Articles with the tag: yom kippur

The Book and the Book

There are moments when an ancient metaphor takes on new meaning. Example: For millennia, our ancestors prayed to be inscribed in the Book of Life. It was no accident that for Jews life was connected to a book. While other religions found holiness in icons, people, and objects, for us, holiness was to be found in language. After all, it was with words that G-d formed the cosmos and revealed His Torah. That ‘words’ were the medium in which the mystery of life was encoded was always thought of as a spiritual intuition. We now know it is more: It’s a fact.
The human body contains a trillion cells containing two sets of the human genome. Each genome consists of…

Continue reading The Book and the Book

Kol Nidre: the Eternal Ritual

According to the Rosh, an early Talmudic commentary, “We go to the synagogue on Yom Kippur eve and it is the custom that the Chazan removes the Sefer Torah and recites the Kol Nidre.”
This is one of the very few references we find for the custom of removing the Torah scrolls from the Ark before the prayer of Kol Nidre. Others are silent on the subject; perhaps because they could find no basis for it. But, since this minhag (custom) is now so widely accepted and universally practiced, it would be useful for us to discover its origins and its history.
Yom Kippur was established by the Torah on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, since…

Continue reading Kol Nidre: the Eternal Ritual

To Forgive Is Human

t is strategically located to inaugurate the holiest day of the year.  Its melody, to use the words of Tolstoy, “Echoes the great martyrdom of a grief stricken nation.”  Yet historically, it has always aroused controversy, and while it occupies the most important part of the Yom Kippur liturgy, it’s not even considered a prayer.  What I am referring to is the paradoxical, legal formula for the annulment of vows; in simple terms, the Kol Nidre.
Opposition to this ritual arose from many ranks. Jewish scholars, since its inception, were the first to question the legality of a blanket annulment of vows.  Its detractors even included Oliver Cromwell, who accused the Jewish religion of permitting its followers to perjure themselves…

Continue reading To Forgive Is Human

Five Steps to a New You

Five Steps to a New You