S'lichot: Prayers of Forgiveness

by Sabena Stark

The time before the Days of Awe has its own rhythm. We have an opportunity to enter into this rhythm or to let it pass by. As modern Jews, we have this choice. The richness of community and High Holy Days services will still be there for us.

But if we choose to meet the challenge of these special days, one of the rituals we can practice is S’lichot, prayers of forgiveness. Both a series of prayers and an action we can take, S’lichot is a way to approach the soul-searching and soul-cleansing that is the promise of these Holy Days. In fact Elul, the name of this month of preparation, is Aramaic for “search.”

We ask ourselves where we have missed the mark, to get right with the Compassionate One, with our community and with ourselves. The mundane task of this ritual is to make amends, in words and in deeds, for harm we have done others. And then to ask for forgiveness.

We can talk to those we may have hurt face to face, we can write sincere letters of apology, we can return that which was not ours to take, we can tell the truth when the harm was a lie of omission.

As long as the act of asking forgiveness doesn’t in itself increase the harm done, and if we don’t make excuses but simply take responsibility for our own actions, we can reap the huge reward of gaining more peace within ourselves, with our friends and loved ones and ultimately with the Eternal.