Kol Nidre

This year we will be holding our Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur services at a new holiday location. We will be meeting at the Brio Escape, 230 W. Clubhouse Dr., Washington. We’re pretty excited about it and masks are optional. We’re pretty excited about it as these will be our first in person services since the Covid shutdown and masks are required. Daniel Gaisford, cellist, will again be performing moving rendition of Kol Nidre. Kol Nidre, (“All Vows”), is a prayer sung at the beginning of the service on the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). The name, derived from the opening words, also designates the melody to which the prayer is traditionally chanted.

The first communal prayer service of Yom Kippur actually takes place immediately prior to sunset on the evening of Yom Kippur. This service is called Kol Nidrei (“All Vows”). These are the first words of a special legal formula that is recited at the beginning of this service and is chanted three times. This legal ritual is believed to have developed in early medieval times as a result of persecutions against the Jews. At various times in Jewish history, Jews were forced to convert to either Christianity or Islam upon pain of death.