by Joseph Jacobs, Max Schloessinger, Cyrus Adler, Francis L. Cohen

“ The decision of the conference was accepted by many congregations of western Europe and in all the American Reform congregations, which while retaining the melody substituted for the formula a German hymn or a Hebrew psalm, or changed the old text to the words, "May all the vows arise to thee which the sons of Israel vow unto thee, O Lord, . . . that they will return to thee with all their heart, and from this Day of Atonement until the next," etc. ”

“ Thus the dispensation of the "Kol Nidre" was not as formerly a posteriori and concerned with unfulfilled obligations of the past year, but a priori and having reference to vows which one might not be able to fulfil or might forget to observe during the ensuing year. Meïr ben Samuel likewise added the words "we do repent of them all" () , since, according to the Law, real repentance is a condition of dispensation. ”

“ It can not be denied that, according to the usual wording of the formula, an unscrupulous man might think that it offers a means of escape from the obligations and promises which he had assumed and made in regard to others.
Refers Only to Individual Vows The teachers of the synagogues, however, have never failed to point out to their cobelievers that the dispensation from vows in the "Kol Nidre" refers only to those which an individual voluntarily assumes for himself alone (see RoSH to Ned. 23b) and in which no other persons or their interests are involved. ”

“ OPENING PHRASES Original Elements On a critical investigation on comparative lines, the structure of "Kol Nidre" is seen to be built upon a very simple groundwork, the melody being essentially an intermingling of simple cantillation with rich figuration. ”

“ Together with the "Kol Nidre" another custom was developed, which is traced to Meïr of Rothenburg (d. 1293; "Orḥot Ḥayyim," p. 106b) . This is the recital before the "Kol Nidre" of the formula mentioned beginning "Bi-yeshibah shel ma'alah," which has been translated above, and which gives permission to transgressors of the Law or to those under a ban ("'abaryanim") "to pray with the congregation" (ib.; "Kol Bo," § 68, end) , or, according to another version which is now generally prevalent, to the congregation "to pray with the transgressors of the Law." ”

“ The northern traditions prefer at such points first to utilize its complement in the second ecclesiastical mode of the Church, which extends below as well as above the fundamental "re." The strain, in either form, must obviously date from the early medieval period, anterior to the eleventh century, when the practise and theory of the singing-school at St. ”