Daniel Goldschmidt (1965, pp.5,6) outlines four different stages in the development of the custom of saying selihot. The first stage was that there existed a custom called maamad to say certain prayers before sunrise during the ten days of repentance. The main prayer in the maamad was the 13 middot “characteristics” of G-d (Shemot 34:6,7), which was based on the passage in Rosh Hashanah 17B that records that Rav Yochanon explained that the words vaya’avor hashem al paniv (Shemot 34:6) mean that G-d wrapped Himself like a chazzan and demonstrated the prayer service of saying the 13 “characteristics” of G-d to Moshe. Rav Yochanon also said that G-d told Moshe that when the people would sin in the future, they should say this prayer, and G-d would forgive them, and the Talmud quotes R. Yehuda that G-d even made a covenant that the prayer would be efficacious. Accordingly, there developed the concept of reciting the 13 “characteristics” of G-d in order to gain forgiveness, and initially, the term selihot just referred to the 13 “characteristics” of G-d, though relatively quickly the word selihot began to refer to the complete set of prayers. The maamad service is quoted in the Siddur of Rav Amram Gaon (9th century), and the service involved saying, ashrei, other verses from Tanakh, the 13 “characteristics,” vedui, anenu and tachnun.
The second stage, which started in the 9th century (possibly almost contemporaneous with the first stage), was that piyyutim were added in the middle of the Biblical verses, and these piyyutim even replaced some of the verses. In this stage, each chazzan would choose which piyyutim to recite.
In the third stage, selihot were also said prior to Rosh Hashanah. Machor Vitry (11th century, quoted by Jacobson, 1989, p.30) refers to saying selihot from the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah. However, this might have been just been the custom amongst Ashkenazim, as the Rambam writes ((1135-1204, Laws of repentance, 3:4) that everybody’s custom was to say the penitential prayers during the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and he does not mention reciting selihot before Rosh Hashanah. For sure by the time of the Rosh (1250-1327, comments end of Rosh Hashanah) the custom of reciting selihot prior to Rosh Hashanah was accepted by the Sefardim since he refers to the custom of saying selihot starting from Rosh Chodesh Elul, which is the Sefardi custom. (Goldschmidt mentions a custom in Spain of starting on the 25th of Elul and Jacobson, 1989, vol. 3, p. 29 quotes R. David Abudraham, 14th century, that there also existed a custom of starting on the 15th of Elul.)
The Rosh’s son, the Tur (1275-1340, Orah Chayyim 581) quotes his father and then adds that the custom of Ashkenazim is that if Rosh Hashanah is on Thursday or Shabbat, then one starts saying selihot in the beginning of the week (Saturday night/ Sunday), while if Rosh Hashanah is on Monday or Tuesday, then one starts saying selihot the beginning of the previous week. The Tur also presents this prayer service as a three part structure. He combines the verses from Tanakh, the 13 “characteristics,” vedui, anenu into one category of penitential prayers, and as noted by the Levush (R. Mordechai Jaffe, 1535-1612, quoted by Jacobson, 1989, Vol. 5, p.30, also see Rav Soloveitchik, 1994, p.108) this structure follows the basic structure of tefillah. The opening prayer is ashrei, songs of praise, then shemoneh esrei, which are replaced here by the 13 middot, and tachanun concludes the prayer service. (Note in the time of the Geonim, Alenu was not part of the weekday prayer, as it was included in the 14th century to the weekday prayers, see Elbogen, Dvir, 1988, p.63.)
The fourth stage began in the 15th century that amongst the Ashkenazim there began to be set piyyutim for each day. This led to distinct customs amongst different groups as different communities chose different piyyutim.
No comments:
Post a Comment