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fast faith in God's mercy and in
the ultimate redemption.
By Ashkenazi custom, Selichot
services begin at midnight on the
Sunday before Rosh Hashanah.
Sephardic Jews start Selichot on
the first day of Elul, the month that
precedes Rosh Hashanah. This
year, worshippers at most Detroit-
area synagogues and temples will
gather for Selichot services during
the late evening of Saturday,
Sept. 23, although the selichot
are recited beginning at midnight
on Sunday, Sept. 24. Until Yom
Kippur, selichot are recited before
the morning service.

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To put the congregation in the right
mood for penitential prayer, many
synagogues long ago initiated the
practice of delivering a sermon an
hour or so before the actual Selichot
services began. In America, this
gradually developed into a social
hour, replete with coffee (caffeinat-
ed, to keep everyone awake), cake
and other goodies. In some congre-
gations, the moralizing sermon has
been done away with altogether
and replaced with a talk on some
aspect of Jewish culture, history or
politics, or in some places, a movie
with a Jewish theme. Quite often,
many of the congregants leave after
the program, and only a few are left
to recite the prayers.
The core of the selichot is the
"Thirteen Attributes of Mercy." Its ori-
gin is the Torah, in the episode fol-
lowing the sin of the golden calf,
when God forgave the Jewish peo-
ple and commanded Moses to
ascend Mount Sinai a second time
j and once again receive the Torah
(Parashat Ki Tisa Exodus 34:5-7):
"And the Lord passed by him and
proclaimed: 'The Lord, the Lord,
God, merciful and gracious, slow
to anger and abundant in kindness

Related stag: page 62
Related editorial: page 37

and truth; keeping mercy for thou-
sands of generations, forgiver of iniq-
uity, willful sin and error and who
cleanses, but not completely, recalling
the iniquity of parents upon children
and grandchildren, to the third and
fourth generations. —
In the Talmud, Rabbi Yochanan
reasoned that God taught Moses
this prayer as a way of approach-
ing Him to request forgiveness.
A later episode involved the 12
scouts sent to the land of Canaan,
who returned with a discouraging
report that resulted in the people's
call for a return to Egypt and
God's intention to strike them
down. Here, Moses recited a
prayer that included a modified
form of the Thirteen Attributes, and
God forgave the Jews.

Time To Confess
Several times during the Selichot
service, the congregation recites
the Thirteen Attributes as well as
Moses' prayer.
Because the rabbis who devised
the Selichot service did not wish for
people to think of the Thirteen
Attributes as a sort of magic formu-
la that produces absolution, they
mandated an expression of confes-
sion and remorse. Thus, the Thir-
teen Attributes are followed by
vidui, confession. This consists of
two parts: Ashamnu ("We have
trespassed"), an alphabetically
arranged list of sins, and Al Cheit
("For the sin"), a long inventory of
transgressions recited by the group,
accompanied by beating of the
breast.
The hoped-for result from the Seli-
chot service is that each worship-
per will come away realizing that
every person is subject to the same
frailties and shortcomings, and that
all of us must face the reality of life.
If, however we sincerely and hon-
estly admit our wrongdoing, and
resolve to lead a virtuous life we
can expect forgiveness from God,
thus invigorating our spirituality. Ei

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