Ask the Clergy
How can we make the High Holidays
more meaningful?

by Chazzan Aníbal Mass
Published in the Jewish Post on Wednesday, September 17, 2008

There is a misconception among most people that you can just walk in for High Holiday services and expect to do something or feel something and that, my friends, is a very serious error.

Like any other discipline in life, if you don’t prepare properly for it, you will be in bad shape at the moment of truth. And what is crucial for the High Holidays, if you want to get something out of it, is to prepare beforehand.

One of the less well-known and not as popular tools to be ready is the ritual of Hatarat Nedarim (annulment of vows). In this practice, after the morning service the day before Rosh Hashanah, one asks three others to act as his bet din (religious court), explaining to them the vows that one has made during the past year, and the reasons why one feels unable to continue the practice. They then formally (there is a standard text for this) declare the person absolved of the vow, and one is no longer bound by the acceptance of the given practice. This ritual enables one to come before God on Rosh Hashanah with a clean slate - without any unfulfilled promises.

This applies to a vow that you took upon yourself. You made a vow to do a favour for another person, you cannot annul that vow, and you cannot get out of the obligation. If you promised to give Tzedakah, or promised to do something to or for another person, there is no such thing as an annulment.

Now, this ritual should help us to radically transform ourselves before the High Holidays begin, in how we relate to words.

The Talmud clearly states: “Don’t make your words empty”. The High Holidays are supposed to transform the way we live our daily life. And one of the more important things that we should change is to give back the meaning to the words we say every day, and to understand that every word counts and every word has an effect and a consequence. 

And the reason why I said at the beginning of the article that Hatarat Nedarim is a powerful tool is because we have to learn this message before the High Holidays begin -  those words will be our main vehicle to navigate the Yamim Noraim.

The Yamim Noraim should prepare us to live a life where every word that comes out of our mouths must be said with meaning. It applies to the way we speak at home, applies to the way we speak at work, and then it will also apply when you are praying.

Hatarat Nedarim and Kol Nidre should make us more aware that our words are important. We usually believe that our actions are what create our reality, but Judaism says that words also create our world.

Shanah Tovah U’mtukah

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