This performance of the Kol Nidre is dedicated to the life and legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Kol Nidre is a lament, usually performed by solo cello and orchestra, except in the world of high school music festivals where there is cellist and a pianist and a piano reduction and a judge, not a Supreme Court Justice, just some kind of adult musician marking on a scoring sheet. The piece is fantastically difficult with a good bit up in the violin range high on the A string. It is also the sort of piece where "In the future, stay in the listening lane" can definitely be on point.
RantWoman's first inclination, while on her humble effort to sit shiva in memorial and reflection for a time, was to find a performance by a woman. The first video RantWoman found, by Jacqueline DuPre was too scratchy. RantWoman likes this performance better and besides it can be dedicated also to Justice Ginsberg's friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia. RantWoman is pretty sure, no matter how much she talks about praying together across differences that she could not have pulled that off.
But here, listen to the music. Celebrate the life of someone who died on Rosh Hoshanah, the Jewish New Year, a time of renewal. According to Jewish tradition a person who dies on Rosh Hoshanah is a Tzaddik, a person of great righteousness.
Pray. Pray in the legacy and power of a very brave and gutsy champion of people, people of all genders.Pray for our country because about a kajillion things can definitely go wrong, and because there are at least as many reasons to aim for hope and faith and renewal. And this is RantWoman, so besides the lace collars, the repeated bouts of cancer, the towering presence, other more problematic reflections from RantWoman's own life are likely to wander in below, after the video.
The sight of 100 former law clerks for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lined up outside the Supreme Court, masked, socially distanced, awaiting the arrival of her casket a couple days ago was almost, ALMOST enough to make RantWoman rethink several decisions not to go to law school.
Becoming a lawyer was not even on RantWoman's distant mental horizon in college. In fact, RantWoman has been known to quip that she has not gone to law school because the US does not need more lawyers per capita than any other industrialized nation.
But RantWoman also has, um, interesting life experience about lawyers including several moments where more than one kind of lawyer was needed at a time, need to contact Russian-speaking lawyers about an estate issue involving a possible heir in Kazakhstan, the tangle of different legal themes involved in a college sit-in, and the meaning of "Right of Return" when some powerful human rights activists RantWoman did political work with in college were moved to plead at the Israeli consulate in NY about the rights of Palestinians being brutalized in two refugee camps in 1982. This last was one of several times where RantWoman in a support role literally had no idea what was going on because events evolved in ways not predicted.
What is all of this doing in reflections about Justice Ginsburg. Reading about Justice Ginsburg renews RantWoman's courage. RantWoman is not called to be a Supreme Court Justice. That does not mean RantWoman needs courage any less.
RantWoman also feels underinformed about the High Holy days, underinformed in a way that just going and reading say a Wikipedia entry will not fix. RantWoman wants to send to the universe a whole lot of forgiveness and need to keep trying about some hard things.
RantWoman is also reading the schedule for virtual quarterly meeting and realizes she meant to pay attention to a timeline and will now have to do plan B.
Hold in the light.
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