structural:expansion, stylistic:style_transfer, information:filtering
Kol Nidre

Before sunset on Yom Kippur eve, worshipers gather in the synagogue. The cantor stands with two community members at his sides, and chants the Kol Nidre prayer (Aramaic: כל נדרי, English translation: 'All vows '). It is recited in a dramatic manner, before the open ark, with an Ashkenazic melody that dates back to the 16th century. Kol Nidre is recited in Aramaic, except in the Italian and Romaniote rites where it is recited in Hebrew.

All personal vows we are likely to make, all personal oaths and pledges we are likely to take between this Yom Kippur and the next Yom Kippur (in some versions: which we took between last Yom Kippur and this Yom Kippur), we publicly renounce. Let them all be relinquished and abandoned, null and void, neither firm nor established. Let our personal vows, pledges and oaths be considered neither vows nor pledges nor oaths.

Then the service continues with the evening prayers (Ma'ariv) and an extended Selichot service.