Yom Kippur: Kol Nidrei

What is about Yom Kippur that remains embedded in the Jewish psyche, even for those that do not practice and do not observe any other holidays and traditions?Even baseball – that American sacred shrine and symbol of utter secularism – has been impacted by Yom Kippur. Who hasn’t heard about Sandy Koufax honoring Yom Kippur by refusing to pitch that day for the Dodgers in Game One of the 1965 World Series? (But do you know the follow-up to that story, what his replacement pitcher said after being pulled from the game?) Or about the standing ovation Detroit slugger Hank Greenberg received in his Synagogue in 1934?

Why do we sometimes cry for no apparent reason? What do our souls look like?

The meaning behind blessing our children (also our inner child), a moving story of Russian illiterate Jews on Kol Nidrei night, baseball bowing to Yom Kippur, what Kirk Douglas discovered about his uncontrollable tears and his Jewishness – all build up to appreciating Yom Kippur as an awesome day that tells each of us: “Here, allow me to introduce you to someone extraordinary: You. The true you.”