BONUS EPISODE: Kol Nidrei...misunderstood - with Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins in a few days. Kol Nidrei, is one of the most misunderstood parts of the Jewish high holidays -- and of the entirety of Jewish liturgy -- according to Rabbi Meir Soloveichik. He laid this out in a recent thought-provoking piece in The Wall Street Journal, which you can access here.
Rabbi Soloveichik is the senior rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. He is also director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University.
He has a must-listen daily podcast called Bible 365, which you can access through the Tikvah Fund. He is prolific – he writes a monthly column in Commentary magazine, and his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Mosaic, the Jewish Review of Books, and many other outlets. You can keep up with all of his work at meirsoloveichik.com.
Transcript
DISCLAIMER: THIS TRANSCRIPT HAS BEEN CREATED USING AI TECHNOLOGY AND MAY NOT REFLECT 100% ACCURACY.
[00:00:00] You're highlighting your Ashkenormativity, Dan, uh, and I actually feel that this podcast is no longer a safe space. I don't feel safe, and you'll be hearing from my attorneys.
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins in a few days. Kol Nidre is one of the most misunderstood parts of this Jewish high holiday, and one of the most misunderstood parts of the entirety of Jewish liturgy. That's according to Rabbi Meir Soloveichik. He laid this all out in a recent thought provoking piece in the Wall Street Journal.
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, or Sali as we call him, is the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Cherith Israel in Manhattan, or the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue, which is the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. He's also the director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. at [00:01:00] Yeshiva University.
Sali has a must listen to daily podcast called Bible365, which you can access through the Tikvah Fund or wherever you get your podcasts. Sali is also super prolific. He writes a monthly column for Commentary Magazine. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Mosaic, the Jewish Review of Books, and many other outlets.
You can keep up with all of his work at mayorsoloveitchick. com I won't attempt to spell Meir Soloveitchik. It's one of those things. It's like, if you know, you know. And as I mentioned, he just penned this Wall Street Journal piece called The Meaning of a Yom Kippur Prayer, which I highly recommend and we'll talk about today.
This is Call Me Back,
and I am pleased to welcome to the podcast for the first time, uh, my very dear friend, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik. Uh, I will call him Solly [00:02:00] on this. Uh, conversation because whenever I'm actually chatting with him, that's how we refer to him as Solly. And I, I don't want this to be some formal kind of big shot presentation that he's typically accustomed to.
We're just going to have a conversation. Solly. Thanks for coming on. Thank you, Dan. It's very exciting to be here. A big fan of the podcast. I'm a. Little disappointed that you didn't have me on with Mohamed El Erian to give my views on the inflationary crisis But if you want to talk about the Yom Kippur, I guess we can do that And do you want to talk I mean should we mention now that some of your best sermon ideas come from the podcast?
Like you podcast and you think like oh pearl of wisdom The only your only request is that we were we release that you want the episodes released earlier in the week Yeah. So you can help with your sermon writing. It's actually a little insensitive. You should really structure them more around my sermon schedule.
And uh, last year you had Yuval Levin on right before the High Holy Days, and he was giving, you know, whole discussions about the social fabric that really were useful, and you should really structure your guests also around what will be useful [00:03:00] to the sermon schedule of rabbis around the world. I think you, you used something.
From him. That's right. Absolutely. That's right. That's right. Okay. So, Solly. Um, we're, we're approaching Yom Kippur. We're in that 10 day period here, from the beginning of Rosh Hashanah to through Yom, through to Yom Kippur. Before we talk about Yom Kippur, um, specifically, I feel like there are two, maybe three holidays that are most prominent in popular culture.
So whether you're Jewish or not, you know The Passover Seder. Overwhelming majority of Jews, from religious to secular, have a Passover Seder. Uh, it is, it is, um, I just find that it's a holiday that many non Jews know about. Uh, you and I talked about how most non Jews know about Hanukkah. They think it's like, the Jews, you know, it's their Christmas.
It's their, it's their Christmas. And then there's, um, And then there's Yom Kippur, which I'm always struck by that, that, um, so [00:04:00] many non Jews know about Yom Kippur. Uh, so much so that they, they know something about it, but they always, then always, they often wish me a happy Yom Kippur. Uh You should tell them that it's customary to give you presents for Yom Kippur.
