Erev Yom Kippur in Nebraska

Preparing for Yom Kippur is intense no matter who you are.  There are many preparations to be done, both preparing for the meal before Yom Kippur as well as all the mental preparation necessary before going into the day of judgement.  As rabbi, I have a few extra responsibilities like preparing sermons for tonight and tomorrow and making sure the shul is set for the big day.

This yom kippur I had some extra things that made the day really interesting. 

First, tomorrow in Lincoln Nebraska the Nebraska Cornhuskers are playing a big game.  Many Jew were going to have to make the choice between their religion and their football team.  A member of my shul, recognizing that many Jews might skip Yom Kippur entirely and go to the stadium early before the game, hired a Rabbi to come to Nebraska for Yom kippur to run religious programming all day on the college campus.  The event made the front page of the Omaha World Herald today.  In the morning I helped the Rabbi prepare for his big day.  

Today I also had a funeral.  I do many funerals unfortunately, but not like this.  The woman who died was born in 1937.  She was institutionalized at the age of 5 years old and remained there for the rest of her life.  Yesterday we received a call from an attorney who was placed in charge of her.  The woman died late Wednesday night.  She had no known relatives.  No friends.  Nobody in the world even knew she was there.  I had never heard of or met this woman before and I found that according to whatever instructions were left by her last family member, I as the Rabbi of beth Israel synagogue was responsible for taking care of her burial.  This was a true met mitzva - the greatest of all mitzvot that a person can do.  The Talmud says that if the high priest is going to do the Yom kippur service on the holiest day of the year and  the opportunity arises where he has to perform a burial for a met mitzvah he is supposed to abandon the Yom Kippur service and take care of the met mitzvah.  It is the most important of all mitzvot.  With Ari and the Rabbi going to Lincoln we buried the met and had the privilege of performing this mitzvah.  May this woman with no family rest in peace.

From the funeral we went to visit the grave of Zvi Hirsh Grodzinsky.  He was a cousin of the great Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky from Europe before World War II.  The Rabbi Grodzinsky of Omaha was a prolific author on Jewish law and there are a couple of people who are in the process of publishing his unpublished manuscripts.  I brought the latest volume that was recently published on the laws of yayin nesech and we learned a halachah and said some tehilim at his grave.  I then entered the grave into resting spot so others can find it.

Then, as I do every year before Yom Kippur, Ari and I visited all the hospitals and Ari sang Kol Nidrei for all of the Jewish patients who will not be able to make it to shul tomorrow.  

Finally, after a long day of preparations I have an opportunity to prepare for tomorrow, to go over my sermons and to make sure that I am familiar with the davening for tomorrow.  May Hashem listen to all of our prayers and may we all be inscribed in the book of life.

Eating erev Yom Kippur

Everyone knows that you are required to fast on Yom Kippur, but not many people know that there is actually a mitzvah to eat on the day before Yom Kippur. There are many reasons given for this strange mitzvah.

1. Make the fast harder: some say it is to maximize the intensity of the fast by going into the fast on a full stomach.

2. Make the fast easier: others say it is to make the fast easier to make sure that you don't fast two days in a row.

3. Have a festive meal: Yom Kippur is a holiday and therefore requires a meal like all other holidays. Since we fast on the day of, we fulfill the requirement of a yom tov meal the day before.

4. Emphasis: we want to make it clear that we are fasting on Yom Kippur for a mitzvah so therefore we eat the day before to demonstrate that the next day is a fast.

5. To rectify the original sin: The first sin man ever committed was eating from the tree in the garden of Eden. Therefore we have a meal of mitzvah to rectify the original sin of eating for a sin.

6. We're No Angels: Yom Kippur is the one day of the year that we serve God as completely spiritual beings that have no physical needs. On erev Yom Kippur we eat to remind us that the rest of the year we serve God as people of flesh and blood.

7. Last meal: we eat and drink as a last meal like someone who is about to enter judgment.

8. Confidence: We demonstrate that we are not nervous and we know that Hashem will judge us favorably on the day of judgment because He loves us.

I hope everyone eats well today and has a meaningful fast tomorrow. May Hashem inscribe us all into the book of life.

Simon and Garfunkle at Beth Israel

At Beth Israel we happen to have the greatest chazzan in the universe, Ari Dembitzer.  When not in Omaha he works for the organization chai lifeline which runs programs for kids with cancer and other life threatening illnesses.  I am not sure if it is the nature of his work or something innate about his soul, but Ari is able to elevate our entire congregation with his beautiful voice and his obvious passion.

Ari very carefully chooses the tunes that everyone at Beth Israel has come to love.  Some of the melodies are from contemporary sources while others are more obscure tunes that Ari found by listening to old records of chasidic songs or songs that he heard in his various encounters with different chassidic sects in North America and Israel.  Each tune that he chooses is meant to reflect an aspect of the acompanying prayer and serve as a sort of commentary to the words that he sings.  The davening therefore can be appreciated on many different levels. 

One of the tunes he uses is the Simon and Garfunle classic 'Scarborough Fair' which fits perfectly with the poem 'Biyom Din' - on judgement day.

On the question of using secular tunes for traditional prayers, many Rabbis maintain that it is inappriate to do so.  On the other side of the debate however are equally great halachic authorities that maintain that it is a great thing to take a secular tune and elevate it to a level of holiness by using it for the purpose of bringing deeper meaning to davening.  I have many colleagues who do not allow the use of secular tunes for davening in their shuls.

But 'Scarborough Fair' is an interesting case because there is a Jewish Urban Legend that Simon and Garfunkle, both Jewish, learned that tune from their Orthodox grandfather who sang it every Shabbat to the words of the classic Zemer, "Dror Yikra'.  If that is true then the question of secular tunes is not relevant in this particular case. 

A quick Wikipedia search seems to refute that Urban legend, attributing the tune of Scarborough Fair to an old English folk song.  But as we all know, just because it is on Wikipedia does not mean its true.  I would love to have a more definitive source.

In any event, at Beth Israel I know that people look forward to 'Biyom Din' every year on Rosh Hashana and yom Kippur.  The haunting melody seems so perfect for the awe of the poem that paints the picture of standing before the omnicient, all powerful, and merciful God on the day of judgement.  But even the allusion to 'Scarborough Fair' always struck me as appropraite.  The song tells the tale of a young man, who tells the listener to ask his former lover to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. 

While Ari sings I have often applied this understanding to 'Biyom Din'.  We stand before God humbled as the former lover in the song.  We have sinned.  We feel that we have caused a rift in the relationship with Hashem that cannot possibly be repaired.  We plead before God who we love so much and long to be close with that were we able to we would accomplish the most impossible tasks if it would help to repair the lost relationship that we once had.

As for the question of secular tunes, the tune is as much ours as it is Simon and Garfunkle's.  I was once with a kid from Beth Israel and the song Scarborough Fair came on and he said - "hey, isn't that Ari Dembitzer's tune?"  Classic!