Maybe we should all sing Kol Nidre

Aberdeen American News ^ | October 5, 2003 | Art Marmorstein

[ancientart]

It seems like just a trivia question. "What was the first full-length talking picture?" Answer: 1927's "Jazz Singer'' with Al Jolson. But the dilemma faced by Jolson's character, Jakie Rabinowitz, is anything but trivial.

Jakie's father insists that his son's main responsibility is to continue the family tradition: he is to become the fifth generation of Rabinowitz cantors. But Jakie has other ideas. Disowned by his father and rejecting his own roots, he becomes Jack Robin, an up-and-coming jazz singer.

But just as Jack gets his big break and is about to open on Broadway, he gets disturbing news. His father is sick - maybe dying. Jack has to come back to the synagogue for Yom Kippur Eve and take his father's place.

To walk out on the show means throwing away his career and breaking faith with his friends and fellow actors. But can he miss the last chance for reconciliation with his father? And can he break the heart of the mother who has loved him unconditionally?

As he puts on his blackface makeup getting ready for dress rehearsal, Jack can't shake loose from the feeling he should be somewhere else. "There's something, after all, in my heart - maybe it's the call of the ages - the cry of my race."

Adding to the irony of Jack's predicament is the prayer his father wants him to sing: Kol Nidre: "All vows obligations, oaths, and anathemas. . . which we may vow, or swear, or pledge. . . we do repent. May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, aned, and void, and made of no effect; they shall not bind us nor have power over us."

It's an odd prayer. Why, on the Eve of the Atonement no less, is there a prayer absolving us from all our promises? Anti-Semites have had a field day with this one, using Kol Nidre as proof positive that Jews are not to be trusted.

Some Jews argue that Kol Nidre was inserted for the sake of apostate and backslidden Jews who, on Yom Kippur, wanted to be included in the Jewish community. For Yom Kippur is to marginal Jews something of what Easter is to marginal Christians. Rabbinic tradition reinforces the idea that observing Yom Kippur can make up for all the missed obligations of the rest of the year.

But Kol Nidre is even more important for the conscientious than for the lax. Yom Kippur is a time for examining our lives, for confessing our sins, for facing some uncomfortable truths about ourselves, including perhaps the most uncomfortable truth of all: we've failed. We've not done what we should have done; we've not kept our promises; we've blown it. Again.

I'm surrounded by unfinished tasks. Six unfinished book reviews. A basement storeroom and a trash-filled garage I should have cleaned out six months ago. It's been way too long since I called my mom. I was supposed to write a recommendation for one of my best students last spring. I didn't get around to it, and maybe that cost him a job. A friend and former student died of cancer last month. I never once called him.

Our failures are most painful when there's no longer a chance of correcting them.

My dad, like Jakie Rabinowitz, was a cantor's son, and like Jakie, estranged from his father. But dad never got the chance for reconciliation: a hit-and-run driver killed his father when my dad was still in his teens.

What can we do when we've failed and when there's no second chance, no hope of setting things right? All we can do is plead for forgiveness from Him whose mercies are new every morning and whose promises never fail - and try to mend the relationships we can mend before it's too late.

[John Beresford Tipton]

Okay,
Oy,
so what did the Jazz Singer finally do?

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[ancientart]

so what did the Jazz Singer finally do?

Jakie decides to sacrifice opening night. He goes home and sings Kol Nidre. But, lo and behold, his career isn't gone after all. The opening of the show is just postponed. Jack Robin returns, gives a crowd-pleasing rendition of "Mammy," and is clearly on his way to stardom. Classic Hollywood happy ending.

[visualops]

I liked the Neil Diamond remake, even though I'm not a fan of his. I thought the story was great.

[John Beresford Tipton]

Thank you.
I never saw the movie, but I have seen stills of him down on one knee, in black face, singing Mammy.

[feedback doctor]

I liked the Neil Diamond remake, even though I'm not a fan of his. I thought the story was great.

That's the movie he wrote "America" for, a very pro American song! While other celebrities are overseas badmouthing the US, Neil is not. He has a new CD/DVD set out that has a concert filmed in Dublin last July. When he sings the song America (on the DVD), he uses the line, "Stand Up for America" when it gets to the part that normally says, "they're coming to America."

I actually like Neil's old 60's early 70's tunes the best

[Redcoat LI]

Saving Silverman.

[stradivarius]

Why, on the Eve of the Atonement no less, is there a prayer absolving us from all our promises? Anti-Semites have had a field day with this one, using Kol Nidre as proof positive that Jews are not to be trusted.

Anybody who implies Yom Kippur is a fraudulent "promise release" ceremony is incorrect, unknowledgeable, and possibly worse. The promises, injuries, and debts between people as individuals can't be released without a request and forgiveness.

The promises of men and women with G-d are more serious. Only G-d can forgive a person for sins committed against G-d the last year.

Yom HaKippurim translates from Hebrew Day of the Atonement.

There's a tradition of asking for forgiveness and release from everyone in the community before Yom Kippur, and the prayer of Kol Nidre (every promise) is when the community forgives each other. It earns points with G-d when the community supports each other, and helps with the rest of the Atonement.

The spirit and the mechanics of atonement are described in Leviticus 16:29.

[ancientart]

Anybody who implies Yom Kippur is a fraudulent "promise release" ceremony is incorrect, unknowledgeable, and possibly worse.

Worse is right. A google search for "Kol Nidre Prayer" turns up dozens of anti-semitic sites.