Exactly! Gifts on Yom Kippur. So, first of all, before we talk, why these holidays? Like, why, why do, why do, um Why do so many people know about these specific Jewish holidays? Yeah, so let's unpack that for a moment, and uh, it's fascinating because on the one hand people know a great deal about all these holidays, but they actually, and here I mean by they, I don't just mean non Jews, I mean Jews in America as well, uh, at times fundamentally misunderstand, uh, what these holidays are all about and their relative placement within the Jewish year.
There's actually a very funny, very, very old, I bet we can find a link to this, a very, very old episode of the Daily Show, uh, when, uh, this is when Stephen Colbert was still funny and was on the, uh, was a correspondent. And it was around Hanukkah time and he did [00:05:00] this fake parody of Just as they usually have these stories about how Christmas has become commercialized, he did a story about how Hanukkah has become too commercialized.
And he comes to see a rabbi and he says something like, What has happened to this, to Hanukkah, this highest of high holy days? And the rabbi says, Well, I have to tell you that Hanukkah is not one of the highest of high holy Jewish days. And he says, Name one that's more holy. And the rabbi says, how about Passover?
He says, okay, I'll give you Passover. And the rabbi says, how about Rosh Hashanah? And Colbert says, all right, now you're just making up words. So the, the point, it actually hits on something very profound because Uh, what's known as the Days of Awe or the High Holy Days, uh, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, uh, are well known in culture.
They're not understood that well, by and large, I think because the non Jewish world knows about them due to the way the Jews have chosen to portray them and speak about them. in our [00:06:00] culture, and Jews themselves don't understand it. So, let me explain what I mean. Of course, Hanukkah is not one of, well, a very wonderful day, and of enormous importance, is not one of the holiest days in the Jewish year.
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which are ten days apart, are two of the most profoundly holy and important days in the Jewish calendar. But they're inaccurately described. Rosh Hashanah is called the Jewish New Year, which isn't quite right. Actually, Rightly understood, uh, there are two different New Years in the Jewish year.
The first is the month of Passover. Uh, the Book of Exodus says this month, the month of Passover, shall be for you the first of months. Meaning, in the Bible, the, the months of the year are counted from that month because that is marking the The origins of the Jewish nation, or what the Bible calls the people of Israel.
And then we have what today is called Rosh Hashanah, which means the head of the year or the new year. But [00:07:00] what we are marking here is a commemoration of creation. This is the new year of the world. Jews have two new years because we are both a people apart, but we are also a part of the world. And so what we are marking on Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur is actually the New Year of the world.
Or as I often say, Rosh Hashanah is not the Jewish New Year, it's the world's New Year, only just Jews know that. So, but we are thinking on these days about Our humanity and the fragility of life itself and the fact that because we are frail and fallible we have failed in the year that has passed and God judges our failures, the failures of all the world on these days and yet precisely because God recognizes our fallibilities and our frailties he is also open to the potential of repentance.
So we're simultaneously marking the incredible moral capacity of human beings. To begin again, to recreate and to grow and progress [00:08:00] in their lives. So then within Yom Kippur, it's not just Yom Kippur that's well known. It's It's Kol Nidre, which is the evening service that brings us into Yom Kippur. Those of you who've seen Al Jolson or Neil Diamond, depending on which, which version of the jazz singer you've seen, have actually Or, or the famous Simpsons episode parody of it, where, uh, Krusty the Clown is, uh, is, has a falling out with his father, because he pursued his dream of being a clown.
And the father, Rabbi Herschel Krestovsky, uh, famously voiced by, uh, Jackie Mason says, it would be one thing if he would become a jazz singer. So, uh, that's, I would also highly recommend that. Of course, of course, it couldn't be a conversation. In the genre, yes. With you, Solly, without some quick kind of detour.
Exactly. In reverence to the Simpsons. But be that as it may. Um, so Colney Dre is, is, is its own sort of institution. Right. Within these high [00:09:00] holidays. within this 10 day period, within specifically Yom Kippur. Uh, can you tell us why that is? Yeah. And, and, and, well, I have some other questions. But first, why, why, why does Kol Nidre stand alone almost?
So first let's, uh, explain how Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, uh, uh, unfold in Jewish liturgy in general. Uh, because even though they're both, They bookend the 10 day period of repentance and judgment. They're different in character. On Rosh Hashanah, the liturgy is not sad. The focus is not on our sins. We recall the creation of mankind by God.
