Kol Nidre

[Music] me [Music] do [Music] [Music] you [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] [Music] um [Music] um [Music] hey [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] so [Music] hey [Music] [Music] me [Music] me [Music] hey [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] um [Music] um [Music] me [Music] [Music] please rise [Music] oh foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] we're on page 251 in the sight of god and of the congregation no matter how far some of us may have transgressed by departing from our people and our heritage we pray as one on this night of repentance call nidre a whisper of wings as promises are remembered saint and sinner alike communes with the most high we are at one heart of all life from this day of atonement to the next may we reach it in peace all israel makes these vows to turn from sin and wrongdoing and to walk in the way of your law the path of justice and right yet we know our weakness how prone we are to fail help us to keep these vows made with controlled hearts we have come to seek pardon and forgiveness let all our vows and oaths all the promises we make the obligations we incur to you oh god between this yom kippur and the next be null and void should we after honest effort find ourselves unable to fulfill them then may we be absolved of them [Music] cold [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] ah [Music] um [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] dreams [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] say [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] me the moon [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] continue on page 253 with the shahrianu as we thank god for having reached this moment in our lives [Music] you breathe us here [Music] you keep us here [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] my [Music] me [Music] together [Music] [Music] sustaining our life on [Music] good jantiff we are so grateful to have all of you worshiping with us this evening this cole nijre perhaps not exactly the cole nadre we imagined last year but let us say also that it is a large step in the right direction and we look forward we hope that next year 5783 we will once again fill the sanctuary as well as the internet with people who are watching i want to acknowledge that normally at this moment we would have had past presidents and the leaders of our congregation to share this moment with us during the procession of the suffraeto torah but for obvious reasons we're trying to reduce some of the activity on the bhima in order to make sure that everyone is safe and everyone is healthy and of course overall that's our wish for you for the next year we have a fabulous service in store we're so glad that you've joined us we're so glad that you've joined us and we're going to continue now with the lighting of the yomtov candles [Music] [Music] hello [Music] [Music] let's [Music] shall you [Music] page 253 we rise for barhu [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] you may be seated [Music] day and night are yours creative spirit of the universe the muted colors of twilight the radiance of dawn yours are the spreading wings of light the deepening shadows of darkness an ever-changing drama in the human heart too the struggle between darkness and light unfolds from sunlit heights of generosity the human heart sinks to the gloomy depths of selfishness although we fall you give us the strength to rise again you call on those who hurt the word or deed to break free from wrongdoing and turn back to you all who hear your call to goodness are embraced all who reject emptiness and evil find acceptance from you we come into your presence this night of col nidre aware that our shortcomings and weaknesses are many yet encouraged by your promise of forgiveness we choose freely the path of repentance restoring wholeness to our lives and holiness to the world blessed are you adonai creator of twilight and dusk page 255. [Music] don't know [Music] [Music] you shall love you shall love your soul with all your [Music] your songs teach these words [Music] [Music] [Music] throughout all time [Music] teach these words [Music] and you shall work them on the darkness of your house and on your gates throughout all times [Music] [Music] we are on page 256 as we read [Music] responsively true and enduring are the words spoken by our prophets you you are the living god your word brings life and light to the soul you are the first and the last besides you there is no redeemer or savior you are the strength of our life the power that saves us your majesty and your truth abide forever you have been the help of our people in time of trouble you are our refuge and all generations your power was manifest when we went free out of egypt in every liberation from bondage we see it may your law of freedom rule the hearts of all your children and your law of justice unite them in friendship may the righteous of all nations rejoice in your love and triumph by your power o god our refuge and our hope we glorify your name now as did our people in ancient days is [Music] [Music] she foreign [Music] [Music] go is [Laughter] [Music] and number six with transliteration [Music] oh up my lips that my mouth [Music] do [Music] do let me be seated [Music] me [Music] is [Music] she [Music] we sing with joy [Music] you have a choice [Music] we will see [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you have a choice you [Music] [Music] in this precious moment of personal prayer when the words of our hearts and meditations deep inside of us are ascending to the gates we take this moment to hold deeply the names of those in our community who are in need of healing body of mind of spirit call those names to mind in your hearts right now and as we share the words of mishibera prayer of healing let those words to ascend to the heavenly one of blessings oh [Music] may the source of strength bless the ones before us help us find the courage to make our lives and let us [Music] the renewal [Music] and let us [Music] when i was young and learned the alphabet thanks when i was young and learned the alphabet life was open to me a was full of aspiration b was for beauty c for confidence and d for dreams and so on through the list no fewer than 26 opportunities 26 possibilities and yet i fear