Posted on 10/11/2016 12:30:59 PM PDT by Read Write Repeat
While Kol Nidrei—a prayer wherein we release vows—is certainly traditionally seen as one of the most important prayers of the year, there is little in Jewish literature to support this idea.
The question, however, remains: why does Jewish tradition lend so much weight and solemnity to this seemingly technical prayer?
There are those who have claimed that the reason goes back to the days of the Spanish Inquisition, when the conversos (Jews who chose to convert to Christianity rather than face expulsion or death, but remained faithful to Judaism at heart, and to some degree in observance too) would gather on Yom Kippur eve in their hideout synagogues. Before beginning the Yom Kippur services, they would tearfully and emotionally entreat G-d to forgive them for all the public statements they made in the previous year which were contrary to Jewish doctrine. This is supposedly also the reason why Kol Nidrei is prefaced with the statement: “. . . by the authority of the heavenly tribunal and by the authority of the earthly tribunal, we hereby grant permission to pray with those who have transgressed.”
While this is certainly a romantic answer, the fact is that the Kol Nidrei prayer predates the Inquisition by at least 500 years. It would seem that the simple answer to the question is that Kol Nidrei is the opening prayer of the holiest day of the year, and as such is said with great devotion—not because of its content.
According to Kabbalah, Kol Nidrei is more than a technical vow-annulment procedure. Rather, by releasing our vows we are asking G-d to reciprocate in kind. In the event that He has pledged not to bring the redemption just yet, in the event that He made an oath to bring harsh judgments on His people in the following year, we ask that He release these vows and instead grant us a year of happiness and redemption.
Perhaps this is the reason for the solemnity of the prayer.
A good and blessed Day of Atonement.
Jewish taquiya.
This is supposed to be about religious oaths made to God that might not be kept. The prayer may be old, but the Christian admonition not to make oaths (but just to say what you mean) is even older and the meme may have carried over here.
L'shanna tova 5777!!!!
Your own articles state that even the most learned Jews have argued about its meaning, or whether it should even be kept.
Of course those articles also call gentiles who ask such questions anti-semites, while the Jews asking the same thing are simply "curious" or "students of Judaism." But that's how it always is. Except that with Kol Nidrei, the apparent effects seem to touch the Gentiles, so there's a functional problem with limited jurisdictional claims. And it's hard to research since, AFAIK, the Talmud isn't even available in English.
Have a nice day.
I didn’t call you an antisemite. You just happen to share a fantasy put forward by antisemites, one as illogical as saying that Catholics cannot be trusted due to confession.
Well both your links did - repeatedly. You must have missed it when you personally picked them out.
You just happen to share a fantasy put forward by antisemites, one as illogical as saying that Catholics cannot be trusted due to confession.
Interesting. Then why did your second link state: "From its inception, Kol Nidre never attained universal sanction or appeal. Five of the heads of the Babylonian rabbinical academies rejected it outright, claiming that it undermined both the sanctity of personal vows as well as the necessary custom for canceling them."
More specifically, what did those five anti-semitical heads of Babylonian rabbinical academies fantasize about Catholics?
Hmmm?
Jews disagree about everything. There is nothing antisemitic about that. But they didn't claim that the existence of the prayer made Jews automatically liars.
Lol, parse much?
I'm not wildly out of line here - it's a historical disagreement over which even very high and learned Jews have disagreed to the point of some wanting it struck completely. I'm not interested in your denial of that, or your arbitrary requirements that I test myself against your claims of averaged contentions. Those are cheap argument tricks, just as is your arbitrary comparison to Catholic confession (around which are far more restrictive limitations than Kol Nidrei).
Specifically, the problem with Kol Nidrei is that it's limitation to promises to God reach, by logical extension, to all promises in the world as well. For if a Jew can renounce promises to God, there's no spiritual foundation to their worldly promises either, the former being far more profound than the latter. Without inescapable allegiance to God, there's literally nothing holding anyone to anything else.
This argument goes FAR beyond Judaism - it is the very root of ANY spiritual philosophy, in ANY religion.
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