(Oct. 1) — YOUR FEEDBACK can help keep me fresh and on the right track. After you have participated in (i.e., attended) your final TJC service for this High Holy Day season, please let me know your experience via this online survey.
(Oct. 1) — DURING THE LAST half-hour or so of Yom Kippur, those whose heart so moves them can come up to the Ark for a few moments, to offer a quiet personal prayer.
If you feel moved to come up, please do so — either as an individual, or together with someone who matters to you. (In deference to others who may be waiting, please don’t linger in front of the Ark for too long.)
(Oct. 1) — TOWARD THE END of Yom Kippur, as the sun gets low in the sky, you may be feeling faint from fasting. Or you may be soaring from your experience of repentance, purification, and divine forgiveness. In any case, when we reach that point in this holy day, our rabbinic tradition expects us to up the ante:
Beginning with our final communal elaboration of Amidah themes, the ark stays open until the end of the Neilah (“Locking the Gates”) Service. Therefore it is customary to remain standing — out of respect for the Torah as a symbol of the divine Presence — for the rest of the service, until the Ark is closed again.
Whether you yourself remain standing or not is up to you. Perhaps see if you can rise to the occasion.
(Oct. 1) — THE TECHNICAL NAME for the Yizkor (Memorial) service is Hazkarat Neshamot (“Mentioning of [Individual] Souls”). At the TJC, this collection of prayers is one of the highlights of our communal Yom Kippur experience. Here, it consists of the following four parts:
- You take a turn sharing a reminiscence of the person(s) whom you are memorializing. As you do so, you pick out one of the small stones provided and set it atop a symbolic gravestone, emulating the Jewish custom of leaving such a stone when visiting a person’s grave.
- You recite individually the paragraph that begins with the word Yizkor: “May [God] remember...,” with a particular individual in mind. (It is from this principal prayer that the Yizkor service got it usual name.) As noted in this paragraph, mourners traditionally pledge a tzedakah contribution or an act of service, to honor the memory of their loved one. Our book prints this prayer in several parallel forms, in which the wording differs slightly. Pick the one that matches your own relationship to the deceased.
- The leader chants the El Malei Rachamim. This prayer asks that the souls of all our departed “rest in peace.”
- We recite the Mourner’s Kaddish aloud together.
(Oct. 1) — TRADITIONALLY, the Avodah Service recounts (via a dramatic Hebrew prose-poem) the ancient procedure (described in the Mishnah) that took place in the Jerusalem Temple each year on Yom Kippur: the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies, in order to effect ritual purification there.
Today each of us is the high priest of our own inner sanctum. We’re responsible for our own personal purification. Meanwhile, we try to support each other in completing that process.
In that spirit, for the 6th year in a row, our Avodah Service affords individuals with an opportunity to bring an offering to share with the community. By an “offering,” I mean a song, poem, chant, story, or the like. Each offering should be intended to assist all of us in our personal inner purification.
If you have something to offer us, please let me know before our hour-long service begins. (It is the first service after our afternoon break, preceding the Yizkor Service.)
(Oct. 1) — KOL NIDREI HAS ALWAYS been a controversial declaration. Why should anyone be relieved of responsibility for one’s promises?
Here is my understanding: Kol Nidrei nullifies only the following vows:
- made impulsively to ourselves; and
- for the purpose of self-discipline, spiritual achievement, or religious commitment.
A court (as a third party) has no power to dissolve our other obligations. The promises at issue must be only those that we break because, although we do not realize it at the time, what you express with our words is only a wish — not a true, affirmative decision.
But why annul vows in advance? Because we might be so worried about failure to change that we will not dare to try. Our declaration of Kol Nidrei suggests that it may be better to try even if we will fail, than not to try at all.
(Oct. 1) — TRADITIONALLY, Yom Kippur is (among other things) a time of remembering one’s ancestors. Just prior to the start of the holy day, as deceased loved ones come to mind, it has been a thousand-year-long tradition to light a 25-hour memorial lamp or candle at home. A verse in the book of Proverbs (20:27) has been translated to allude to this custom: “The human soul is the lamp of God.”
