麻豆社

From Julia Neuberger Senior Rabbi at the west London Synagogue:

The holiest day of the year for us Jews starts tonight- Kol Nidrei, the beginning of the Day of Atonement. The synagogue will be full, and hushed, and Oleg will play the cello, the choir will join, and then the congregation will sing Kol Nidrei, the traditional melody which captures us and tears at the heart strings. Jews are, by and large, a talkative lot- but tonight there will be quiet, and contemplation, and tomorrow people will be back, some in and out, many staying all day, to pray, contemplate, resolve to do better.

It鈥檚 an almost timeless day. At the end, the shofar, the ram鈥檚 horn, sound of the New Year which summoned us to prayer and repentance ten days earlier, is sounded once again to mark the end of the penitential season. It gives us permission to go home, break the fast, and go back to normal.

But this day of contemplation ties in with much modern thinking about decluttering one鈥檚 mind and sorting oneself out. Unlike psychotherapy or cognitive behavioural therapy, you do it for yourself. You鈥檙e on your own, yet surrounded by others doing the same thing. But it does serve some of the same purpose. You can鈥檛 really escape, unless you decide to walk out. You can鈥檛 pretend you鈥檙e spending a normal day at the office- you鈥檙e not, you鈥檙e huddled and fasting and thirsty and the air gets more and more foul as the day goes on. It is different. A day for accounting for yourself to God. And, the older I get, the more I am convinced that it鈥檚 a healthy process, and that people from other faiths and none could do something similar, getting people to take a day out, where nothing normal happens. The very strangeness of the day- no mealtimes, no computer screen- forces you to look inwards. The very repetition of prayers allows boredom to morph into deep inner soul searching. So, though no-one could say it鈥檚 a pleasant or comfortable day, I think Yom Kippur serves a truly useful purpose. And I鈥檓 looking forward to next week, and being spiritually refreshed!

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