that with some passage of time i've squandered them creating instead a's of apathy bees of brusqueness and seas of coarseness help me then to return to that innocence let the letters be letters once again and let them rise to the heavens and form into the words that you know i wish to say page 269 we rise together let's read together the top of the page our god god of our mothers and fathers grant that our prayers may reach you do not be deaf to our pleas for we are not so arrogant and stiff-necked as to say before you i deny our god and god of all ages we are perfect and have not sinned rather do we confess we have gone astray we have sinned we have transgressed [Music] [Music] yo [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] knew [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] the sin we have and the sin we have committed against you openly or secretly [Music] the sin we have committed against you with our [Music] the sin we have committed against you by hardening our hearts hashem the sin we have committed against you by profaning your name the sin we have committed against you by speaking slander the sin we have committed against you by dishonesty in our work and the sin we have committed against you by hurting others in any way [Music] they are [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] please be seated return in our cedar rim to page 278 278. our god and god of all generations may the sense of your presence never leave us may it keep us ever faithful to your covenant make us responsive to your teaching that we may walk in your ways fill our souls with awe and our hearts with love that we may return to you in truth and with our all our being eternal god let the strength of our longing for you help us to grow in the wise use of our powers that through us your power make me magnified in human life so we may hallow this world and labor to redeem it [Music] oh cool [Music] so [Music] my turn [Music] ah [Music] [Music] things [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] i [Music] to feed [Music] please rise we are on page 280. remember those who went through fire and water for your sake be mindful of us and help us be gracious and answer us for we have little merit treat us generously and with kindness and be our help [Music] [Music] so [Music] um [Music] [Music] mmm [Music] mmm [Music] [Music] avid [Music] oh [Music] [Music] the [Music] foreign [Music] um [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] the story goes rabbi yehoshua ben levy just happened to meet the messiah one day and so he asked him my master my teacher when will you arrive on this earth the answer today some time passed clearly the messiah had not come and rabbi yehoshua happened to come across elijah the prophet and so he asked him elijah what happened did the messiah lie to me no said elijah the messiah would have come that day if only you had heeded god's word ah this story of not hearing not heeding is a foundational one in the story of our people our prophets like isaiah jeremiah hosea spoke to kings and commoners alike about how they needed to change their ways heed the words of adonai is this the fast i desire isaiah declaimed excoriating his jews for going around going through the motions of piety while ignoring the sufferings around them and when the people ignored god during the good times god spoke through jeremiah have i been a wilderness to israel or a land of thick darkness why then do my people say we are free we will no longer come to you hosea even tried to get through to israel by showing rather than telling he tried to convey god feeling ignored and betrayed by marrying a known prostitute just as everyone would know that she was cheating on him so israel should know that we were cheating on god still wouldn't listen the prophecy of jonah that we'll read tomorrow is the exception that proves the rule leaving aside the whale god tells jonah to go to nineveh this great and non-jewish city and warn them that unless they fixed their wicked ways god would destroy them nineveh was so big the scope of the problem seemed so large yet jonah marched up to the king warned god of impending punishment and immediately this non-jewish king put sackcloth and ashes on directed his people to change and the city was saved by contrast when jews heard words of biblical prophecy we paid lip service to them or ignored them and all at our peril the lesson if nineveh can heed words of truth when they hear it why can't we in our day we know that kernels of truth come from many different sources not just from god or the biblical prophets yet the same question remains will we heed it pay lip service to it ignore it today our world is sharing its truth of climate change and there are profits in the form of scientists politicians and activists who exhort us to action and change whether it's al gore the politically savvy voice or greta tunberg the iconoclastic and underdog voice or even the lorax who spoke for the trees each cries out for our attention and asks us to acknowledge the potential for looming disaster do these voices speak truth that we heed we pay lip service to or we ignore perhaps the truth coming from our fellow human beings will resonate black and brown individuals cry out sharing their stories of unequal treatment of brutality of pain the critique or itself or the manner in which it's shared may make some feel uncomfortable but then they are sharing their truth in a way that feels authentic to them just this year we heard voices from aapi the asian american and pacific islander communities who experienced an uptick of visible naked violence and burst forth with their stories and their truth these individuals reminded us about the myth of the model minority demanded that we contend with the nuance and multiplicity of aapi experience and background forced us to recall histories of oppression whether building america's railroads locked away in internment camps or segregated through housing covenants or redlining and our jewish community ourselves subject to that myth of the model minority we've experienced a dramatic uptick in anti-semitism only a few years ago i held the position based on my own experience growing up as a jew in los angeles that anti-semitism was a phenomenon that would die out i can no longer say that as i contemplate the mass shootings of pittsburgh and