Kesher Talk

Selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu. Tonight is the beginning, for Ashkenazi Jews, of saying special penitential prayers called selichot, (from the Hebrew word for "forgive me") as an additional preparation for the Yamim Noraim. (The Sephardic custom is to begin saying them at the beginning of Ellul.) In many shuls Selichot is inaugurated by a late Saturday night service, often combined with a teaching, lecture, or musical performance. This is usually a big performance for the choir, if the shul has one. Selichot begins late because at the end of summer, Shabbat doesn't end until 8 or 9 PM. Shabbat must be over before this service can begin, because it is inappropriate to focus on penitence on Shabbat, which is supposed to be joyful (funerals and mourning ceremonies are not performed on Shabbat). (However, Yom Kippur can take place on Shabbat, and I will let Rabbi Schlomo Riskin explain how that works.)

Some words on forgiveness from a rabbi:

. . . . Step one is to make peace with those attempting to make peace with us. But what about those cases when the offender does not ask for our pardon or act in any way to make amends? Rava asked: What is the meaning of the first verse of the Haftarah of Shabbat Shuvah: Who is a God like you, forgiving iniquity and passing over transgression? Why does it first say forgiving, and then passing over? And he answers: This verse comes to teaches us: whose iniquity does God forgive? That of the person willing to pass over, to overlook, the transgressions committed against himself.

The prayers in the selichot service take an interesting approach to forgivenss. They do not dwell on human fraility, or on our human inadequacies. They do not attempt to excuse our wrongdoings. Rather they appeal to God's nature as a forgiving God. In this they are following the pattern of the book of Numbers . . . . Over and over the people would do wrong, and each time Moses was left with no recourse, but to appeal to God's mercy and to the revelation of God that followed the incident of the Golden Calf. In asking God to forgive the people, Moses appeals to the thirteen attributes God revealed to him on the mountain, to God's nature as a forgiving God, full of kindness, slow to anger, gracious and merciful. . . . Similarly we need to let go of our resentments of those who have offended us, not necessarily because of their merits, or even because of their inadequacies, but because of our desire to be like God, beings of mercy and graciousness.

posted by Judith @ 8/31/2002 03:59:29 PM