![]() ![]() What matters is that they take responsibility for the entire Jewish people – past, present and future – in relation to their fellow humans, and in relation to the God of Israel: One for all, and all for one.Īs the Talmud puts it, “All Israel mutually responsible.” The biblical Book of Deuteronomy, too, is packed with laws for the entire people of Israel as they are about to enter their promised land, so that they “may prolong your days upon the land.” Commandments about theft, mercy and caring for the stranger and the orphan, for example, are explicit blueprints for a functioning, socially just state – not just guides to individual or universal morality. The language of the liturgy uses “we,” not just “I.” It does not matter whether individuals reciting the liturgy have erred in the specific ways the confession mentions. The focus of the services, in other words, is not exclusively on personal sin and salvation. Instead, the Viddui affirms a long list of wrongdoings for which all congregants repent: Among other things, “We and our fathers have sinned. Yet Jewish “confession” is neither an affirmation of faith nor a purely individual mea culpa. “Confession” may also suggest a creed: “I believe in X, Y, Z – and that my belief will save my soul.” One of the Yom Kippur liturgy’s distinctive elements is a section called the Viddui – the “confession.” That word may summon images of a one-on-one encounter with a priest in the privacy of a small, partitioned booth. Notably, Kol Nidre plaintively asks, “May all the people of Israel be forgiven, including all the strangers who live in their midst, for all the people are at fault.”Ĭantor Azi Schwartz performs the Kol Nidre at Park Avenue Synagogue in New York. This poem asks God to preemptively annul any oaths Jews will make to God unknowingly or involuntarily, or ones they cannot fulfill. As a prelude to the first Yom Kippur service, a cantor or another skilled congregant sings the famed Kol Nidre: the Renunciation of All Vows. On the eve of Yom Kippur, before its onset at sundown, Jews return to their synagogues. Confession – as a community – on Yom KippurĪfter Rosh Hashana, the mood darkens as Yom Kippur approaches: the Day of Atonement. Thus the people, along with their history as a political community, remained the protagonists of a comprehensive cultural system – not the relatively narrow, private sense of “faith” that the word “religion” can suggest. These took the place of activities that the priests of the temple had performed. Afterward, rabbinic law radically democratized the Israelites’ rituals, mostly as liturgical services. Ideally, the services require a “minyan,” or quorum of 10 adults – as do many Jewish rituals.īefore 70 C.E., when Roman legions destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, sacrifices at its altar were an important component of Jewish social, political and ritual life. ![]() Notably, Jewish law has it that individuals should not mark the High Holidays alone. During the High Holidays, the sound “opens the gates of heaven” so that congregants’ acknowledgment of divine sovereignty can enter God’s abode and inform his judgment. Yet the centerpiece is the loud blowing of a shofar, a ram’s horn, whose powerful blasts the biblical book of Joshua describes as bringing down the walls of the city of Jericho. The services begin with attendees’ recitation of an ancient liturgy that underscores God’s kingship over the universe. Whether they occur in traditionalist or modernist settings, Jewish New Year ceremonies are mostly held in synagogues. Walsh/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images Rabbi Carolyn Braun blows into a shofar during a 2013 service in Portland, Maine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |