Kol Nidrei Service

uh gemartov may you be inscribed for blessing in the book of life a new year opens before us and we approach it uncertain yet with hope for we cannot know what lies ahead of us the opportunities and temptations this new year will bring the pleasure and the pain on the threshold we pause in this quietness to think about the past year and in the silence to consider how we used it we begin our prayers this evening on this journey our soul will awaken to itself we will venture from innocence to sin and back to innocence again this is a journey from denial to awareness from self-deception to judgment we will learn our divine name we will move from self-hatred to self-forgiveness from anger to healing from hard-heartedness to brokenheartedness this is the journey the soul takes to transform itself and to evolve the journey from boredom and staleness from deadness to renewal it is the journey from little mind to big mind from confinement in the ego to the sense of ourselves as part of something larger it is the journey from isolation to a sense of our intimate connection to all being we continue with a negoon a chance for us to take in the beauty of this moment [Music] you i i [Music] we turn to the kindling of the lights of yom kippur the human spirit is the lamp of god searching out what lies within us guided by the flame of conscience this sacred night we search for truth shine your light upon us as we strive to serve you may we find safety in your faithful love we light the flame of healing and forgiveness on this atonement night we give thanks for love the human spirit [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] ah [Music] me [Music] so [Music] a teaching by rabbi david stern in its emphasis on humility cole nidre provides a corrective to the toxic certainties of polarized discourse what if we approached each other with the humility to recognize that our most confident convictions will always be qualified by the limits of our own knowledge and understanding in its haunting melody and strangely legalistic language we begin to sense the twilight of truth our high horses too often stumble and our soap boxes stand on shaky ground cole nidre grants us the gift of sacred uncertainty the chance to begin this new year with a sense of what we do not know rather than a narrow certainty about what we do it's what buddhists call beginner's mind what if every time i were ready to proclaim some self-evident truth i allowed cole nidre to whisper in my ear says who i invite you to rise in body or in spirit [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh oh [Music] he luxury [Music] love [Music] [Music] ray oh [Music] [Music] need [Music] um [Music] ah [Music] ah cool [Music] r [Music] [Music] um [Music] please join me in chanting this third and final setting of these ancient words as this day of atonement begins may we begin to release our imperfections setting ourselves and everyone we know free so that we can live at peace with ourselves and with one another creating the possibility of wholeness in this broken world [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] all shall be forgiven the entire community of israel and the stranger who lives in their midst for all have gone astray in error stem [Music] [Music] moses prayed to god as you have been faithful to this people ever since egypt please forgive their failings now in keeping with your boundless love this [Music] [Music] [Music] and god responded i forgive as you have asked you may be seated we move into our evening service turning to the bar who page 22 in your prayer books [Music] i [Music] i am [Music] my foreign [Music] we continue on page 25. 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 through word or deed to break free from wrongdoing and return 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 cole 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 baruch ah is [Music] it is [Music] um [Applause] [Music] foreign is [Music] when we lie down and when we rise up this joy will last forever when we lie down and when we rise up this joy will last forever forever is [Music] town we continue on page 28 with the shema the call that honors the legacy the unity of all life [Music] i [Music] i [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] m [Music] with all your souls and with all your minds and all these words which i command you on this day shall be in your heart shall be upon my heart and you shall teach them diligently unto thy children and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house [Music] rise up and when you lie down [Music] and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes and you shall ride them on the doorpost of your house and upon your gates and upon your gates that you may remain and do all of my commandments [Music] and be holy unto your god unto your god unto your god [Music] when fears multiply and danger threatens when sickness comes when death confronts us it is god's blessing of shalom that sustains us and upholds us lightening our burden dispelling our worry restoring our strength renewing our hope reviving us continue [Music] with me the song [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] our prayer for asuka of shalom to hold us page forty two [Music] i understand among us let peace and friendship be our shelter from [Music] let peace and friendship be our shelter from life's storms hush [Music] [Music] um [Music] oh oh [Music] [Music] let peace and friendship be our shelter from life [Music] [Applause] [Music] let peace and friendship be our shelter from my source [Music] we turn to page 45 as we prepare to enter the ami da on this evening of col nydre i invite you to rise in body or in spirit [Music] for on this day atonement shall be made for you to purify you from all