Selichot Countdown
September 3, 2008
Community | Holidays
(4 comments)
By Larry KaufmanIn our wonderful American fusion of calendars, one of the signals we get from Labor Day is that the High Holy Days are coming, and their harbinger is selichot - the term applied both to a religious service devoted to penitence and to the prayers of forgiveness themselves. In the Sephardic tradition, selichot are recited nightly throughout the month of Elul; in the Ashkenazic tradition, nightly from the Saturday midnight preceding Rosh Hashanah by at least ten days.
Selichot is a relatively new observance in the Reform tradition. Going from memory, it appears to have made its way into our congregations in the early 1970's, facilitated by the CCAR's publication of Gates of Forgiveness, described on Amazon.com as prayers of preparation for the Days of Awe. On-line information is sparse, but Gates of Forgiveness was apparently re-issued in 1980 in a gender-neutral edition, and remains available only with English opening!
The typical Reform selichot service begins nine-ish with a social hour and study session - I've been at congregations that do the study first, and also at congregations that do the social first -- followed by the relatively brief service, typically ending around 11 P.M. The service provides a warm-up for the High Holy Day choir and the High Holy Day melodies. Temple Sholom of Chicago takes credit for introducing the idea of changing the Torah covers to their High Holy Day whites as part of the selichot liturgy.
I don't know what the selichot minhag (custom) is nowadays in Conservative synagogues, but in my youth, the Conservative congregations in Cleveland held selichot services at midnight, without the social and study appurtenances we find today in our movement. Folks went about their typical Saturday night routines, and capped off their evening by going to shul. The sanctuary at the Temple on the Heights was always jammed, because it provided an opportunity for members of other congregations (including the Reform temples) to hear the magnificent voice of Cantor Saul Meisels in High Holy Day mode.
The Reform adaptation of selichot, to let us get home before the witching hour, reflects a general change in the way we live now. When my parents went to a movie or a concert, it was taken for granted that they would stop afterwards for ice cream or a corned beef sandwich ; in fact, very frequently after spending a weekday evening at home, they would meet friends at ten o'clock at Clark's or Benky's for a nosh. Today, we typically go right home after our concert, and to go out in the middle of the evening wouldn't even enter our minds. Whether we're worried about the safety of our streets, or adding to our waistlines, or just getting enough sleep, our 21st century lifestyle is different from that of the mid-twentieth century.
The survival of Judaism over the centuries reflects our resilience and ability to change our ways to meet the needs of the times; and the success of Reform Judaism reflects our ability not only to preserve but to adapt what is useful from the past to make it meet the needs of today. Had we been fixated on the idea of selichot as a midnight service, rather than as a build-up to Rosh Hashanah, its entry into Reform would not have taken place. Had we remained fixated on defining ourselves by what Reform Jews don't do, we wouldn't enjoy the vibrancy that characterizes our movement today.
Three cheers for the ability to go forward by looking backward, to be Progressive by reclaiming ideas an earlier generation abandoned, to be Reform by invoking the power to re-form.
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Yasher Koach! See you in November. Love, Bonnie