The Meaning of Kol Nidrei

[Music] yon kipor is the holy of holies of Jewish time the time when you can almost touch the divine presence so intense is the atmosphere of the day and it begins at night with col nidre the prayer whose haunting music has the power like no other to unlock the gates of the Jewish heart and yet did you ever look at the actual words themselves never was there a more more unusual prayer in fact col nidre isn't a prayer at all it's a formula for undoing vows releasing us from obligations we didn't really mean to undertake it's a legal document one that wouldn't be out of place in a lawyer's office inspiring it isn't never was there a greater disconnect a deeper dissonance between the music and the words the words are pro the music Sublime so so how did it happen we can't know for sure the origins of kidre are lost in the mid Mists of time but the most plausible suggestion about kidre or the words that preceded giving permission for us to pray with abaran transgressors go back to the Middle Ages to the times of forced conversion there were times under Christian and sometimes even under Muslim rule when Jews were faced with the choice convert or or die abandon your faith accept ours or will be forced to kill you to save your soul and some Jews did convert they were known in Hebrew as the anusim the people who acted under coercive pressure non-jews called them conversos or the insulting term Morano meaning swine it happened in Spain and Portugal in the 15th century but it happened in visigoth Spain as early as the 7th century yet many of them remained Jews in secret they kept what they could without risking their lives and once a year on the holiest of knights they'd come to the synagogue asked to be admitted and they would pray a prayer asking God to hold them innocent of vows they' made under the threat of death it was a way of saying please God understand that we didn't want to abandon you we just wanted to live you who know the heart know this the Jews we are Jews we hold ourselves to be and Jews we will remain what an extraordinary story that is some years ago at a Civic service I was approached by a very aristocratic British politician he said I'm so glad you're here my wife wants to meet you she's Jewish you know well he introduced his wife to me and she told me her story her family had been Christ Christian for more than 500 years there were conversos from Spain yet in all that time they never forgot that they were Jews and who knows whether one day her children or grandchildren may not find their way back to the synagogue and know more deeply than the rest of us the meaning of kidre which is why what's happening today in the Jewish world is so sad today there are no pressures forcing us to give up our faith to the contrary we are Freer than Jews have ever been yet throughout the diaspora one young Jew in two is deciding not to marry another Jew create a Jewish Home have Jewish children and continue the Jewish story what an irony Jews survived poverty but they're failing to survive affluence they survived oppression but they're failing to survive Freedom when they had almost nothing to thank God for they thanked him but now when we have almost everything to thank God for we forget to thank him this year let so resolve to live that our children or grandchildren the next generation of Jews will want to stay Jewish live Jewish lives and continue the Jewish story how do we do it by living it ourselves with pride with joy with a sense of privilege that we are part of the most remarkable story of any people who have ever lived the people who taught the world about the one God who created us in love who forgives us cares for us lifts us when we stumble gives us hope when they when we stand on the edge of Despair who believes in us more than we believe in ourselves the God our ancestors never forgot even when they were forced to pretend to be someone else think of that as you listen this year to the music and the words of kidre and may God bless you in the coming year shat [Music]