The following article is reprinted from the 1980 ACI Bulletin, because of the beauty and relevance of the memories it evokes during this season.
Occurring before the sun has finally set but toward the end of the holiest Jewish holy days–the day of fasting and prayer and of so often intense emotion — Ne-ilah, the concluding section of the Yom Kippur service, is also its emotional climax; it contains, perhaps, the most moving passages in the entire Jewish liturgy. The emotional intensity of the Ne-ilah service is explained by musicologist Judith Kaplan Eisenstein in her text Heritage of Music: The Music of the Jewish People. “To the pious Jew,” she writes, “this is the last opportunity to appeal to the ‘ear’ of the Almighty with a final plea for forgiveness, for mercy and for a new year of life and blessing.”
In Europe it was traditional for the Ne-ilah service to be conducted by the Rabbi; to him belonged the task of conveying to the congregation the awesomeness of these, the final moments of the most solemn and sacred of days. I can recall most vividly the fervor of devotion which my own revered Rabbi, the well-known Talmudic scholar Dr. Samuel Ochs, brought to his rendition of Ne-ilah. The memory of his piety and reverence has been an inspiration to me throughout the years, and I have always sought to conduct Ne-ilah with his example in mind. I hope that God will give me the strength to do so for many years to come.
May all of you be inscribed for a happy and healthy life in the New Year.
Richard Cohn, Cantor Emeritus