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Friday September 7, 2001

Selichot and Internet help us to take stock of our behavior

Mark Mietkiewicz

This coming Sunday morning, people will arrive in their synagogues midway through the night -- or they'll attend services that begin before midnight on Saturday. They will continue to return very early every weekday until Yom Kippur. They come to recite Selichot (ask forgiveness), take stock of their behavior over the past year and prepare themselves for the coming one. Today, a look at Selichot and the Internet.

The central phrase in the Selichot service is the recitation of the 13 Attributes of Mercy: "Merciful God, merciful God, powerful God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness and truth. Preserver of kindness for thousands of generations, forgiver of iniquity, willful sin and error, and Who cleanses" (Exodus 34:6-7). You can listen to the 13 Attributes chanted at ORT's wonderful Navigating the Bible site, http://bible.ort.org/books/torahd5.asp?action=displaypage&book=2&chapter34&verse=6&portion=21

Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz asks why we spend so much effort reciting the 13 Attributes and asking God to recall our ancestors' merits on our behalf. Shouldn't we focus on our own spiritual growth rather than invoking this phrase? He then suggests that in order to grow, we need to make sure our own lifestyles reflect these godly attributes. "For example, the Talmud says that if you are patient with others, then God will be patient with you. You can only demand that God employ all these attributes if you apply them in your own relationships." That site is http://aish.com/holidays/ the_high_holidays/articles/Slichot_and_the_13_Attributes.asp

Actually, it is only Ashkenazi Jews who are about to start reciting Selichot. Sephardim have been rising early since the start of the month of Elul and will continue to do so for 40 days (excluding Shabbat) until Yom Kippur. (This period parallels the 40 days that Moses prayed atop Mount Sinai asking God to forgive the Jewish people for the sin of the Golden Calf.) You can read a description of what it is like to arrive bleary-eyed early mornings at San Francisco's Magain David Sephardim Congregation in a 1996 Jewish Bulletin piece by Natalie Weinstein. You'll find it at www.jewishsf.com/bk960830/sfayom.htm

Havurat Lev Shalem, a Reconstructionist congregation in Atlanta, has included its entire Selichot service on its Web site, www.mindspring.com/~levshalem/holyslichot5761.htm

It includes the traditional recitation of "Ashamnu, Bagadnu..." ("We have acted wrongly, we have been untrue...") during which we beat our chest as we detail a list of sins. They point out that all these sins are mentioned in the first-person plural. And they quote Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who said, "Some are guilty, all are responsible." The site comments that "by confessing our sins in the collective 'We,' each of us acknowledges that our sins affect others in our community. In this way we take collective responsibility for one another."

If you want to get really practical about getting yourself into shape, check out Aish HaTorah's Growth Worksheet at http://aish.com/holidays/The_High_Holidays/articles/Growth_Worksheet.asp

Rabbi Shraga Simmons looks at three areas of self-improvement (Pursuit of Wisdom, Spiritual Connection, Kindness) and lists 50 questions to make you think about how you have led your life and assess where you are going.

Some samples: "Is there any mistake that I commit habitually to the point where it no longer bothers me?" "Have I ever betrayed the trust of a friend?" "In general, do I view events in my life as random occurrences, or as powerful spiritual messages?"

For more questions to make you stop and think, take a look at Rabbi Joe Black's Four Weeks of Elul Series at www.lsmarketing.com/ congalbert/ca-rabbi.htm

It isn't so easy to repent for your actions, especially if you feel that you have been wronged. The Ohrtmimim site -- www.ohrtmimim.org/torah/archive/holidays/5761/selichot.html -- quotes the classic story of a simple Jew who was so angry with the injustices that God had done to him that he eventually stopped gong to shul, putting on tefillin and even making Kiddush. But when he realized that Selichot week was approaching, he realized that it was finally time to make amends with God. "I invited Him to sit opposite me, poured us two cups of vodka and said 'Listen HaShem, you forget my faults and I'll forget yours.'"

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