For the third year, we are offering a daily Selichot practice during the month of Elul, which begins on Monday September 29th. A daily Selichot practice is a Sephardi practice of reciting penitential prayers and poetry daily from the second day of Elul (August 29th) to the morning of Yom Kippur (October 4th). As in the past two years, this practice will take place on Zoom, at 7:15 am. Daily Selichot in the month leading up to the High Holy Days provides us the opportunity to journey, individually and in community, into the work of the High Holy Days.

There are a number of ways you can participate in this project! Certainly, by logging on and participating in as many mornings as you can for this brief (30 minute) practice. There are also opportunities to take leadership: to read or sing the songs and liturgy that form the backbone of this practice, or to blow the shofar. In addition, there is the opportunity to offer a teaching or reflection to help ground our daily practice.

As we approach the end of a year in which the notion that we were on “solid ground” has been put firmly to rest, a year of Sh’mita in which we have been called to release our claim on our land (literal and metaphorical), we are preparing for a new year in which we will be called to consider what new seeds we will plant. 

We invite you to consider, as you enter this practice the notion of forgiveness - what do we need in order to forgive ourselves, to forgive one another, to feel the possibility of forgiveness from one another and from the Divine?  How can we speak truth, to ourselves and to one another, to open our ears and hearts, even when what we are called to hear is hard? How can the process of tochecha (calling another into awareness of their sin) and teshuvah (seeking to repair the harm we have caused through our sins) deepen our relationships, and bring ourselves into alignment? What healing might open for us in that process?

Please join us for Rosh Chodesh Elul on Shabbat, August 27 and Sunday, August 28, for Hallel and for chances to hear melodies and teachings of Selichot and please join us as we begin our Elul journey of Selichot on August 29th.