” The Midrash goes on to say that God was so impressed by Moses’s argument that He agreed to forgive the Israelites.
If we take this interpretation, then Kol Nidrei is not just an annulment of vows we have made to God. It is a reenactment of that primal moment when Moses annulled God’s vow in order to secure forgiveness for the people. It is a moment of divine compassion and human forgiveness, a moment when the power of repentance is at its height.
Kol Nidrei, then, is not a dry legal formula. It is a symbol of our deepest hopes and fears, our greatest aspirations and regrets. It is a moment when we stand before God and each other, acknowledging our failings and seeking forgiveness. It is a moment of profound humility and deep faith, a moment when we dare to believe that even our most grievous sins can be forgiven.
In this light, Kol Nidrei is not a relic of the past or a response to external pressures. It is a living, breathing expression of the eternal bond between God and the Jewish people, a bond that transcends time and space, history and circumstance. It is a moment of redemption and renewal, a moment when we can begin again, cleansed of our past mistakes and ready to embrace the future with hope and courage.
So let us say Kol Nidrei with all our hearts, knowing that in its words lies the promise of forgiveness and the possibility of transformation. Let us embrace its mystery and its power, its enigma and its beauty, and let us allow it to work its magic in our lives, now and always. Amen.
“I hereby absolve You of Your vow” (abridged from Exodus Rabbah 43:4).
According to the Sages, the original act of Divine forgiveness on which Yom Kippur is based came about through the annulment of a vow, when Moses annulled the vow of God. The Sages understood the verse, “Then the Lord relented from the evil He had spoken of doing to His people” (Ex. 32:14) to mean that God expressed regret for the vow He had taken – a precondition for a vow to be annulled.
Why would God regret His determination to punish the people for their sin? On this, another Midrash offers an equally radical answer. The opening word of Psalm 61 is la-menatzeach. When this word appears in Psalms it usually means, “To the conductor, or choirmaster.” However, the Sages interpreted it to mean, “To the Victor,” meaning God, and added this stunning commentary:
To the Victor who sought to be defeated, as it is said (Isaiah 57:16), “I will not accuse them forever, nor will I always be angry, for then they would faint away because of Me- the very people I have created.” Do not read it thus, but, “I will accuse in order to be defeated.” How so? Thus said the Holy One, blessed be He, “When I win, I lose, and when I lose I gain. I defeated the generation of the Flood, but did I not lose thereby, for I destroyed My own creation, as it says (Gen. 7:23), “Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out.” The same happened with the generation of the Tower of Babel and the people of Sodom. But in the days of Moses who defeated Me (by persuading Me to forgive the Israelites whom I had sworn to destroy), I gained for I did not destroy Israel.
God wants His forgiveness to override His justice because strict justice hurts humanity, and humanity is God’s creation and carries His image. That is why He regretted His vow and allowed Moses to annul it. That is why Kol Nidrei has the power it has. For it recalls the Israelites’ worst sin, the Golden Calf, and their forgiveness, completed when Moses descended the mountain with the new tablets on the 10th of Tishrei, the anniversary of which is Yom Kippur. The forgiveness was the result of Moses’s daring prayer, understood by the Sages as an act of annulment of vows. Hence Kol Nidrei, a formula for the annulment of vows.
The power of Kol Nidrei has less to do with forced conversions than with a recollection of the moment when Moses stood in prayer before God and achieved forgiveness for the people: the first time the whole people was forgiven despite the gravity of their sin. On Kol Nidrei, we recall the first Yom Kippur when Moses annulled the Almighty’s vow, letting His compassion override His justice, the basis of all Divine forgiveness.
I believe we must always strive to fulfill our promises. If we fail to keep our word, eventually we lose our freedom. But given the choice between justice and forgiveness, choose forgiveness. When we forgive and are worthy of being forgiven, we are liberated from a past we regret, to build a better future.
- Pesikta Rabbati (Ish Shalom), 9.