We focus on our moral capacity for growth, and we proclaim God as sovereign of everything. the universe. Ten days later is Yom Kippur, uh, that is linked, even though there's a universal theme still to the day, it's linked to a moment in the Bible as well. According to Jewish tradition, it's on that [00:10:00] day that forgiveness was granted to Israel for the sin of the golden calf.
And a second set of tablets following Moses smashing of the first tablets after the sin of the golden calf, a second set of tablets, a sign of God's forgiveness was granted on that day. And so in following Rosh Hashanah on the 10 days leading up to Yom Kippur, and especially on Yom Kippur, our focus is on what's called in Hebrew teshuvah, which is repentance and vidui, confession.
We confess our sins to God and we resolve. to do better in the future. The central liturgy according to Jewish law on Yom Kippur is exactly that. All of the confessions of our sins. Ostensibly, none of this has anything to do with what has become the most famous liturgical piece of all of Yom Kippur, which is Kol Nidre, which begins the day now, and it means all vows.
Actually, here's a word that doesn't appear in the, in [00:11:00] the piece, it's repentance. Repentance doesn't appear. Even the word God. Doesn't appear in in this holiest of days and the holiest in the holiest service of the holiest day of the holiest days The word God does not one of the striking aspects of Jewish ritual in general is that you can have something whose language is Extremely technical but because of the mood at the moment it becomes endowed with a specific power so for example a wedding ketubah Is treated with veneration as a, as a symbol of a marital union, and many people hang their kaumba on, on, on the wall.
Should I, should I explain what a kaumba is? It's a document that's written out about the obligations involved in a marriage, and it's written out right before, uh, it's signed right before, uh, a wedding, a ceremony, a hoopa, and it's often read, uh, at the. Wedding ceremony itself. So it's taken on a power all its own and Kol Nidre [00:12:00] is like that.
Kol Nidre is a pronouncement. It's actually not technically even a prayer. It is a statement in the presence of the community regarding vows. Unknowing vows either that were taken in the past year or vows that will be taken in the year. to come. Extensively, it has nothing to do with Yom Kippur, at least superficially, and, uh, it seems to have nothing to do with repentance either.
And yet, once you understand its history, you can begin to uncover the power within this passage and why it has come to take on not only a central place within the Yom Kippur liturgy, but it has become a symbol of Yom Kippur itself. But in Kol Nidre, we publicly declare that All vows that we made in the, that we took in the previous [00:13:00] year.
Yes. are dissolved. We are almost given like a, like a quote unquote get out of jail free card. Well, so, I would not call it that. I know you wouldn't, you're a rabbi. Very important. mere, I'm just a mere, you know, congregant, you know, I get to say whatever I want. Exactly, but, but actually, uh, what you've described is not the standard, uh, version said by Ashkenazic Jews, uh, though it is probably the original version, and it is still said by Sephardic Jews, which is that you say, Essentially, all vows and oaths that I have taken from the last Yom Kippur until this Yom Kippur, all these I profoundly regret, and they should be annulled.
In the version of Ashkenazic Jews, it's for the year ahead. All vows that I will take from this Yom Kippur until next year's Yom Kippur, all those vows I profoundly regret. regret, and they should all be annulled. And we have to understand what's going on. Wait, all vows I will take? Yes, the one you say, Dan, you are, I think you're, I mean, I've only known you for I know, my [00:14:00] last name's missing.
But you're an Ashkenazi Jew. Senor is confusing for most people, huh? Your senior name notwithstanding. But, uh, but it's, but yes, I'm Ashkenazi. I am the other, and as you know, I I know, Spanish Portuguese synagogue. Yes. Spanish, Spanish Portuguese synagogue. But, but, uh, but in Ashken, what you, what you would, what you will say this Yom Kippur is about the year to come.
So maybe I should just We should unpack what's going on here in its history. So, uh, the Bible in, in Leviticus speaks of vows or oaths, what are known in Hebrew as Shavuot or Nidarim. And these, uh, can usually refer to promises made to God, either to do something or to prohibit something.
A standard oath in the biblical period can be something quite admirable. It can refer to a promise to bring an offering or a gift to the temple. But because a vow is considered sacred and there is a exhortation in the Bible [00:15:00] to fulfill whatever one has spoken in a vow or oath with one's lips, one can impetuously utter an oath or a vow.
or a vow that can dramatically and adversely impact one's life. So, rabbinic tradition declares that in certain situations, when it comes to certain vows, there can be cases in which those vows can be annulled by a court. One of those examples are, one of those examples is a case where one profoundly regrets that that vow has ever been taken.
