Mama, we have our son again.

So says Poppa at the end of the Jazz Singer as he hears the strains of Kol Nidre being sung with gusto by Al Jolson. 

Kol Nidre is a prayer that basically ‘kicks off’ a day and an hour of fasting for the most holy day in the Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur.

It is, however, also our not so secret guilty pleasure,  whether you are a Ashkenazi or a Sephardi Jew. The Ashkenazi melody especially when sung by a half way decent chazzan is simply beautiful, and is known worldwide. The Sephardi, especially Moroccan version also wows the senses. 

There is a lot of controversy over the prayer itself over the years but here are things you may not know about the tune.

Samuel Pallache and the Age of Dissimulation

Dissimulation  

Many Jews went to Fez in Morocco at the time of the expulsion, and one of the families that did so was the Pallache. One of the progeny of that family was one Samuel Pallache, who had a remarkable career, and came to be known as the Pirate Rabbi to the modern generation.
 

To fully understand that career, though we have to understand dissimulation.