Kol Nidre - Explanation of Terms and Variants

Explanation of Terms and Variants

The many different terms for vows and pledges used in Kol Nidrei can be confusing, especially because the English language is poor in short equivalent terms that express the same nuances. These terms are almost exclusively religious pledges of various kinds: That something will be done (or not done) or given in exchange for a prayer being answered, that something will be done (or not done) for religious purposes or to show religious devotion, that a thing will be used only for religious purposes (e.g., as a tool used for building or repairing the Temple) and never for mundane purposes, that a thing will be given to the Temple or treated as if it were already given to the Temple, and so forth; and to make this declaration all the more clear, every possible synonym for such pledging and for nullification or cancellation of such pledges is used.

Such vows, it is obvious, are sometimes made impulsively or in moments of panic, desperation or some other strong emotion, and would be impossible, impractical, or ruinous to fulfill (e.g. the impetuous "vow" — נדר neder — made by Jephthah, in Judges 11:30, to sacrifice his daughter in return for victory in battle; the regretted "oath" — שׁבע shava — made at Mizpah to cause the tribe of Benjamin to dwindle to extinction, Judges 21:7; a similar shava made by Saul, which would have resulted in his son's execution but for the acclamation of the entire army, First Samuel, chapt. 14, etc.). Though these promises to God may have been ill-considered, the failure to keep them is a recurring offense — and acting as if promises made to God were so trifling that they could be thoughtlessly forgotten is a further offense; the only remedy is, first, to admit that these promises will never be fulfilled, by formally cancelling them, and then to atone for them, and that is one of the purposes of the Kol Nidrei. It has even been suggested that Kol Nidrei includes vows that had been fulfilled, because the Torah forbids the making of vows, so that even those which were kept required atonement. There is also a kabbalistic or spiritual purpose to Kol Nidrei: God has vowed, in Scripture, to punish Jewry for its sins; by demonstrating that we cancel our own vows, we hope to induce God to cancel his own dire decrees.

Kol Nidrei also admits our moral inconstancy. We made promises and pledges to God, often at a peak feeling of devotion or gratitude—or of desperation, but our good intentions are short-lived, and we allowed the promises to slip from our attention.

The text presented here is taken from the ArtScroll Mahzor for Yom Kippur (Ashkenaz ed.), which uses the formula "from this Day of Atonement to the next" in its main text but allows the alternative ("from the last Day of Atonement to this Day") as a parenthetical option. The Hebrew version of Kol Nidrei set out in the Siddur of Rav Amram Gaon (ca. 870) uses the formula "from the last ... to this ...", and similarly De Sola Pool. Wolf von Heidenheim's mahzor uses "from this Day ... to the next ...", and similarly Adler, and Birnbaum. The Rinat Yisroel combines both, "from the last ... to this..., and from this....", and similarly the Syrian and other Sefardic or Mizrahi traditions set forth in the Orot mahzor and the Bagdadi version.

The Sefardic and Mizrahi traditions add one or two more synonyms for pledges (such as harem). Some Ashkenaz and Sefardic editions omit "and any synonymous terms" — וכנויי — that appears here in the first sentence.