Before sunset on the eve of
Yom Kippur ("Day
of Atonement"), the congregation gathers in the synagogue. The
Ark is opened and two people take from it two
Torah scrolls.
Then they take their places, one on each side of the
cantor, and the
three recite:
- In the tribunal of Heaven and the tribunal of earth, by
the permission of God — praised be He — and by the
permission of this holy congregation, we hold it lawful to
pray with transgressors."
The cantor then chants the prayer beginning with the words
Kol Nidre with its touching melody, and, gradually increasing in
volume from pianissimo (quiet) to fortissimo (loud), repeats
three times the following words:
- 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.
- (Translation of Philip Birnbaum, from High Holyday
Prayer Book, Hebrew Publishing Company, NY, 1951)
The leader and the congregation then say together three times
"May all the people of Israel be forgiven, including all the
strangers who live in their midst, for all the people are in
fault." The
Torah scrolls are
then replaced, and the customary
evening service
begins.
Philip Birnbaum, in his classic edition of the
Mahzor (High holy
day prayer book) comments on this passage: "It refers to vows
assumed by an individual for himself alone, where no other
persons or interests are involved. Though the context makes it
perfectly obvious that no vows or obligations towards others are
implied, there have been many who were misled into believeing
that by means of this formula all their vows and oaths are
annulled. In the eleventh century Rabbi Meir ben Samuel (Rashi's
son-in-law) changed the original wording of Kol Nidre so as to
make the Ashkenazi version apply to the future instead of the
past; that is, to vows that one might not be able to fufill
during the next year." The Sephardi version still refers to the
past year.
Origin
The tendency to make vows to God was strong in ancient
Israel; the
Torah found it
necessary to protest against the excessive estimate of the
religious value of such obligations. "When you make any vow to
the Lord your God, you must pay it without delay...If you
refrain from making a vow, that is no sin for you; but you must
be careful to perform any promise you have made with your lips."
(Deut. 23:22)
Rash vows to God that for whatever reason were not fulfilled
created painful religious and ethical difficulties for those who
had made them; this led to an earnest desire for dispensation
from them. This need gave rise to the rite of absolution from a
vow ('hattarat nedarim') which might be performed only by a
scholar, or an expert on the one hand, or by a board of three
Jewish laymen on the other.
This rite declared that the petitioners, who were seeking
reconciliation with
G-d, solemnly
retracted their vows and oaths which they had made to God during
the period intervening between the previous Day of Atonement and
the present one; this rite made them null and void from the
beginning, entreating in their stead pardon and forgiveness from
God. This is in accordance with the older text of the formula as
it is preserved in the
Siddur of Amram
Gaon.
Adoption into the prayer services
The readiness with which vows were made and the facility with
which they were annulled by the scribes gave the
Karaites an
opportunity to attack rabbinic Jews. This forced the geonim
(leaders of early medieval Babylonian Jewry) to minimize the
power of dispensation. Rabbi Yehudai Gaon of Sura (760 CE),
author of the Halakot Pesukot, forbade the study of the Nedarim,
the Talmudic treatise on oaths. Thus the Kol Nidre was
discredited in both of the Babylonian academies and was not
accepted by them.
Amram Gaon in his edition of the
Siddur calls the
custom of reciting the Kol Nidre a foolish one ("minhag shetut").
According to others however, it was customary to recite the
formula in various lands of the Jewish dispersion, and it is
clear likewise from Amram's Siddur that the usage was
wide-spread as early as his time in Spain. But the geonic
practice of not reciting the Kol Nidre was long prevalent; it
has never been adopted in the Catalonian or in the Algerian
ritual.
Together with the Kol Nidre another custom was developed,
which is traced to Meïr of Rothenburg (d. 1293). This is the
recital before the Kol Nidre of the formula mentioned beginning
"Bi-yeshivah shel ma'alah," which has been translated above, and
which gives permission to transgressors of the Law or to those
under a ban "to pray with the congregation", or, according to
another version, to the congregation "to pray with the
transgressors of the Law." From Germany this custom spread to
southern France, Spain, Greece, and probably to northern France,
and was in time generally adopted.
At one time it was believed that the Kol Nidre was composed
by Spanish "Marranos",
Jews who converted to
Christianity, yet
who secretly maintained their original faith. This idea has been
shown to be incorrect, as the prayer pre-dates this era by many
centuries. However, this prayer was indeed used by the
Marranos.
Change of tense from past to future
An important alteration in the wording of the Kol Nidre was
made by Rashi's son-in-law, Rabbi Meir ben Samuel, who changed
the original phrase "from the last Day of Atonement until this
one" to "from this Day of Atonement until the next." Thus the
dispensation was not a posteriori, and concerned with
unfulfilled obligations of the past year, but a priori and
having reference to vows which one might not be able to fulfil
or might forget to observe during the ensuing year. Meir ben
Samuel likewise added the words "we do repent of them all",
since real repentance is a condition of dispensation. The
reasons assigned for this change were that an "ex post facto"
annulment of a vow was meaningless, and that, furthermore, no
one might grant to himself a dispensation, which might be given
only by a board of three laymen or by a competent judge.
It appears to have been
Rabbenu Tam,
however, who accounted for the alteration made by his father as
already stated, and who also tried to change the perfects of the
text, "which we have vowed," "have sworn," etc., to imperfects.
Whether the old text was already too deeply rooted, or whether
Rabbenu Tam did not correct these verbal forms consistently and
grammatically, the old perfects are still retained at the
beginning of the formula, although a future meaning is given to
them.
The alteration made by Meïr ben Samuel, which agreed with
Isaac ibn Ghayyat's view was accepted in the German, northern
French, and Polish rituals and in those dependent on them, but
not in the Spanish, Roman, and Provençal rituals. The old
version is, therefore, usually called the "Sephardic." The old
and the new versions are sometimes found side by side.
Language
In the Siddur of Amram and in the Roman Mahzor the Kol Nidre
is written in Hebrew, and therefore begins Kol Nedarim. The
determination of the time in both versions is Hebrew. The words
"as it is written in the teachings of Moses, thy servant," which
were said in the old form before Num. xv. 26, were canceled by
Meir of Rothenburg.
Method of recitation
As to the manner in which the hazzan is to recite the Kol
Nidre, the Mahzor Vitry gives the following directions: "The
first time he must utter it very softly like one who hesitates
to enter the palace of the king to ask a gift of him whom he
fears to approach; the second time he may speak somewhat louder;
and the third time more loudly still, as one who is accustomed
to dwell at court and to approach his sovereign as a friend."
The number of Torah-scrolls taken out for the Kol Nidre
varied according to different customs. In some places it was
one; in others, two, three, seven, or even all. The first
Torah-scroll taken out is called the Sefer Kol Nidre. The Kol
Nidre should be recited before sunset, since dispensation from a
vow may not be granted on the Sabbath or on a feast-day, unless
the vow refers to one of these days.
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