And so one can come before a rabbinic court, describe the vow that has been uttered, express that I regret retroactively that this vow was ever uttered by me, and then the court can deli can decree that that vow was taken mistakenly, and that [00:16:00] therefore it is null and void. Now it's very important to stress here that what can be annulled are only promises to God.
It's not obligations between one human being and another. That can be a null. So not commitments you made or vows you made to your community, your family. Yeah, if I invested money in, uh, in let's say one of your ventures, and then I deeply regretted it, but I've already signed the contract. You would never.
You'd only be so lucky to. I, I, so I can't go to a rabbi and say, you know, or to a rabbinic court and say, you know, I deeply regret this investment I made with Dan. And they'll just wave their hand and say, it's null and void. He has to give you your money back. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way.
Even though. Uh, the annulment of vows has been twisted by anti Semites throughout history as a way of attempting to make the case for purported Jewish dishonesty. Uh, it [00:17:00] actually has nothing to do with agreements made between one human being and another. They refer to specific vows that one can Describe as having been made to God and that one can achieve for which one can achieve annulment for certain exigent situations.
Uh, one of, one of those being profound regret. Now that's the standard form of annulment of vows, and yet that's not what Cho nire is. K Nire was not organized by the rabbis, and it doesn't technically take place in front of a court. Okay. But yeah. Okay. But but before we get, yeah. Before we get to that, sure.
You, you can understand why some, not me, but why some would say You know, how much of a commitment is this really? Even as you say, it's a commitment. It's for, about vows to God, not vows to your community, not vows to your friends, not vows to your family members, not vows to your business associates. It's just a, it's between you and God.
Even if [00:18:00] it's just between you and God, the idea that you know, each year, that you get to come back the following year, and be released from, from the implications of having not lived up to those vows. And you just get to start all over again. Like, that is often the I mean, you say it opens up an anti semitic trope, but it, but, obviously, yes, but be, but you can understand also not, not the anti semitism is, is its own issue, but just the, the question of like, how is it possible to just walk into synagogue every year and just get all your vows, all your fidelity to those vows released and, uh, or your expected fidelity to those vows released and, and, and, uh, uh, kind of, uh, etch a sketch.
So two, so two points have to be made here. The first is. that actually what you're describing is one of the aspects of the development of this liturgy that that rabbis didn't like. In other words, the enum de vows, [00:19:00] as described in the Talmud, is not a blanket ritual. You come to a rabbinic court and you discuss one specific vow.
And if it's discovered that you truly regret it or there are other exigent circumstances, you can be released. What happened here was a It was something different, in which this developed not among the rabbis, unlike most liturgical developments in Judaism. What happened here is that the people started coming to synagogue before Yom Kippur, uh, aware that they may have taken vows that they failed to keep, and feeling very worried now before Yom Kippur about the prospect of standing in judgment before God, and then Treating the congregation, or perhaps the cantor of the congregation, or perhaps the cantor of the congregation, surrounded by two others as effectively a Jewish court, they would, right before entering Yom Kippur, declare that the vows of the past year were all deeply regretted, [00:20:00] and therefore should be annulled.
And what you're saying is actually what many rabbis said throughout history. Which is, that's not how this works. That's how I think of myself, by the way. You know, you, you treat me like a mere congregant, but I, I think of myself, I'm asking the questions that the real, serious, senior rabbis were asking in the 8th and 9th century.
Exactly, you are rightly a rabbinic scholar, just as I am rightly an expert in inflation and world economies. So, um, and, and, uh, that's precisely what they said, exactly what you said. That's not how this works. You want to do an annulment of a vow? It's a serious process. You come to the court. You discuss the specific vow.
There's an actual requirement, actually, for being what's called in Hebrew, mipharet, to describe in detail the vow. And, and then achieve a release from the vow, an annulment of the vow, after an expression of profound regret or other exigent circumstances. [00:21:00] But here, that's not what's happening. It's not a court.
And you're not describing specifically how you're just asking for a blank at a moment. So that's precisely what the rabbi said. And yet, Dan, the people persisted in doing it. And if they did, it's because there's another response to what you're saying. So let's review your rabbinic argument. Okay, yes. Okay.
