Selichot סליחות

After the golden calf, Moses pleads and hears the words that have been repeated ever since: "The Lord, the Lord, God merciful and gracious…" The Talmud says it plainly: He showed Moses the order of prayer and said—whenever they sin, let them perform this order before Me, and I will forgive. From this the whole build of the selichot follows: the thirteen attributes at the centre, and around them the piyutim and the verses.

When they are said. Sephardim: the whole month of Elul, from the first day. Ashkenazim: from the Sabbath before Rosh Hashanah, and if Rosh Hashanah falls early in the week, a week earlier, so that there be not fewer than four days. The first time they are said at night, after midnight, and this is one of the few services people rise in the dark for.

Who wrote them. The paytanim of Ashkenaz and Spain: Rabbeinu Gershom, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Judah Halevi, and many who are nameless. Among the selichot are some written about their own dead—about the slaughtered communities of the Rhine—and there the words of forgiveness stand beside a lament; it is one of the heaviest places in our prayer books.