8 Tishrei, 5781

From Josh Ladon, LABA East Bay Lead Teacher

My favorite liturgical poem from the High Holiday liturgy is from the Kol Nidrei service on Erev Yom Kippur. It is called Ki Hinei Kachomer, “Behold as Clay.” The poem is ripe with images of human creativity (the potter, the mason) but our agency is contrasted with our relative position to the Divine. Yom Kippur is a day of release, we are absolved of our sins. And on the eve of Yom Kippur this poem allows us to give in to that release. We have spent the previous 40 days (Elul plus 10 days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur) reflecting on the ways we have missed the mark. We have made apologies, we have given tzedakah, we have prayed. And now, we sit and hope for release. This year, when we are simultaneously hyper conscious of our agency (not wearing a mask could kill someone) and hyper conscious of our lack of agency (we have no way of knowing who will get sick and who won’t, we have come to understand there is so much we cannot control) I find comfort and sadness in this poem (I probably find comfort and sadness every year in the poem). As it states, O G-d of Love, O G-d of Life, look to the covenant and overlook our sin.

My favorite version is a Chabad tune which became a lullaby in secular Israeli kibbutzim. This version, sung by Odeliyah Berlin, is hauntingly beautiful.

Ki Hinei Kachomer performed by Odeliyah Berlin