by Pinchus Klahr

Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement — is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the culmination of the Ten Days of Repentance that begin on Rosh Hashana. It opens with the Kol Nidray prayer: a legal declaration annulling vows, chanted three times to the most famous melody in all of Jewish liturgy. In 1985, Pinchus Klahr posted this essay to net.religion.jewish in the days before the holiday.

The essay takes an unexpected approach: rather than treating Kol Nidray as a prayer of forgiveness, Klahr reads it as a statement about the seriousness of commitment. The law of vows, he argues, is a "microcosm of the essential Jewish experience" — the voluntary acceptance of responsibilities beyond the minimum. To begin Yom Kippur with vows is to place the day in the context of what it means to take on obligations.

Klahr also defends an often-misunderstood point: Yom Kippur is not a day of sadness. It is preceded by a festive meal, and it is, in an important sense, a happy day — the happiness of renewal, of reconnecting with G-d, with people, and with oneself. His essay closes with a question about why Judaism insists on action rather than meditation: because actions alone can internalize values into personality.

Klahr's weekly D'var Torah essays reached whoever was listening on the early internet, mostly engineers and researchers, at a moment when Jewish learning was just beginning to find digital form.

YOM KIPPUR & KOL NIDRAY

Yom Kippur is the culmination of 'Aseres Y'may Teshuva, the Ten Days of Repentance that begin on Rosh Hashana. One of the best known of all Jewish prayers is the one that we begin Yom Kippur with, Kol Nidray. Many Jews who are otherwise estranged from the formal aspects of Judaism make it a point to come to the synagogue on Yom Kippur eve to listen to this prayer.

(As an aside to the pursuers of Jewish trivia: The first "talkie" motion picture — a movie with sound — produced and shown in this country was The Jazz Singer, made in 1927, and starring Al Jolson. In it, a cantor's son breaks with his family, attracted by fame, fortune, and the allure of the Roaring Twenties, to become a star jazz crooner. By movie's end, he reconciles with his family, and, when Pop takes sick right before Yom Kippur, sonny comes to the synagogue in just the nick of time to pinch-hit for his father and sing Kol Nidray. The movie ends with the strains of a cantor singing Kol Nidray — according to some, it is the voice of the legendary cantor, Yossele Rosenblatt. A little Teshuva story in itself! A piece of American cinematic history! Who says Judaism isn't as American as baseball and mom's apple pie?)

What is the meaning of Kol Nidray?

In Kol Nidray, we express the seriousness of making a vow, or, more generally, the importance of the assumption of responsibility. Certainly the law of vows, the assumption of voluntary responsibilities, is an integral part of the Torah. But why of all the commandments in the Book is this the first one that we consider on Yom Kippur, the ultimate day of judgement?

One answer to this question is that the law of Nidarim, or vows, provides a microcosm of the essential Jewish experience. The laws of making vows are unique in that they allow people to create new obligations for themselves, within the framework of the G-d-given commandments. In accepting the Torah, the body of laws, morals, and values designed to refine us and make us better people, the Jewish people too have accepted a set of responsibilities beyond those of the "natural law" of Mankind. In fact, this analogy is consistent with the Talmud's way of expressing our obligation to follow the laws of the Torah: "we have been sworn to the Torah from Mount Sinai." Before we start a final review of our actions of the past year, noting where we have lapsed from our ideals and resolving to correct our mistakes, we try to ensure that we will not violate any vows in the coming year. By doing so, we are emphasizing the challenge, as well as the responsibility, of our role in the world.

In addition to not doing any form of work, as on the Sabbath, there are five prohibitions on Yom Kippur. Their purpose is to deprive our bodies of sensual experiences in order to heighten our mental and spiritual consciousness. We deprive ourselves of eating and drinking, washing and bathing, rubbing ourselves with oils, wearing leather shoes, and marital relations. We spend much of the day in the synagogue, confessing our collective sins against G-d, people, and ourselves. We mark the defects in our character and conduct, and resolve to correct them. We read the story of Jonah, the prophet who tried to flee the word of G-d, but ultimately brought His message of repentance to the people of Nineveh. In addition, many aspects of the highly symbolic Temple service of Yom Kippur, as well as other episodes of our history and experiences, are brought to our attention by the prayers we say. We ask forgiveness of G-d and of each other. While a serious day, Yom Kippur is not a day of sadness. It is preceded by a festive meal before the fast, and in many respects is considered a happy day, precisely because we are renewing our connections with G-d, people, and ourselves.

There are those who ask: If the intent of the entire Yom Kippur is repentance, why must we do and say all these things on Yom Kippur? Why not just meditate all day?

A basic principle of Judaism is that, while people are capable of having many lofty thoughts and aspirations, actions are necessary to internalize these attitudes into our personalities. By separating ourselves from several symbols of materialism on this day, we can better focus ourselves on those ideals that are important to us. Even though we know that, at one time or another, we may stray from some of our values, a sincere declaration to ourselves of what those values are will help make Yom Kippur into what it means — a day of forgiveness.

G'mar chasima tovah — may everyone have a meaningful Yom Kippur, and a "final ensealment for a good verdict."

Colophon

Written by Pinchus Klahr ([email protected], New York University), and posted to net.religion.jewish on September 19, 1985 — two days before Yom Kippur 5746. Article-ID: csd2.3780095. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

Klahr's weekly D'var Torah essays circulated to the early Usenet community in the months surrounding the High Holidays of 1985. This essay was written to explain the meaning of Kol Nidray to a mixed audience of committed Jews and curious observers — the engineers, researchers, and graduate students who made up early Usenet.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

🌲