Dispelling the Yom Kippur Myth
Tech Tribe Dispatch 123
💡 Think:
There’s a misconception about Yom Kippur: Namely that it’s a sad day. It is by all means a serious day. But sad? Depressing? In any way unhappy? Perish the thought. It is in fact a joyous day.
Yom Kippur is the day in which we strip away the layers of our soul, where we look inside and touch the pure, primordial spark within us - where we are always whole and one with our Creator. We touch that beautiful, precious part in each and every one of us that is incorruptible.
Think about the Kol Nidre prayer. It’s a spectacular moment at the outset of Yom Kippur - a deeply moving melody with a strong emotional pull. Yet the Aramaic words themselves are seemingly baffling when the translation is read:
All vows, prohibitions, oaths, consecrations, restrictions, interdictions or equivalent expressions of vows, which I may vow, swear, dedicate, or which I may proscribe for myself or for others, from this Yom Kippur until the next… Let our vows not be considered vows…
Why do we put so much pomp into the seemingly legalistic annulment of vows?
It’s because Kol Nidre is the moment where we emancipate ourselves from the tethers of self-doubt, personal limitations and negative bonds we may have accrued over the year. We touch the Divine, which frees us from ourselves so that we may find our true selves.
Each prayer throughout the day is an act of dicing deeper within… The confessions are thus an act of intimate catharsis with the only One who truly knows us.
So we dive in until we come to Neilah, the closing prayer, where nothing else is there besides our essence and G-d’s. We are one.
🏃 DO:
🙏 There is a custom to give to charitable causes before Yom Kippur. Please take a moment to support Tech Tribe. Join our High Holidays appeal! We’re going to do amazing things together.
🍋🌿 Join us for a Sukkot meal, the evening of September 20th!
🎧 Listen:
John Zorn - Kol Nidre, String Quartet in D Minor
🎬 Watch:
Join our Sounds of the High Holidays experience with Eli Marcus!
📚 Read:
🎨 Baruch Nachshon, Pioneering Chassidic Artist, 82
A founder of the post-1967 Hebron community was supported and influenced by the Rebbe since his teens.
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