Niloh Service: Concluding Service for Yom Kippur

The Niloh (Neilah) Service, the concluding service for Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement), contains a variety of prayers; many of them are also used on other occasions, but they have special relevance on this solemn occasion. On Yom Kippur, one of the two “High Holy Days,” Jews confess that they have sinned during the past year but ask for forgiveness while proclaiming their good intentions for the future. Cantor Abraham Brun chants the prayers of the Niloh service in the traditional unaccompanied manner, replete with elaborate embellishments and flourishes.

Brun (1909–1998), a cantor in Poland who immigrated to the United States after World War II, is featured on four other Folkways recordings.

Liner notes provide biographical information about Cantor Brun, plus the prayers in both Hebrew and English.