Catch-up blogging: Yom Kippur
Oct. 23rd, 2011 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuNotes from Y"K that I want to remember:
* On the way to shul, I discussed with the kids why I use my great-grandfather's Kol Nidre machzor (the special prayer-book with only the prayers for the night of Yom Kippur). It's a connection to our German past; a single thread that connects our lives here with the generations there. What I said resonated with Tani, who followed every word of Kol Nidre itself with his finger, and wanted to use it for the Ashamnu.
* I was unprepared for yizkor, the memorial service. First, although I'm fairly well-informed about the Jewish liturgy, this was my first ever yizkor (traditionally, those whose parents are alive leave the room during yizkor), and I didn't realize that there are multiple traditions about what to say (yizkor elokim versus kel male rachamim, and whether to combine relatives and if so in what groupings), and there wasn't a lot of guidance in the siddur. Second, it hadn't even occurred to me that I would be saying yizkor not only for my father but for my grandparents, and I didn't know their patronyms.
* Yizkor didn't affect me emotionally; perhaps because I was preoccupied with liturgical logistics, perhaps because I was expecting it. Similarly, I was able to distance myself from untane tokef and its motif of "who shall live and who shall die." What caught me up short was the line in the confession: ve-atah tzaddik al kol mah sheba aleinu --- "but You are just in all that has befallen us." The resonance between this text and the Justification of the Judgement (recited at the funeral) was unexpected.
* I never realized before how on Y"K there are eight instances of the mourners' kaddish in the first ten minutes or so, and then none the entire rest of the day (until the very end of arvit after Y"K is over). Odd.
* On the way to shul, I discussed with the kids why I use my great-grandfather's Kol Nidre machzor (the special prayer-book with only the prayers for the night of Yom Kippur). It's a connection to our German past; a single thread that connects our lives here with the generations there. What I said resonated with Tani, who followed every word of Kol Nidre itself with his finger, and wanted to use it for the Ashamnu.
* I was unprepared for yizkor, the memorial service. First, although I'm fairly well-informed about the Jewish liturgy, this was my first ever yizkor (traditionally, those whose parents are alive leave the room during yizkor), and I didn't realize that there are multiple traditions about what to say (yizkor elokim versus kel male rachamim, and whether to combine relatives and if so in what groupings), and there wasn't a lot of guidance in the siddur. Second, it hadn't even occurred to me that I would be saying yizkor not only for my father but for my grandparents, and I didn't know their patronyms.
* Yizkor didn't affect me emotionally; perhaps because I was preoccupied with liturgical logistics, perhaps because I was expecting it. Similarly, I was able to distance myself from untane tokef and its motif of "who shall live and who shall die." What caught me up short was the line in the confession: ve-atah tzaddik al kol mah sheba aleinu --- "but You are just in all that has befallen us." The resonance between this text and the Justification of the Judgement (recited at the funeral) was unexpected.
* I never realized before how on Y"K there are eight instances of the mourners' kaddish in the first ten minutes or so, and then none the entire rest of the day (until the very end of arvit after Y"K is over). Odd.