The Value Of The Women And How To Reach A Perfect Relationship

The Zionist Meaning of Tu B'Shvat

The real reason for Kol Nidre

To: Rabbi Sacks
Sent: Sunday, 24 September 2017, 21:30:07 GMT+1
Subject: The real reason for Kol Nidre

The vows annulled at Kol Nidre do not include vows made to people and this includes gentiles, only to God. In other words, the purpose of Kol Nidre is not a licence to not keep promises to people, but is intended to make the promisor think which vows to God he will renew after Kol Nidre and which he will allow to expire, if they are found to be foolish or redundant. This is an excellent idea giving us a chance to perform an annual review of promises made to God and decide on their necessity, folly or redundancy, which can only increase our wisdom and self-knowledge.

May I know what Rabbi Sacks thinks of this suggestion, which I do not believe was mentioned at www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTyDi22_SFo?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kol_Nidre

Before sunset on the eve of Yom Kippur ("Day of Atonement"), the congregation gathers in the synagogue. The Ark is opened and two people take from it two Torah scrolls. Then they take their places, one on each side of the cantor, and the three (symbolizing a Beth Din or rabbinical court) recite:

"By the authority of the Court on High and by authority of the court down here, by the permission of One Who Is Everywhere and by the permission of this congregation, we hold it lawful to pray with sinners."

This invitation to outcasts is not specifically for Kol Nidre but for the whole of the Day of Atonement, it being obvious that when even sinners join in repenting, the occasion is worthy of Divine clemency. This announcement was introduced by Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (late 13th century), and endorsed by the Maharil (Rabbi Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin, early 15th century).

The cantor then chants the passage beginning with the words Kol Nidre with its touching melodic phrases, and, in varying intensities from pianissimo (quiet) to fortissimo (loud), repeats twice (for a total of three iterations) (lest a latecomer not hear them) the following words (Nusach Ashkenaz):

"All vows we are likely to make, all oaths and pledges we are likely to take between this Yom Kippur and the next Yom Kippur, we publicly renounce. Let them all be relinquished and abandoned, null and void, neither firm nor established. Let our vows, pledges and oaths be considered neither vows nor pledges nor oaths."

The leader and the congregation then say together three times, "May all the people of Israel be forgiven, including all the strangers who live in their midst, for all the people are in fault." (quoting Numbers 15:26.) The leader then says: "O pardon the iniquities of this people, according to Thy abundant mercy, just as Thou forgave this people ever since they left Egypt." And then the leader and congregation say together three times, "The Lord said, 'I pardon them according to your words.'" (quoting Numbers 14:20). The Torah scrolls are then put back in the Ark, and the customary evening service begins.

The vows and pledges being annulled by this ceremony are of a limited category. As the ArtScroll Mahzor explains it: "There is a dangerous and erroneous misconception among some people that the Kol Nidrei nullification of vows—whether past or future—... gives people the right to break their word or to make insincere promises that will have no legal force. This is not the case. The Kol Nidrei declaration can invalidate only vows that one undertakes on his own volition. It has no effect on vows or oath imposed by someone else, or a court. Also, the invalidation of future vows takes effect only if someone makes the vow without having in mind his previous Kol Nidrei declaration. But if he makes the vow with Kol Nidrei in mind—thus being openly insincere in his vow—the vow is in full force." Moreover, as Rabbi Yechiel of Paris explained in a Disputation that took place before the King and Queen of France in 1240, "Only the erroneously broken vows are annulled, that nobody might commit the sin of intentionally breaking vows."

Philip Birnbaum, in his edition of the Mahzor, comments on this passage: "It refers to vows assumed by an individual for himself alone, where no other persons or interests are involved. Though the context makes it perfectly obvious that no vows or obligations towards others are implied, there have been many who were misled into believing that by means of this formula all their vows and oaths are annulled. In the eleventh century Rabbi Meir ben Samuel (Rashi's son-in-law) changed the original wording of Kol Nidré so as to make it apply to the future instead of the past, that is, to vows that one might not be able to fulfill during the next year." This is the Nusach Ashkenaz version, the Nusach Sefard version still refers to the past year. However The Complete ArtScroll Machzor, Yom Kippur, Nusach Sefard has the future with the past included in brackets.

Kol Nidrei is not a prayer, it makes no requests and is not addressed to God, rather, it is a juristic declaration before the Yom Kippur prayers begin. It follows the juridical practice of requiring three men as a tribunal, the procedure beginning before sundown, and of the proclamation being announced three times.

http://fpp.co.uk/BoD/origins/Kol_Nidre_debate.html

Emunah and bitachon for atheists and agnostics

Emunah is belief in the existence of God, bitachon is trust that God will dispose with justice and wisdom.

https://www.ou.org/life/inspiration/difference-emunah-bitachon/

The equivalent of this for the atheist is the knowledge that the concept of God exists.

All ideas have a purpose in mind, whether they are effective or not.

If God was an invention of Man, then this invention was intended assist Man in his government and politics, so must think the atheist.

A lie is by definition a false statement, but all lies are told for a purpose ie to obscure and deceive.

For the atheist, the idea of trusting in Fate, Fortune, Providence etc is perfectly possible, by use of the probability theory which professional gamblers use.

Bitachon is not of course a gambling strategy, because an excess of trust is simply recklessness, and gambling is simply thrill-seeking recklessness.

Bitachon for the atheist is the belief that things will turn out for the best even if there is just a 50/50 chance that something might work. Even if the chance is 1 in 13,983,816 or approximately 1 in 14 million of winning in the UK National Lottery, many happily buy it, because it gives them the pleasure of being hopeful and of imagining themselves trading up on their sex partners, spouses, homes, holidays etc though they don't really expect a lottery win or plan their future on that basis. 

http://lottery.merseyworld.com/Info/Chances.html

So here is an atheist in a foxhole praying for God's help. We all do it. I am currently an agnostic, but I know that in my atheist days that was what I did.

This is how bitachon would work for atheists:

1.  Just supposing the Abrahamic God exists.

2.  If He exists, He would be omnipotent and perfectly moral and be capable of helping us.

3.  He would obviously be more likely to help us if we believed in Him and obeyed His laws.

4.  But if we didn't believe in Him and didn't obey His laws, He would still be more likely to help us if we obeyed His laws even if we didn't believe in Him.

5.  And so we resolve to obey His laws. In our more contemplative or desperate moments we wonder if He really exists, and the more rational of us will know that the best way to understand God is to understand the evils His laws are meant to discourage and prevent. 

6.  When we understand how the institution of marriage operates and how it works to preserve our nation and civilisation, we marvel at their wisdom and our bitachon increases.

Because we obey His laws, we would be happier and more confident people enjoying the rewards moral men and women enjoy: spirituality and moral superiority. We become confident in the success and worthiness of our undertakings and are consequently more prepared to take on risky but righteous projects, such as overthrowing our matriarchy or at least challenging it even if we are faced with a certain prospect of loss of dignity, family, friends, liberty, status or income and employment. That, in a nutshell, is the real purpose of bitachon. It is for the purposes of tikkun olam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikkun_olam

Muslims would call it jihad. 

On Orthodoxy

If some Jews are Orthodox then this must logically and necessarily mean that the rest are unorthodox. Since orthodoxy means observance, it means the majority of Jews are unobservant, but the Torah says they are not supposed to even exist because the penalty for breaking the Sabbath is death. I propose to make the Sabbath like the taking of a school register. If you ain't there three weeks consecutively, you are officially dead to Judaism. What do Orthodox rabbis think about this proposal?