, “more than anything else, it is [the] tune to which the ‘Kol Nidre’ owes its present appeal.” (115) From the first know citation of the prayer in the ninth century, Jewish leaders have been uncomfortable with the core idea of the text – the nullification of vows. While the Jewish community has always understood the Kol Nidre text to refer only to those rash vows made between individuals and God during moments of uncontrolled emotion, rabbis in the past feared that the prayer would be misunderstood by their surrounding society and would undermine the notion of a serious and ethical Judaism. This fear particularly vexed Reform rabbis in nineteenth century Germany as Jews were struggling to attain civil rights by proving that their religion reflected modern values. As a result, many Reform prayer books of that time omitted the Kol Nidre prayer.

While rabbinic distaste for the Kol Nidre grew over the years, the prayer actually began to gain popularity with congregations, mainly as a result of the Kol Nidre MiSinai tune. The text became attached to its particular MiSinai melody some time between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. By the seventeenth century, traveling cantors had disseminated the tune to Ashkenazic synagogues across Northern Europe. The tune and the text became inextricably linked. The memory of the tune and the emotions it conveyed strengthened from year to year and became part of our collective memory.

When Reform rabbis in the United States met in 1940 to discuss the revision of the 1922 Union Prayer Book, they therefore faced a significant challenge. The committee was extremely divided on whether to include the Kol Nidre. They ultimately decided to compromise. Although the text of the Kol Nidre would not appear in the revised version of the prayer book, the committee did include a line in the beginning of the service that read “The Kol Nidre chant.” Thus, the cantor would be able to sing the beloved melody, but the offensive text would not officially be included as part of our liturgy. So powerful was the memory of this MiSinai tune, that the music actually carried this prayer through our history against the wishes of our leadership. As Rabbi Hoffman explains,

What the Reform rabbis did not count on is the power of music and the will of the average congregants, who cared little about the theological or moral consequence of the Kol Nidre’s words relative to their fondness for the traditional melody, which obviously spoke very deeply to them of the mood and message of Yom Kippur. (117)

When the Central Conference of American Rabbis created our current Yom Kippur prayer book, Gates of Repentance, in 1970s, they returned the full text of the Kol Nidre to opening section of the Yom Kippur evening service. There the prayer remains – a testament to the strength of our collective musical memory.

Reading Suggestion: Hoffman, Lawrence A. , Gates of Understanding 2: Appreciating the Days of Awe. New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1984. Listening Suggestion: The Birthday of the World: Music and Tradition of the High Holy Days. Sung by The Western Wind and Guest Cantors. Narrated by Leonard Nemoy.