your wrongs and pure you shall be in the presence of adonai [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] a [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] man from tophia tofila to vidue to slihot a reading that can be found on page 49 of your prayer book tefillah is a journey from the god of the ancients to my rock and my redeemer on most nights you stand on the holy summit of tefillah and see before you a land that calls out for redemption for healing for peace a world that needs you cole nidre is different te fela tonight is an inward journey that takes you deep within yourself pierces you to your core you stand on the holy summit of this tafilah and see before you the land within a weary soul yearning to be forgiving longing to be loved we turn to our amidah that begins on page 46. [Music] i [Music] [Music] with me [Music] is [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hello [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh take this time friends [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] you oh [Music] oh [Music] with that beauty in our ears we turn our hearts to prayers for healing a return of wholeness into this world we continue on page 340 in your prayer book please join with me may the eternal one who blesses all life bless and strengthen all of us who struggle against illness may we whose lives are touched by illness be blessed with faith courage love and caring may we experience the support and sustenance of family friends companions and community may we be granted restful nights and days of comfort we pray for refuge precious moments of healing and a sense of wholeness in body and soul may those whose care for the sick may those who care for the sick with their hands their voices and their hearts be blessed with courage and stamina may those who pursue healing through medical skill and knowledge be blessed with insight patience and compassion may all of us the sick and well together find courage and hope and let us say amen [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] the oh of [Music] to strength our lives a blessing and let us me [Music] oh [Music] of spirits let us see [Music] we continue our prayers for wholeness and shalom shalom page 81. [Music] [Music] ah [Music] the alcohol [Music] [Applause] [Music] says [Music] is [Music] the [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] we move into the vidue section of our service on page 82 our god and god of all generations may our prayers reach your presence and when we turn to you do not be indifferent adonai we are arrogant and stubborn claiming to be blameless and free of sin in truth we have stumbled and strayed we have done wrong [Music] [Music] [Music] no [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i am page 83 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 the 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 and 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 continue on page 86 please rise in body or in spirit [Music] we have wronged you deliberately and by mistake and harm we have caused in your world through the words of our mouths [Music] the ways we have wronged you by hardening our hearts and harm we have caused in your world through careless speech [Music] the ways we have wronged you through lies and deceit and harm we have caused in your world through gossip and rumor [Music] busy the ways we have wronged you by judging others unfairly and harm we have caused in your world through disrespect to parents and teachers the ways we have wronged you through insincere apologies and harm we have caused in your world by mistreating a friend or neighborhood [Music] the ways we have wronged you through violence and abuse and harm we have caused in your world through dishonesty in business [Music] [Music] [Music] the [Music] oh [Music] all the ways we have wronged you openly and secretly and harm we have caused in your world by losing self-control [Music] the ways we have wronged you through sexual immorality and harm we have caused in your world through consumption of food and drink [Music] the ways we have wronged you by giving in to our hostile impulses and harm we have caused in your world through greed and exploitation [Music] the ways we have wronged you through cynicism and scorn and harm we have caused in your world through arrogant behavior the ways we have wronged you by hating without cause and harm we have caused in your world through offensive speech [Music] the ways we have wronged you with a slanderous tongue and harm we have caused in your world through a selfish or petty spirit [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] know page 98 hear our call adonai our god show us compassion accept our prayer with love and goodwill [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] no [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] know [Music] we continue calling the attributes of compassion on page 100. [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] continue on page 106 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey [Music] i [Music] die we prepare to hear avinu malkanu turning to page 113 rising in body or in spirit avinu malcanu show us the way to a year of goodness renew our belief that the world can be better restore our faith in life restore our faith in your [Music] [Music] i oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] of [Music] oh [Music] [Music] okay [Music] oh [Music] [Music] i am so honored to be speaking to you as the new president of shertikva when i was a kid i loved hearing stories of my parents childhoods my dad grew up in a house with his brother and his eight aunts and uncles his mom my grandma sophie helped raise her younger brothers and sisters well my grandpa phil helped support the family making