a Kol Nidrei thought

[David Seidenberg]

A kavanah about Kol Nidrei -

A vow, like every promise, binds a moment in the past to a moment in
the future; it restricts the future to what we imagined in the past.
In the Sephardi custom, there are two different versions of Kol Nidrei
that are sung: the first version releases us from vows taken between
Yom Kippur last year and this Yom Kippur—that version is sung twice.
The second version, like the Ashkenazi, releases us from vows that
might be taken from this Yom Kippur through next year’s Yom
Kippur—that is the version sung the third time. Why? Because this day
is a day to be and become anything. By releasing all the promises that
bind us, going backward into the past and looking forward into the
future, we are detaching and unbinding the day of Yom Kippur from all
other days, past and future. We are freeing ourselves to become
whatever we need to be right now. We are freeing ourselves to embody,
in some small way, the holiest name of God: Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, “I will
become what I will be”. Let us become!

And may that becoming be one of embodying Tzedek, Rachamim and Shalom,
Justice, Compassion and Peace, in this created world.