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festivals/rosh_hashana/prog/selichot.shtml |
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Written by WUJS Main
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Wednesday, 24 May 2006 |
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PROGRAM - SELICHOT Other Festivals | General Background | Activities | Tzom Gedalia | Sources | The Torah Reading Selichot are recited in the days and month leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Different sects of Jews recite selichot at different times and frequency during this time period. Selichot focus on forgiveness. The following will look at what selichot are and the potential relevance of them to you. Aims:
- To look at the concept of selichot.
- To see if selichot can be made relevant.
Materials Required:
METHOD:
PART A - where do you need to ask for forgiveness?
Give each student a piece of paper. Ask them to divide it into sections of where they have relationships. Ask them to title the sections themselves. For example, some titles for sections can include, family, friends, myself, God, partner etc… Allow some time for people to fill in their sheet. They should think about the relationship that they have with these people and write where they feel that they need to ask for forgiveness or request forgiveness from them. PART B - what are selichot and how can they be used?
Photocopy Traditional Selichot which contains a brief description of Selichot as well as some of the major components. These questions require students to draw on they sheets from PART A.
Some questions to consider:
- Do you agree or disagree with the 13 attributes of God? With which parts do you agree? With which do you disagree?
- Do you think that Exodus 34:6-7 is relevant for Selichot? Why? Why not?
- Do you think that Psalm 27 should be an essential part of Selichot? PART C - why teshuva
In small groups read Appendix 2 Rambam, and discuss these questions.
- Which one of these steps do you think is most important?
- In Rambam's explanation - the "returning" is returning to God. If you are not returning to God then are you "returning" or "repenting"?
- Does this process apply to you? Why/why not? PART D - your own selichot
In small groups create your own selichot. The process of thinking about who you need to interact with, the traditional Jewish selichot, questioning what teshuva is about should lead to this logical conclusion. Depending on the group of students that you are writing for, you can either write selichot for yourselves communally, or students may prefer to write them for themselves. Elsewhere on the web:
Elsewhere on the web:
Activities and Ideas for Rosh Hashana from the Jewish Agency - Pedagogic Center (Some are suitable for younger participants)
Background on Rosh Hashanah from the Jewish Agency - Pedagogic Center
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 24 May 2006 )
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