sure that sophie's siblings would be able to go to college my dad told me about adventures on streetcars playing pickup baseball setting pins at his uncle's bowling alley getting kicked out of jewish day school his stories evoke the image of a scrappy immigrant experience with a whole family pulling together and helping each other my mom grew up in a beautiful house filled with antiques and artwork her father bob my bapa was a doctor her mother jean my granny dealt with her own hearing loss by founding a school for other people with hearing impairments granny and bapa were society people with subscriptions to the opera and symphony they belong to a jewish country club i loved hearing how my mom rebelled against all that insisting on applying to a public exam school to avoid the private school her parents wanted her to go to what i am struck by today though is the different flavors of judaism represented in their stories and how those judaisms evolved with the compromises and changes that came with each new generation sophie came to the us as a child around the turn of the 20th century her parents were non-religious socialists from warsaw phil came at about the same time from lithuania his father was a cobbler a religious jew what in today's world we would probably consider orthodox when sophie and phil married they had to blend their two versions of judaism into a single family experience sophie kept a kosher home so that phil's parents could eat with them but she also encouraged my dad to go play football on yom kippur she enjoyed eating ham whereas phil honored his father's memory by walking to the shul his father had gone to my mom's family on the other hand emigrated from germany in the mid-1800s i don't know exactly what brought them to the u.s but they seem to have adventurers and entrepreneurs taking the train to st joe missouri the end of the line where they brewed and sold whiskey to western-bound settlers the family ultimately moved to cincinnati where they became established upright citizens they were assimilated jews who celebrated the high holidays hanukkah and passover but fit as seamlessly as they could into the surrounding non-jewish society they had ties to the newly formed hebrew union college and followed its classical reform practices classical reform for those of you who grew up around here was a primarily a primarily midwestern movement that stressed the importance of jewish beliefs and ethics but had much less religious observance services were filled with grandeur and pomp and organ music and except for the shema and kaddish prayers were said in english only the rabbi and choir used hebrew my parents marriage was shocking for its time in the 1950s it was not the done thing for german and eastern european jews to mingle unless of course it was german jews helping their less fortunate brethren one of my father's uncles refused to attend their wedding considering my mom not jewish enough and i'm sure many of granny and bapa's friends were shocked that my mom would marry into a family who were so new to the u.s and seem so traditional when my parents set up their home in st louis they chose to join a small young classical reform congregation that opened its doors to interfaith families it was a spunky little congregation run primarily by volunteers that nonetheless maintain the decorum expected of classical reform rabbi rosenblum the rabbi at my temple willingly performed interfaith weddings at a time when most rabbis would not even consider that i like to believe that my parents chose an especially open congregation in response to the fuss that the jewish community had made about their marriage my mom's rebellious nature may have played a role in that choice as well so i grew up in a congregation in which i was surrounded by kids whose parents came from different faith backgrounds to me that felt natural that people might have lots of different ideas and beliefs but would still want to come together for a shared experience what i didn't know is that classical reform itself was rapidly going out of fashion to be replaced by a more modern reform jewish experience when it was time for college i went to brandeis and there i encountered that more modern jewish experience which to me felt completely foreign it seemed that everyone at school knew all these jewish things that i didn't know anything about debbie friedman's songs from summer camp rituals and the holidays i'd never heard of hebrew prayers that i knew only in english i started to question my judaism was i somehow not a valid sort of jew and then right in the music department at brandeis i met my husband tim a non-jewish boy how i managed to meet and fall in love with a non-jew at brandeis is another story what did this relationship mean in terms of my jewish identity although i had grown up around many children in interfaith families it still felt different when it was my decision obviously i chose to marry tim but i struggled with this choice and promised myself that i would help my own children feel more comfortable with their jewish identities tim's family had its own story of compromises his father joe was jewish another socialist atheist jewfling eastern europe immigration story while his mother phyllis was raised as a methodist in a tiny little town in the catskills named olive bridge phyllis's parents had never even met a jew before meeting joe tim's parents chose to raise him as a unitarian which for them seemed like a good middle ground now when tim and i began looking for a community to join i hope you can see where this is going let's just say that chertiko was the first congregation we encountered that truly felt comfortable for both of us unitarianism didn't sit right with me i really did want to have a jewish family but the other jewish congregations