Better coming from you. Yeah, you said, look, you said, look, this is not how it's supposed to work. You can't just Come back year after year and just annul the past or look forward to the future and say you know what I'm annulling All of my irresponsible vows in the future. That's not how that that seems strange and yet Dan in a certain sense That's kind of how repentance is too, right?
I mean, I'll speak personally. Obviously you have nothing to regret and But I however, I'm a flawed human being and so I'll just speak about my own circumstances It [00:22:00] happens to be that every year I look back on the year and I realize that there were actions of mine that I deeply regret. They could be actions, choices I made vis a vis other human beings.
At times they could be actions vis a vis my relationship with God. And every year I'm coming back to God and saying, God, I'm sorry, I failed and I want to do better. So, uh, the question you're asking, why does this? make any sense. On the one hand, it's a good question. On the other hand, one could turn your question around and ask that about repentance itself.
Why does God allow us to come back year after year and say, God, I, I, I, I failed and I deeply regret the same words. I deeply regret my failures and I'm going to, and I'd like you to absolve my [00:23:00] mistakes based on my sincere commitment. to move forward. And so here we get to the basic question of perhaps the most One of the central questions of Jewish thought and of the Bible itself.
Why does repentance make any sense? Which is of course the question that's raised not by the beginning of Yom Kippur But by the end of Yom Kippur in the book of Jonah where the Prophet Jonah is sent to the Assyrian city of Nineveh to tell them that they are about to be punished for their sins. Jonah And originally we don't know why he doesn't want to go.
And he comes eventually to the city and he says, you're all going to be punished for your sins. And they all repent and God changes his mind and forgives them. And Jonah says, I knew this would happen. This isn't right. They did wrong. They deserve to be punished. And God says, what do you want me to do?
They, they, they, they, they regretted their sins and I have mercy on them. And I'm, and I'm open to. The human capacity for change and growth and [00:24:00] growth. So the response to your question to your rabbinic sage question is Actually the response to the original rabbinic complaint against Kol Nidre And it's the reason why despite many attempts to get rid of Kol Nidre Dan made by important rabbis from the the 8th or 9th century to the 19th century all attempts to get rid of Kol Nidre failed because Ultimately, this quasi legal or extra legal development from the masses, whether or not it actually legally works, has a power all its own because it is more than just a technical absolution, uh, annulment of oaths.
It is the embodiment of what repentance is, which is that human beings have the capacity for change. And [00:25:00] regret is the emotion that motivates that change. We look back on our past year. If we were free to have done differently, then we are right to regret our choices. If we couldn't have chosen differently, then regret makes no sense.
But because we could have chosen differently, therefore regret is the proper reaction. But the corollary is that the very freedom with which human beings are granted of which regret is the ultimate sign, also highlights the fact that we can use that freedom to create a new future in the year to come.
And a better version of ourselves. And so that's why, that's ultimately why Colnage Ray endured. Not because of what it says about oaths or vows, but because of what it says about the human condition. So you, in this Wall Street Journal piece that you wrote that I referenced in your introduction, you say freedom It's a beautiful quote, [00:26:00] freedom is what allows human beings to sin, but it is also what allows us to change.
That's right. Which is, I think, what you're saying here. Exactly right. There were philosophers, uh, who as part of the rebellion against Judaism, like Spinoza, said that repentance is silly. You can't change the past, he said. What's the point? What's the point of feeling regret about something that occurred in the past?
And Spinoza argued that, because Spinoza also denied human freedom. We regret something because we realize that we really could have done better. There's a, uh, Henry Kissinger has a famous story somewhere, uh, about a professor at Harvard, where, uh, uh, someone, I don't remember if it was Kissinger himself, or someone wrote a paper for the professor.
Uh, and, uh, uh, the professor, uh, wrote to the student on the paper, he wrote, Is this the best you can do? The student thought, No, and he worked really hard on the paper and came back with a better version. Again, the professor wrote, Is this the best you can do? This happened [00:27:00] several times until the student, in frustration, handed the final draft of the paper to the professor and said, I've worked really hard on this and this is absolutely the best I can do.
And then the professor said, Fine, now I'll actually read it. Okay, so, the point is, That that's great. Regret Motive is motivated by the fact that we realize that we have not done as, as well as we could have. And the central words of K Nire, which were not necessarily there in the earliest incarnation of it, but made its way in it pretty soon after, is an Aramaic Kon Ana Bajon.
