So Kol Nidre is a product of popular religious culture that religious authorities tried and failed to rout. That's fascinating. I have studied and written about popular belief and practice among Christians in early America, and it's always interesting to watch clergy and scholars tussle with what most people think and want. Thanks for this, Harry.
I haven't heard this. it is possible but the language and terminology of Kol Nidre is so similar to other Babylonian magic texts, and the earliest references to it are found in Geonic teshuvot. A Babylonian provenance seems the most likely.
Who suggests that it is a Spanish Visigoth composition?
I first heard of it in a pre YK lecture at Jews College by R.Sacks ZT'L, Not sure it was ever substantiated though, But the court case theory holds up well, and especially dis-avowing next years vows as the conversos go back to Christianity after Neilah.
And this is worth a read from 1968 Commentary magazine
Sacks mentions Bloch's theory in his YK machzor (page lv) but considers it unlikely. The Commentary article also gives Bloch short shrift. But Israel Davidson, writing in1922, is more sympathetic to Bloch, while ultimately rejecting him: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23601129.pdf (if you don't have a Jstor account I will email the article to you).
Stuart Weinberg Gershon's "Kol Nidrei. Its Origin, Development, and Significance" (1994) is one of the best treatments I have read of the origins of KN. It has vanished from my shelves (too many books!) so I can't see if he mentioned Bloch.
So Kol Nidre is a product of popular religious culture that religious authorities tried and failed to rout. That's fascinating. I have studied and written about popular belief and practice among Christians in early America, and it's always interesting to watch clergy and scholars tussle with what most people think and want. Thanks for this, Harry.
Thanks Annette. These days if one was to suggest that Kol Nidre should be omitted it would be the clergy who would protest the loudest!
R.SR Hirsch?
He reintroduced it though
Does Kol nidre writteni in 8th Spain by forced converts(by the Visigoths) have any credibility?
KT
MB
I haven't heard this. it is possible but the language and terminology of Kol Nidre is so similar to other Babylonian magic texts, and the earliest references to it are found in Geonic teshuvot. A Babylonian provenance seems the most likely.
Who suggests that it is a Spanish Visigoth composition?
Joseph s Block in 1918
I first heard of it in a pre YK lecture at Jews College by R.Sacks ZT'L, Not sure it was ever substantiated though, But the court case theory holds up well, and especially dis-avowing next years vows as the conversos go back to Christianity after Neilah.
And this is worth a read from 1968 Commentary magazine
https://www.commentary.org/articles/herman-kieval/the-curious-case-of-kol-nidre/
Interesting, thanks.
Sacks mentions Bloch's theory in his YK machzor (page lv) but considers it unlikely. The Commentary article also gives Bloch short shrift. But Israel Davidson, writing in1922, is more sympathetic to Bloch, while ultimately rejecting him: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23601129.pdf (if you don't have a Jstor account I will email the article to you).
Stuart Weinberg Gershon's "Kol Nidrei. Its Origin, Development, and Significance" (1994) is one of the best treatments I have read of the origins of KN. It has vanished from my shelves (too many books!) so I can't see if he mentioned Bloch.