I HOLIDAYS Adat Shalom Synagogue cordiolly invites you to attend A Congregational Tribute Dinner honoring - CANTOR LARRY VIEDER The Curious Case Of Kol Nidrei BERNARD S. RASKAS Special to The Jewish News K for thirty years of devoted service to the congregation Sunday, October 21 Adat Shalom Synagogue Cocktail Reception 5:30 p.m. Dinner 6:30 p.m. Followed by Guest Speaker, Cantor Samuel Rosenbaum Executive Vice President of the Cantors Assembly, CANTOR SAMUEL ROSENBAUM and o Musical program by Cantor David Bagley, internationally known concert performer Couvert $40 per person Please respond by October 10 CANTOR DAVID BAGLEY Honorary Chairman DANNY KNOPPER Honorary Associate Chairmen Adat Shalom Post Presidents Sol Moss Gerald Rosenbloom Milton Shiffman Rudolph Shulman Joel Gershenson Max Goldsmith Judge Ira G. Kaufman Norman Leemon Norman Allan Julius Allen Irwin Alterman Barbara Cook Dinner Co-Chairmen Sharon and Martin Hart Arrangements Shabbat Kiddush Beverly Liss Guest Hospitality Judy Leder Elaine Rosenblatt Pam Salba Beverly & Robert Dock Babette & Willard Posen Paul Magy Larry Wolfe Sponsors Invitations Tickets Roberta Blitz Arlene Lubin Sidney Feldman Asher Tilchin Reservations and Seating Terron Leemis Shelly Newman For Information and Reservations, call 851-5100 24 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 28. 1990 ol Nidrei is one of the most popular and powerful prayers to be found in Jewish liturgy. Yet it is not really a prayer but a legal formula which does not even mention the name of God. The origin of its famous melody is unknown and its inclusion in the prayer book was strongly opposed by several prominent rabbis. The setting of Kol Nidrei, which begins the Yom Kippur service, is that of a Jewish court. Two people hold Torah scrolls at either side of the cantor, thus con- stituting a Beth Din, a court of three which is required for the legal procedure of gran- ting the dispensation from vows. The Kol Nidrei is preceded by a brief paragraph invok- ing the Academy on High, which is the heavenly body of rabbis. Because the recita- tion is in the nature of a court procedure, which could not be conducted on a holi- day, it is recited before sunset. Since it is chanted before dark, it is the practice to put on the tallit, or prayer shawl. The text is a declaration of the annulment of vows. It is a precise legal formula in which the worshiper pro- claims that all personal vows, oaths, etc. that they made unwittingly, rashly or unknowingly (and which consequently cannot be fulfilled) during the year should be considered null and void. However, it should be pointed out that the Talmud (Yoma 8:9) says explicitly, "Yom Kippur atones for sins against God. Yom Kippur does not atone for sins against another human be- ing until one has placated the person offended." In order to understand the nature and function of Kol Nidrei, we must go back to biblical times, when it was common practice for people to make vows that could not possibly be honored. After the Second Temple was destroyed, this practice continued among the people. The leaders of the commun- ity were troubled, for they Rabbi Bernard S. Raskas is rabbi emeritus of the Temple of Aaron in St. Paul, Minn. viewed a person's word as his or her bond. Failing to convince the people of the desirability of avoiding rash promises altogether, the rabbis of the Talmud finally created a formal ritual for annulling unkept vows. No one knows for certain, but it probably was started around the ninth century. Rav Amram's siddur con- tains the first complete known text of Kol Nidrei, quite different from the talmudic legal formula. Kol Nidrei was a collective rather than an individual annulment. It is a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic, the common language then in use. There are two other ex- planations for its introduc- tion. According to Rabbi Mordecai ben Hillel, who lived in Germany in the 13th century, this formula was instituted by Rabbi Meir ben Baruch, the Maharam MeRothenburg (d. 1293), to permit transgressors who had been excommunicated because of their defiance of communal regulations to worship with the congrega- tion. Toward the end of the 19th century, Joseph Bloch pro- posed the theory that Kol Nidrei arose in the seventh century when secret Jews, who had been converted to Christianity after persecu- tion by the Visigoths (590- 711), would come to the syn- agogue on Yom Kippur eve. According to Mr. Bloch, Kol Nidrei was their expres- sion of overwhelming grief at their apostasy, and was their means of seeking ab- solution for vows they had been forced to take to an alien faith. Mr. Bloch claimed that in subsequent centuries, dur- ing persecutions by the later Byzantine rulers (700-850), and still later under the Spanish Inquisition (1391- 1492), the Kol Nidrei served a similar purpose. When it first appeared, it was condemned by many ge- nerations of rabbis. It was opposed on the grounds that it offered an easy means to avoid personal obligations. The spiritual power of Kol Nidrei among the people resisted every challenge put to it over a period of 10 cen- turies, and it comes down to us today as one of the most beloved liturgical elements in all Judaism. Jewish Telegraphic Agency