in the area left me feeling at sea with my classical reform background and frankly left tim out in the cold at chu tikvah no one made any assumptions about who we were or where we were in our journey with judaism no one asked what jewish camp i'd attended or expected us to just automatically know when to bow and when to stand although i felt i had catching up to do to plug the gaps between my upbringing and this more modern version of judaism i didn't feel that anyone else felt that way about me or even looked slightly askance at tim our children sophie and joe were educated here this community offered them just what we were looking for a place where they could feel comfortable in their jewish skins learn to make their own choices and respect other people's experiences and choices i can't picture a better place for them to have learned these things they are now on their own jewish journeys and we'll have to see where those take them i guess what i'm saying is that we all make choices and those choices can have ripple effects we can't imagine i think each of my grandparents would be extremely surprised to see me speaking to you as temple president and each for very different reasons but hopefully they would be pleased their legacy their history all those compromises led me to where i am today as for all of us we are all a combination of legacies and choices this year suretiq is working to secure its long-term future with a planned giving campaign a legacy campaign and we'll be inviting each of you to contribute by including the temple in your estate plans participating was an easy decision for me because i know that making a contribution even a small one will make a difference in shoring up our beautiful chirteka community in future years i want part of my legacy to be that cheertech lives on to invite many generations in to travel their jewish journeys as i expect is true for lots of you my road to chertiko was a circuitous one when i think back to all the generations before me all the differences and compromises i feel grateful that judaism has the flexibility to evolve and adapt the judaism makes it possible for a place like shiratika to exist a place where everyone can grow and learn and be the people we are at this moment in our lives at your tikvah you and i are on our own journeys each of us contributing to this beautiful community that supports us all there's a lot happening at shuteka right now although the delta variant brings some uncertainty our lay leaders and clergy continue to refine guidelines for how we can be together safely we also now have some very cool technology that will turn our temple building into a hub for connection making it easy to participate in activities both remotely and in person our committees are planning events bailey is gearing up for a great new year of learning core and rabbi kerry and beth are preparing for upcoming services and life cycle experiences we thrived during this past year coming through with strong finances and a growing membership and we will keep building on our strengths as we navigate in this changing environment we continue to find opportunities to support each other to celebrate together to learn and pray and grow i can't wait to experience it all with you thank you again for giving me the opportunity to serve as chertik vice president and may each of you be sealed for a good year thank you amy for sharing your family's story and for leading our community in this time yasher koach we prepare for the prayer of memory this holy night concludes with memory our last thoughts always are of those we have lost we miss them especially tonight yearning for their presence at our side the service we have shared once was theirs they spoke and sang the ancient words they prayed repented and yearned for better lives as we have done flawed in their deeds imperfect in their faith they still drew strength from their tradition as we seek fortitude in ours what was good and beautiful in their lives once gave us joy and now inspires us to reach higher the knowledge that they loved us deeply brings comfort to our hearts may their memories be a blessing and forever i invite you to use the chat function of the technology you are joining using to join our community this evening to share the names of those whose spirit lives on in your heart we pray that their goodness will live on in our lives planting seeds of kindness and hope for generations to come please rise in body or in spirit as we weave our voices together becoming a community of memory yit gadav s is [Music] [Music] [Music] may the source of peace bestow peace on all who mourn and may we be a source of comfort to all who are bereaved to which we all say amen you may be seated return to page 127 [Music] return again return again return to the land of your soul return again return again return to the land of your soul [Music] return to what you are return to who you are return to where you are pardon [Music] return to the land of your soul [Music] return to what you are return to who you are return to where you are born and reborn [Music] again return to the land of your soul return again return again return to the land of your soul [Music] the talmud teaches like the morning star whose light bursts forth so israel's redemption will come bit by bit at first bigger and bigger as it makes its way the poet marsha faulk writes slow spin of earth against sky imperceptible yet making the days one stone tossed into the current and the river ever so slightly rising may this moment be for each of us the first incremental shift that leads us home gamartov may you be inscribed for a blessing in the book of life you

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Length: 104min 48sec (6288 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021