September 1/2 Elul opens the Selihot season for Sefardim and Mizrachim.
It's the season sleepy-headed Sefardim wish they were Ashkenazim since it means getting up to be at synagogue (at least) an hour earlier than normal. We're late starters where I count for something - selihot start at 6 a.m.
If could be worse.
My father-in-law's generation got up in the middle of the night - OK, maybe 4 a.m. - for Selihot, and when the men were awakened, the entire neighborhood was awakened..
I suppose the Ashkenazi's ability to "sleep in" is payment for their not being able to eat kitniyot during Pesach. Fair is fair, but 8 days vs. a month ... ?
According to the midrash, King David was anguished when he prophetically foresaw the destruction of the Holy Temple and the cessation of the offering of the sacrifices. “How will the Jews atone for their sins?” he wondered.
G-d replied: “When suffering will befall the Jews because of their sins, they should gather before me in complete unity. Together they shall confess their sins and recite the order of the Selihot, and I will answers their prayers.”
While Elul prepares us for Yomai Noraim (Days of Awe) with appeals for forgiveness, it also gives us a hint that on Yom Kippur we will be forgiven for our sins against HaShem. (We need to do our own repairs of sins against of fellows, and that has to be done before we can stand before G-d on Yom Kippur.)
According to the rabbis, the word Elul - in Hebrew, אלול , is an acronym for אני לדודי ודודי לי - roughly "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine" - this is interpreted to be G-d's words to us.
There are exceptions to the early "rise and shine" for selihot. Rabbis and other hakhamim are exempt as are yeshiva students on the thought that they - the students - probably were up until 2 or 3 a.m. studying. Why rabbis are exempt, other than the exemption is a rabbinical ruling, is beyond me. From past experience I know the congregation's rabbi will be "present and accounted for" every morning. G-d willing we'll have a minyan; perhaps sleepy-eyed, but a solid 10, none-the-less.
Although we still are a few days from the second day of Elul, it may be time to start practicing the pre-Yom Kippur greeting: Ketivah vachatimah tovah.
Not close to a Sefardi congregation? Listen to Rabbi Joshua Maroof at http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/selichot/id82388611. R. Maroof is, or was, rabbi at Magen David Sephardic Congregation/Beit Eliahu Synagogue in Rockville MD.
By the way, Chabad's version of Selihot is online at http://www.chabad.org/media/pdf/56/JODh562118.pdf .Chabad customs and Chabad's Selihot are different than Sefardim, but for anyone unable to join a minyan for Selihot, it's a resource.