And whether you're talking about, as in the Ashkenazi version, the vows of the year to come, or in the Sephardic version, the vows of the past year. Or if you're talking about the vows of the past year, the central words, I deeply regret these. That's highlighting not just the essence of vow absolution.
It's highlighting the essence of our moral capacity [00:28:00] and what we should be getting out of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which is a universal message. It's not just for Jews. And before we let you go, just, and you talked a little bit about it here, and you talked about it more explicitly in the, in the journal piece about how, unlike most liturgical innovations, at least in Jewish history, Colney Dray was often if not consistently opposed by the rabbis, which I didn't even realize right up Yeah, it wasn't just the 8th and 9th centuries right up through The 19th century, which I can you believe people didn't just listen to the rabbi.
It's unbelievable. It's a Shonda. So so I guess Like I'm having a hard time visualizing that like if you have century after century of Jewish masses Frustrated with the rabbinic leaderships Decision or opposition to what they're trying to accomplish. How does that manifest itself? Like what are they doing?
Are they sending around petitions? Are they I mean, I'm not not literally sitting but like how's how's this? [00:29:00] How's this fundamental disagreement? with rabbinic leaders expressed? Well, first of all, let me just say a kind word for the rabbis. Of course. That's very, very important. Uh, the rabbis knew that when this is taken, becomes, and is twisted by anti Semites Uh, it, we're not just talking about in those days, you know, a bit of bad PR, they're going to be the ones who are going to have to go and defend that and as I, and explain what's really happening.
Uh, as I wrote in the journal piece, there were debates to which rabbis were dragged in the courts of kings. where they had to defend Judaism against all sorts of anti Semitic calumny. And one of them was the anti Semitic argument that Kol Nidre shows that Jews don't really care about keeping promises.
So, it's not going to be the masses who will be forced to defend why this is taking place. It's going to be the rabbis. And they're going to have to do it in [00:30:00] In a very dangerous situation where Jews do not have freedom of speech and they'll be walking a tightrope rhetorically in what they can say in defending Judaism against calumnies.
So it was the rabbis who knew they would have to deal with, with, with how this would be twisted. At the same time, what this emphasizes is that some of the most emotional aspects of Yom Kippur are actually the ones that touch us in ways that are not purely legal and therefore do not necessarily have So, if you just ask someone, let's say, within the Ashkenazic liturgical tradition, what are the three most [00:31:00] powerful moments of the Yom Kippur experience?
They will probably list three stanzas, none of which are obligatory and none of which are, according to technical Jewish law, essential to Yom Kippur. They are Colnage, right? Yizkor. Yizkor, right. Yizkor, where those who have lost. Just explain what Yizkor is. Yizkor is Also in Ashkenazer, Sephardic Jews do not say Yizkor, but, uh, but, but.
They don't say it ever or they just don't say it on Yom Kippur? No. Wow. No, that's, that's, you're, you're highlighting your Ashkenormativity, Dan, and actually Uh, I actually feel that this podcast is no longer a safe space, uh, and I don't, I don't feel safe. And, uh, uh, you'll be hearing from my attorneys, uh, so, um, but, but explain, okay, but explain what the Yizkor is, Yizkor developed after actually a massacre of Jews that took place.
Uh, and it became a way of remembering, uh, Jews who had died and, uh, and it's basically [00:32:00] just a pledge to charity in, in, in memory of and in merit of the memory of a lost loved one. And it's traditionally said by those, especially those who have lost parents, uh, and it, it, it's taken on an emotion all its own.
It's almost like a service within a service. It's like, it's anywhere from like 10 to 25 minutes, depending on the congregation. And it's really mostly just those who participate in it are those, as you said, have lost, lost someone immediate, and everyone else almost leaves. I remember as a kid, when the Eucharist service would begin, I was, like, ushered out to go play outside.
Though what happens often now is you will see that those who have not Lost whose parents are living will go out and then everyone will come in and what will often be said is Memorial prayers for those murdered in the Holocaust or right though and so you'll see everyone joining in specific Memorial prayers, but again, what was the third?