poway the stabbing victims in new york city the assaults here in los angeles jewish students are being forced to defend their people in class or online and so we too cry out proclaiming our truth that all those made in god's image are worthy of respect and decency hoping that someone will hear our prayer will care will they heed us pay lip service to us ignore us cisgender non-binary gender fluid gay straight asexual queer these words as signifiers are just labels but ones that speak truth to how a person sees themselves internally and how they wish to be understood in the world when a person changes their name or establishes a different set of pronouns or shares their sexual identity they communicate intimate words of prophecy from the truth found within i would hope that when someone trusts us with this piece of who they are that we will heed and honor that truth as we do here at temple judea rather than pay lip service to it or ignore it and finally it's often that truth within ourselves that can be the most elusive and perhaps the most illuminating we learned this from the book of second kings when elijah the prophet also cries out his truth and prophecy only to be ignored yet once he listens to his cold his still small voice inside himself he's able to move forward with his work and re-engage with the people once more each of us has that internal voice that emanates from the divine spark deep within each living being the one that speaks truth into our conscious mind through silence through stillness but how many of us are able to quiet ourselves enough to hear that voice let alone heed it all of these truths all of these stories coming from all over the place often compete and can overwhelm us we want to honor them the lived experiences the truths embedded in each narrative but which one first which one should we follow and will we have the energy to heed them all one reaction in the face of this overwhelming noise is all too familiar run just go and hide like elijah who first fled to sinai to escape the world like jonah who fled god's call in both of those instances it was too much for them too much brokenness too much to undo too much for any single person to take on how many of us see ourselves in those reactions hearing myriad voices and just shutting down surely if we bury our heads in the sand and ignore those voices eventually it'll all just pass us by another reaction in the face of the overwhelming noise is to exclusively tune into those voices that most align with our own narrative the social isolation of these past 18 months brought this phenomenon into starker view michelle goldberg of the new york times observed that stuck at home we had more time to get sucked into internet rabbit holes the algorithms on social media increase this tendency to validate our own beliefs it continues to feed us the articles and videos that garner our attention the ones we either very much agreed with or the ones we very much did not and it's become increasingly difficult to see and hear the other side when we lack this opportunity to organically engage given the limitations imposed by lockdown or media silo the israeli author and poet amos oz give voice to this sense of a strainment estrangement he said millions and millions of people in many places wake up in the morning and start loathing those who do not agree with them or those who think differently or those who look to them as an immediate threat on their way of life i think loathing begets fanaticism and in the end loathing begets hatred and violence as oz and goldberg illustrate and we all experience one way to limit the deluge of information or truth coming our way is to read and absorb only that which is aligning with me maybe paying lip service to their truth before ripping it apart in favor of my own but while social distancing has made it easier to lean into our echo chambers it also ripped off any blinders we may have had to the social ills in our world we've seen much belated reckonings around racism sexism and many other inequities in some ways the fact that the pandemic cut us off from so much enabled us to hear the voices of communal and individual truths in a new way and maybe we've had more time to reflect on our own lives and perhaps how we each can repair the world whether during pandemic times or beyond so we know we cannot bury our heads in the sand ignore the challenges of our world or the stories of one another all of these realities and truths come at us rapid fire and once we hear them we cannot claim ignorance but it's overwhelming it's like mixing frequencies on the radio making it hard for us to discern and determine our own understanding of what we hear and again we turn to our prophets for guidance on how to cut through and tune in through the static you see our prophets stories do not end with their fear and their flight instead when elijah finally hears that called mama zakah that still small voice he answers and he returns to the world returns to his mission of healing others and bringing god's word to the people jonah flees too and yet the power of human connection reminds him of his duty as the storm that punished jonah for his flight threatened innocent sailors he chose to save them by jumping overboard to stop god's storm it's through relationships however fleeting through seeing each other's truths in their stories that these prophets are able to forge connections get their messages out make a difference in people's lives almost always remember understands relationship in this way when he says i listen to my political rivals sometimes with fear and trembling sometimes with awe sometimes with near panic but always with a curiosity of nuances curiosity of language curiosity for the story behind the impossible position oza's curiosity his empathy his sense of humor are the tools he uses as a sacred listener not because he has any obligation to agree with what he calls their impossible position but rather because their humanity demands that he does because another person's truth is not supposed to be some meme or some joke some tv show that we can consume or move on it's not changing your profile picture or reposting someone else's words and thinking that's enough the act of hearing someone else's truth the act of sacred listening it is sacred because it demands something from us when we hear the truth of another