Kol Nidre

I've been listening to a lot of them

Kol Nidre, (Aramaic: “All Vows”), a prayer sung in Jewish synagogues at the beginning of the service on the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). The name, derived from the opening words, also designates the melody to which the prayer is traditionally chanted

I hear

Kol Nidre every year

not because I am a believer

because it is beautiful

a chance to consider.

Since the pandemic Kol Nidre’s online

last night there was a performance

in Central Park but I couldn’t go.

Online is never

the same as sitting in a room

listening with people.

Maybe tonight we’ll hear

Rita Shor, who was

the first female cantor

in 1964.