haber@sunybcs.UUCP (Rabbi Yaacov Haber) (10/15/86)
Recently I heard a remarkable story. During the Second
World War, a German soldier was mortally wounded in battle,
and as he fell, a priest rushed up to administer the last
rites. With his remaining strength, the soldier pushed the
priest's cross away, and said: "Ich bin ein Jude!" ("I am a
Jew!") The priest replied: "Sorgen sich nicht, ich bin auch
ein Jude!" ("Don't worry, I'm also a Jew!")
It is remarkable how every Yom Kippur all over the world,
thousands upon thousands of people who otherwise never come
near a synagogue, come to the Kol Nidre service.
It is known that the Kol Nidre prayer gained in significance
during the persecution of Jews in Spain at the time of the
Inquisition. People who had been forced to convert, the
Marranos, behaved outwardly like their neighbors, but
inwardly they remained Jews. Once a year they used this
prayer to renounce the oaths they had been forced to make
forswearing their own religion in favor of Christianity.
Deep down, in their innermost souls, they remained Jewish.
The Kol nidrei was a proclamation that their vows, all their
external behavior,was not really them.This prayer helped
them cleanse themselves of their outer garments and reach
their inner souls.
Today in America, although there are no such persecutions,
there are still marranos we are not being forced by the
church, but simply by the invironment in which we live. Our
inner souls are cloaked with external garments which just
aren't ours. We walk, act, and talk in ways incongruous to
our Judaism. Then there are the inverted marranos whose
outer appearance is that of a Tzaddik, but they are so
lacking on the inside;missing the spirit and ethics of being
a Jew. All of us together need Kol Nidrei;we need to get it
together.
Rabbi Dessler in MICHTAV MAELIYOHU writes that there is one
part of our soul that burns a tiny flame. That flame has
the capacity to survive. No matter how hard its carrier
might try to extinguish it, the flame will continue to
burn.
This is what Yom Kippur and repentance is about, removing
the garments and letting the light shine out.
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Rabbi Yaacov Haber
Torah Center of Buffalo
1695 Hertel Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14216
Tel. (716) 833-7881
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