person created betselem elohim in the image of god it's as if we are being shaken by the caller from our slumber being obligated to action and yet we know our normal response dismiss minimize ignore but what would it look like to change the story to engage in sacred prophetic listening before it's too late when the earth cries out to us when the scientific consensus and our own experience testifies to the need to change our ways will we listen will we act when another person of color is killed when another lgbtq youth takes their life because they do not feel accepted or heard will we listen will we act sacred listening affirms that truth is important truth we agree with truth we may not agree with truths of communities whose experience we do not share the challenges of our world are overwhelming but our sacred listening can turn into achievable action whether it's leaving your thermostat a few degrees higher or ensuring that you recycle maybe it's being fully present and supportive when someone comes out to you it's ensuring your family is part of racially and socioeconomically diverse communities and experiences it's saying i believe you and i hear you when someone shares their story of pain and discrimination it's being an ally with your words your actions and your dollars it's making an effort to hear and learn the stories of others not because it's popular today or because there's violence in the streets but because another human is sharing their experience their sacred truth with you let's return to the story of rabbi yohoshua ben levi who had asked why didn't the messiah come when he said when elijah responded that the messiah had not come because rabbi yahushua had not heeded god's voice elijah shares a message with us as well the only thing keeping the messiah the figure who would signal a better future for us all the only thing keeping the messiah from coming is our failure to listen in this coming year how will we do better than rabbi hoshua how will we listen what truths will this bring and how will we together heed our sacred stories and lead ourselves to a world worthy of that better brighter dare i say messianic future kenya ratzon as we were blessed last week or i was to say i was blessed last week i think you were as well but speaking for me to hear and learn from my colleague rob i can't or with it i feel equally blessed to hear and learn from my colleague rabbi rosenstein and have an opportunity to listen carefully um rabbi rosenstein and i have have a wonderful relationship where he exposes me to a lot of things that i need to learn and uh that's a good thing for me and i hope it is a good thing for all of you so i'm grateful that i had an opportunity to learn from you on this evening of cole nigeria we're going to conclude our service with the elenu the text for the elenu that we'll be using is on page 156 and i'd invite us to rise please [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] my [Music] through the kaddish page 283 birth is a beginning and death a destination and life is a journey from childhood to maturity and youth to age from innocence to awareness and ignorance to knowing from foolishness to discretion and then perhaps to wisdom from weakness to strength or strength to weakness and often back again from health to sickness and back we pray to health again from offense to forgiveness from loneliness to love from joy to gratitude from pain to compassion grief to understanding and fear to faith from defeat to defeat to defeat until looking backward or ahead we see that victory lies not at some high place along the way but in having made the journey stage by stage a sacred pilgrimage is a beginning and death is a destination and life is a journey a sacred pilgrimage to life everlasting this moment in our service let us call to mind those whom death has recently taken as well as those whom died at this season in years past the kaddish is on page 284. yet gaddafi dash is is may the source of peace and peace to all who mourn and comfort the bereaved among us and let us say together amen on behalf of our entire team here at temple judea we wish you an easy fast we wish you a day in which you can put your worries and stress at ease and spend the day in contemplation and reflection that you will know the comfort of dear family and friends and that tomorrow evening as the gates close you will look forward to a year of blessing renewal and health these are words inspired by the priestly blessing a blessing that asks for god to shine god's light upon us and through us and to keep us safe in peace these are words inspired by the lovingkindness meditation they ask for loving kindness and compassion and grace and peace say these words with us cain yehid's what that means is may it be god's will [Music] may i be safe [Music] may i be free may i find space space to just be can you hear us on may i find my way back home can you hear us all can you hear us may i find my way back home tonight someone someone who has been good to us a teacher a friend someone who brings a smile when we think of them we open up our hearts and we offer them this blessing may you be safe may you be free may you find in space [Music] to justice [Music] you find your way back [Music] and now we call to mind someone who might be difficult for us someone who's a challenge someone we don't but we open up our hearts because we know we know that when they are safe we are safe and when they are free we are also free and we dig deep inside maybe deeper than we know we have inside and we try to offer this blessing [Music] may you be safe may you be free you find space may you find a space can you hear us you hear a song can you hear us and we call to mind all that is good here the love in this community the hope in this community the connection we provide everyone in this room and also for everyone out there who's watching on the internet the good we can do together we open up our hearts and we offer all of ourselves this blessing may we be safe here we go together may we be safe may we be free may we find [Applause] space to just [Music] may we find our way back home may we find our way back are you finished with a good seal an easy fast to everyone so [Music] hey

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Length: 108min 11sec (6491 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021