Introduction Xll they “increase charity and good deeds, and engage in more than the rest of the year. All rise at night during these ten days and pray in the synagogues with words of supplications and admonition until dawn.”'^ The first reference to, and text for, an order o f during those days is found in the early medieval era o f the Geonim, in the writings of Rav Amram Gaon.“ During that same era developed also a custom to recite selichot ^not to , every day of the preceding month of .^’ The whole period o f the forty days from the first o f Elul to Yom Kippur is an auspicious time, recognized as such since the days of Moses, as these were the forty days Moses spent in heaven to receive the second tablets and effected Divine forgiveness for Israel.^ Sefardi communities observe this practice to this day.^ Ill: The Days of Selichot Ashkenazi communities adopted a custom to start the recitation o f selichot [at least] four days prior to Rosh Hashanah.^“ One reason for “four days” is from an analogy to sacrifices in the Holy Temple which had to be examined for disqualifying flaws for four days prior to their offering.^^ In the Ashkenazi tradition the custom is to start selichot

Teshm ah 2■.() 19. Ibid. 3:4 20. Seder Rav Amram Gaon, ed. Jerusalem 1971, sect. 117 (p. 145). R. Asher ben R. YechieJ, end o f Resh o n Rosh Hashanah; Tur, Orach Chayim, beg. of sect. 581. 21. Rosh and T«r, ad loc cit. 22. Pirkei deR. Elie^er, ch. 46. Tar, ad loc. cit. See also Tanchuma, Ki Tef/^KSO, cited by Rashi on Deuteronomy 9:18. 23. The special nature o f the whole month o f Elul is marked in the Ashkenazi rite as well, by the daily blowing of the , the daily recital o f Psalm 27, additional recital o f , and so forth. See Match Ephrayim, sect. 581:lff, and Eleph Lamateh ad loc. See also L Jkku tei Sichot, vol. II, pp. 378ff. and 622ff. (in English translation, L ik k u te i Sichot, vol. \-.Devarim, pp. 45ff. and 55ff.). 24. When the first day o f Rosh Hashanah is on a Thursday, selichot are started the preceding mots(a’ei (night following the Shabbat). Thus there are four days o f selichot. When it is on Shabbat, there would be six days of selichot. When it is on a Monday or Tuesday, selichot are started on mots!a ’ei Shabbat of the preceding week, thus seven or eight days o f selichot. (According to otir established calendar, the first day o f Rosh Hashanah can never occur on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday; Eekach Tov on Genesis 17:13; Tur, Orach Cheyim, sect. 428.) Thus there are never less than four days. 25. R. Eliyahu Schapiro, Eliyahu Rabha 582:8