Yes, there's a second. What's the third? Unetana tokef. Unetana [00:33:00] tokef, which is also only in Ashkenazic liturgy and It contains the famous words describing how on Rosh Hashanah on Yom Kippur, God decides who will live and who will die, who by fire, who by water, who will be elevated, who will be demoted, and how our own prayer and righteous action can avert a terrible divine decree.
And again, You're not obligated to say that liturgical piece, but for so many it captures the very power and essence of the day. So if you asked me, you only had, uh, five minutes on Rosh Hashanah and five minutes on Yom Kippur, for whatever reason, let's say, you had other things to do, you know. So what would you need to do to have a real Rosh Hashanah?
I would say, if you don't have shofar on Rosh Hashanah, you don't have a Rosh Hashanah. That's the essence of Rosh Hashanah, is the, that's the central mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah. [00:34:00] Uh, but. Um, people would want to say, Unetanetokef, and for Yom Kippur, you can skip Kol Nidre, you still have a Yom Kippur. You could skip Yizkor, you'd still have a Yom Kippur.
You could skip Unetanetokef, you'd still have a Yom Kippur. But if you don't say the Ashamnu and the Alcheit, those are the liturgies of confession to God, where you confess your sins and you resolve to do better, then you don't really have a Yom Kippur. So, uh, that's the technical obligation, but emotion has a whole different role, and tradition has a whole different role.
So the story of Kol Nidre, uh, captures how, uh, emotion and symbolism can endow certain words with a power all its own, one that at times even the rabbis Uh, as awe inspiring as their authority may be, uh, may be, uh, unable, uh, to impact. And as I noted in the Wall Street Journal article, just to [00:35:00] conclude, Dan, as controversial as the development of culinary may have been, it's, it's a stanza that has a great deal to teach the world today, because In the age of cancel culture, we have a tendency to do the exact opposite of God in our society and to define people forever by their worst moments.
Right, give them a reputational life sentence. Yeah, no matter how much they regret. Whereas, of course, the very concept of these words I regret. is at the essence of what Kol Nidre is, and it teaches us, as I wrote in the journal, that it's better to cancel words than to cancel people. Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, of blessed memory, once remarked before Yom Kippur that today we live in an unforgiving age.
And yet, forgiveness does not mean a denial of responsibility and man's moral capacity. What Kol Nidre teaches us is [00:36:00] actually that a discovery of our moral capacity is at the heart of repentance. And actually, regret can go hand in hand with the most optimistic approach. to the immense power with which we have been endowed, as well as our ability to define a year of growth in what lies ahead.
That's beautifully said, Solly. Thank you, uh, thank you for joining this conversation. Would you like to hear my predictions about, uh, where the inflation rate is going? Or we'll just, we'll just No, let's stick to Torah. We'll stick, okay. Let's stick to Torah. Okay. I don't know. There's a lot of investors. You know, disputes between rabbis and the Jewish masses.
There are a lot of investors who have stayed Let's stay in your wheelhouse. who have stayed on this conversation, who didn't, who don't care at all about Kol Nidre because they just want to hear. They're just bracing. There's Also, they want your midterm projections. You know, what Absolutely. I mean, there we'll have to go through You'll have to have me back for that.
Well, I'm going to have you back. This is [00:37:00] a big breakthrough. I mean, you're I have a feeling we're going to get the Saloveychik surge in downloads following this, which means, you know, people are going to be clamoring for more Sali. So, it won't just be Mohammed Al Arian and Mike Murphy and, you know, Richard Fontaine and Neil Ferguson.
Added to the list. Um, well I won't say have a, I won't say have a happy Yom Kippur. I'll be expecting my Yom Kippur present in a minute. But I will say, I hope you have a meaningful fast. Not an easy fast, but a meaningful fast. Thank you. And I know this is an extremely busy time for you and you folks in the rabbinic business.
As my teacher, Rabbi Norman Lamb, said, for rabbis, the days of R are the awful days. So, but, uh, we'll get you back on. I appreciate you making the time and giving the time. Thank you, Dan. A blessed year to you and your family. Alright, same to you.
That's our show. To keep up with Rabbi Soloveichik, you can [00:38:00] not follow him on Twitter. He's not on Twitter. I mean, I guess he lurks, but he doesn't actually have a Twitter handle. But you can go to mayorsoloveichik. com, and I actually will spell it. M E I R S O L O V E I C H I K Call Me Back is produced by Ilan Benatar.
Until next time, I'm your host, Dan Senor.