This is the time of year when many Sefardim and Mizrahim would gladly changes places with their Ashkenazi cousins.
During the entire month of Elul - which begins this year on Friday, 17 August - Sefardim and Mizrahim are privileged to get up between "midnight" and "dawn" to recite s'lehot. Ashkenazim only recite s'lehot from Rosh HaShana. (But then, Sefardim and Mizrahim enjoy a broader diet during Pesach, so maybe it evens out.)
There are a few general rules for those who stagger out of bed in the dark. The following is a sampling from a few sources.
No one dons a tallit during s'lehot; not the hazan and not the congregation. Tallit and tefillin are worn for morning prayers as usual.
Unless it is the minhag of the congregation, עננו אלהא דמאיר עננו is not said.
During the month of Elul, those studying Torah (), those teaching children, and those whose work would suffer if they got up to say s'lehot can be excused. It is better if they do join others in s'lehot. Everyone is expected to participate in s'lehot from Rosh HaShana to Yom Kippur.
Both minyans and individuals recite s'lehot in Aramaic except for the 13 attributes . Individuals omit בדיל ויעבור< and instead simply say :amen."
The following are general minhagim of Mizrahim
The minhag is to get up and start s'lehot באשמורת, that is, the night watch, before dawn
The person who leads the s'lehot and Rosh HaShana services should be a Torah scholar, a person who performs the mitzvot, and who is at least 30 years old.
The following are footnotes in קיצור שולחן ערוך של מרדכי אליהו
The Sefardi minhag is to recite s'lehot from the 2nd of Elul before morning (לילה באשמורת), but not before the middle of the night (apportioned hours; currently about 1:30 a.m. - dawn is about 5:40 a.m.). Check a calendar for exact times for each day. There is a tradition to blow the shofar when the 13 attributes (י''ג מדות) are recited. Theree also is a minhag for some to blow the shofar during the kadish before תענו ותעתרו.
A brief history of the "kitzur"
Yosef Caro's Bet Yosef was condensed by the author to become the Shulhan Aruk, or Ready Table.
The Shulhan Aruk went to Europe where Ashkenazi traditions were overlaid as a table cloth (mappa) on the table (shulhan) by R. Moses Isserles, the Rem"a.
Hungary's Solomon ben Joseph Ganzfried laid out a "short" (kitzur) version of the Shulhan Aruk with Mappa and most kitzurim follow R. Ganzfried's order.
R. Rabbi Raphael Baruch Toledano's kitzur follows a different path but, like R. Ganzfried's kitzur, condenses the Shulhan Aruk.
R. Eliyahu's kitzur aligns with R. Ganzfried's kitzur and in fact IS the Ganzfried kitzur with R. Elihu's modern Sefardi "adjustments" as footnotes.
About the rabbis cited above
Rabbi Yosef Messas (הוד יוסף חי) - see http://www.jewishideas.org/articles/rabbi-joseph-messas
Rabbi Shalom Messas - (לקוט שמ''ש and דברי שלום ואנת) see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalom_Messas
To be fair, דברי שלום ואנת is not by Shalom Messas. However, the majority of the opinions in the work are his.
Rabbi Raphael Baruch Toledano (קיצור שולחן ערוך של רפאל ברוך תולחדאנו) - see http://www.sephardiclegacy.com/pdf/november2008.pdf
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu (קיצור שולחן ערוך של מרדכי אליהו) - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Eliyahu