While lighting a memorial candle, no specific ritual is prescribed. Let me suggest that you say the following: “May so-and-so’s memory be a blessing!”
And even if the candle is still burning after Yom Kippur is over, the custom has been to let it keep burning — until it goes out by itself.
(Oct. 1) — ON YOM KIPPUR, some people [both men and women] are accustomed to dress in white—like the angels on high. Thus they wear a kittel (caftan or surplice) because it is white. It is also the clothing of the dead—and by wearing such, a person’s heart is humbled and broken open.
—Rabbi Moses Isserles (Crakow, Poland; 1570), gloss to Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayyim § 610.4
(Sept. 23) — THESE TWO animated dialogues will surely help you to get ready for my sermon on Yom Kippur morning. More important, it will help you get ready for true repentance and forgiveness. I highly recommend them for their thought-provoking messages as well as their artistic excellence. (Plus they reproduce Israeli mannerisms in an endearing way.)
“When is the last time you genuinely apologized? What makes an apology worthwhile?”
“Is there any benefit to forgiving? Is there a “right” time to forgive?”
(Sep. 18) — TO BRUSH UP on the Mourner’s Kaddish in time for the High Holy Days (especially the Yizkor Service), listen to this recording of me reciting it.
You can also find the text of the Mourner’s Kaddish online.
(Sept. 15) — WHAT DOES prayer have to do with healing and repentance? Anyway, how can we pray if we are interrupted by distractions? According to the masters of Jewish prayer, true prayer sees distracting thoughts as an integral part of the prayer experience. It’s all about resolving apparent conflicts at a higher level. Here is a handy one-page summary.
Instrumental Accompaniment
(Sept. 11) — OUR WORSHIP may be accompanied by musical instruments during the following specific times:
- the start of a service, to help us get warmed up
- the Torah parade
- the Avodah Service
- the end of the Ne’ilah Service.
For some of us worshippers, such accompaniment helps us to be prayerfully engaged as we sing. The instrumental accompaniment is situated to support our spirituality while leaving room for traditional prayer modes during the main services.
(Sept. 11) — For many years on Yom Kippur night, I’ve been telling a story of reconciliation and forgiveness—different tales with a similar theme. This year, for the first time, I’ll share a story about someone whom I know personally. Rabbi Naomi Levy is an esteemed colleague who lives about 6 miles away from me. She and I don’t know each other well, but we have spoken with each other, and we’ve heard each other teach Torah. At any rate, I will present her story “Hope Will Find You”—as she composed it and I’ve edited it. And I think that it will be just the right Yom Kippur story for you.
(Sept. 5) — “You need to know that one of the greatest remedies that the prophets picked for Israel was the practice of reading the Torah aloud.
“The Torah Scroll contains what was conveyed to us from the Blessed One so that we would dwell on it, and by such means divine illumination would be drawn to us.... For special occasions, according to their particular theme: it is appropriate that passages be read aloud that touch upon those themes, to strengthen the day’s illumination via the Torah’s power — which is the most potent source of spiritual power that we possess.”
—Derekh Ha-Shem (God’s Way) § 4.8:6 by Rabbi Moses Chaim Luzzatto (Padua, Italy; ca. 1735); transl. © 2010 by David E. S. Stein
(Sept. 5) — GOING UP TO THE TORAH for an aliyah can be a powerful experience. So perhaps you might appreciate some basic tips.
Steps to Success
- Know the meaning and purpose of an aliyah.
- Watch a training video. Rabbi David Paskin stars in a well-produced “how-to” video (7:15) in a Conservative setting (Temple Beth Abraham, Canton, MA): “Jewish Journeys: Participating in the Torah Service.” He covers the subject well!
- Memorize the Torah blessings; here are the words with melody (blessing before, and blessing after). (And here is a rendition with transliteration.)
True Prayer