Here are some of the sharings from Cantor Raechel Rosen from our High Holy Day services.
Choir Shofarot
We read God’s commandment of Isaiah in our Yom Kippur haftorah: “Cry out full throated, don’t hold back; lift your voice like a shofar.”
Everyone has their own, individual voice. Each one is holy. It is said that the shofar blasts are meant to imitate the sound of a woman giving birth. A ram’s horn imitating the sound of human creation, on the day the world gives birth to itself. Today, we will continue this cycle of imitation by mimicking the call of the shofar with our voices. The choir will demonstrate how to do this for Tikia and sh’varim t’rua, and then we will all call out together for T’kia g’dolah. May our voices come together in piercing cries to help bring about a new day for our world.
Zichronot
Reb Nachman of Breslov wrote: “Hat’fillah m’segulah L’zikaron”- “Prayer is a Segulah, a protective charm, for zikaron, for remembrance. Through praying, we honor and remember our ancestor’s covenant with God. We remember the essence of our covenant: to BE a blessing.
13 Attributes
Here we are, wrapped in tallit in an evening service. Why do we wear a tallit for Kol Nidrei? When Moshe ascends Sinai to ask forgiveness for the golden calf, he says to God “I really wanna see you.” God says: anyone who sees me dies. But I’ll show you my back.” And Moses sees God in a tallit, and receives the 13 attributes of divinity. We wear our tallit to embody these holy traits.
Kol Nidre closing
“The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment. Every sin already carries grace within it, all small children are potential old men. All sucklings have death within them, all dying people—- eternal life. Everything is good. Everything is perfect, death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly. Everything is necessary. Everything needs only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding, my turning toward.” – Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
Vidui
God says to Moshe at the burning bush: “My name is Y-H-V-H. I am gracious and compassionate. I am forgiveness itself.”
The time has come for our confession. I think of the pounding of our hearts not as punishment, but like a defibrillator— it jolts us back into our lives.