The custom of reciting Selihot and fasting

There is a custom amongst Ashkenazim to recite selihot, prayers to ask G-d for forgiveness, at least four days prior to Rosh Hashanah and continuing through most of the ten days of repentance, excluding Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat.  Sefaridm begin reciting selihot even earlier, from Rosh Chodesh Elul.  What is the source of this custom?   

Goldschmidt (1965, pp. 6,10) writes that the custom of saying selihot began due a custom of Jews who lived in Israel approximately 1,500 years ago to fast all ten days (not at night) from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, including Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat, see also Gartner, 1972 and 1974. The idea is that these days were days of repentance, and repentance required fasting. The Geonim who lived in Bavel did not like this custom since they argued that it was wrong to fast on Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat. Gartner quotes (1972, p. 127) Pirkei ben baavu (?) from Bavel who wrote that one is not obligated to fast during the days since there is no source in the Torah or the Talmud for this fast, as the period is called ten days of repentance but not ten days of fasting. (Rav Zevin, 1956, p. 56, quotes this idea in the name of Rav Hai Gaon.) Gartner (1972, p. 132) also quotes that Rav Natronai Gaon (Bavel, 9th century) compromised between the two viewpoints, he ate on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and then fasted the next nine days.

It seems that in the time of Geonim, some people fasted all ten days, some fasted for part of the ten days of repentance, while others did not fast at all during the ten days of repentance, (excluding Yom Kippur and Tzom Gedaliah). The custom of saying selihot developed amongst those people who fasted. What is the connection between fasting and saying selihot?

The Mishnah (Ta’anit 2:1-4) records that six extra blessings were added to the Shemoneh Esrei when there was a public fast for rain. Prior to the conclusion of each blessing, there was a statement that just as G-d had answered the prayers of people in the past (Avraham, by the crossing of Yam Suf, Yehoshua, Shmuel, Eliyahu and Yonah) so too G-d should answer the prayers for rain. These six statements would later develop into the section of anenu towards the end of the selihot, and they show that special prayers are added to all fast days. Accordingly, once there developed the custom of fasting on the days of repentance, then extra prayers were also added, and these extra prayers are the selihot.

Gartner (1974) argues that the connection between the selihot and fasting can also explain the third stage in the development of the custom of saying selihot, that of saying selihot prior to Rosh Hashanah. The customs of the land of Israel influenced Medieval Ashkenazi Jewry, which meant that they should have fasted all the ten days, of repentance,  but they were also aware of the opposition from the Geonim of fasting on Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat. In addition, the Talmud (Berakhot 8b) quotes a drasha that eating on erev Yom Kippur is equivalent to fasting, and thus one would also not fast on the erev Yom Kippur. (Gartner, 1974, p. 76, writes that this drasha was not accepted in Israel.) Accordingly, the ten day fast during the ten days of repentance was shortened to six days, as Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat and erev Yom Kippur were excluded, and then to make up the missing four days, one would fast four days prior to Rosh Hashanah, see Rama Orah Chayyim 581:2.  Of these fasts days, the most important was to fast on erev Rosh Hashanah, which was viewed as replacing the fast on Rosh Hashanah (see Tur and Shulchan Arukh Orah Chayyim 581). With the extension of the fasting to four days prior to Rosh Hashanah, then selihot also began to be recited on these fast days prior to Rosh Hashanah.

This idea only explains the saying of selihot four days prior to Rosh Hashanah, how did the custom develop both by the Ashkenazim and the Sefardim to add more days of selihot? With regard to the Ashkenazim, the Levush, (R. Mordechai Jaffe, 1535-1612, quoted by Gartner) explains that really the there was a need only to add four days of selihot, and then when Rosh Hashanah is on Thursday, one starts saying selihot on Sunday, but as not to confuse people, when Rosh Hashanah falls on other days we still always start selihot on Sunday even if this means saying selihot on days when there is no custom to fast. (The Mishnah Berurah, 581:15, turn of the 20th century, writes that the popular custom in his time is to fast on the first day of the saying of selihot.) This development of always starting selihot on Sunday breaks the connection between fasting and selihot, and to the best of my knowledge the custom of fasting for the ten days of repentance has been lost while the custom of saying selihot remains.  Also, I think this is the only custom in Judaism which is based on the first day of the week, i.e., Sunday. 

The custom of the Sefardim to recite selihot from the beginning of month of Elul appears to be based on a Persian custom. Rav Hai Geon (939-1038, quoted in Gartner, 1974, p. 75) refers to a Persian custom to say special prayers from the beginning of the month of Elul since this is when Moshe went up to get the second luhot. This would seem to indicate a separate source for selihot, but Agnon (1976, p. 19) and Goldschmidt (1965 p. 6) quote that there was also a custom to fast from the beginning of Elul until Yom Kippur, though it is unclear to me when this custom of fasting began.

The connection between selihot and fasting can explain an anomaly in the selihot. By far the longest selihot are on erev Rosh Hashanah, while the shortest selihot are on erev Yom Kippur. Why should the selihot on these days be so different than all the other days, and if there was to be a difference, one would have thought that the selihot on erev Yom Kippur would be longer than the selihot on erev Rosh Hashanah? Possibly the answer is that, as stated above, erev Rosh Hashanah became the most important fast day of the period leading up to Yom Kippur, and hence more selihot were added to the day. On the other hand, on erev Yom Kippur due the drasha mentioned above that eating is like fasting, it was considered a commandment to eat on erev Yom Kippur (Shulchan Arukh, Orah Chayyim, 604:1), which clearly counters the idea of fasting and hence the selihot are shortened.

Bibliography

Agnon, Shmuel Yosef (1888-1970), 1965, Days of Awe, New York: Schocken Books.

Gartner, Yaakov, 1972, Fasting on Rosh Hashanah: The origin of this custom and its development, (Hebrew) Hadarom, pp. 125-162.

-----, 1974, Fasting and selihot before Rosh Hashanah, Hadarom, pp. 69-77.

Goldschmidt, Daniel (1895-1972), 1965, The order of Selihot, Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.

Zevin, Shlomo Yosef (1890-1978), 1944, first edition, 1956, seventh edition, Ha-Mo'adim ba- Halakhah, Jerusalem.