Selichoth Prayers - An Introduction
"Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."
Tephillah is the act of prayer. It is the way that we communicate with the Most High. The word tephillah in Hebrew connotes much more than just communication, it implies an actual attachment with that object to which it is directed, or a reattachment of that which has been torn asunder. That is the goal of Selichoth prayers.
Selichoth means “forgivenesses.” Each year as we perform the annual cycle of festivals, fasts and commandments of YHWH, we are meant to ascend ever higher towards understanding, righteousness and perfection. Each year we try with all or most of our hearts to do this, and yet each year we somehow fail. Then, if we are honest with ourselves, we experience a dread at the onset of Yom Teruah and the Days of Judgment. Selichoth prayers are appeals to YHWH for His forgiveness of our failings which are said during the month of Elul, including the entire forty days prior to Yom Hakippurym, in an attempt to reconcile ourselves with Him.
Elul, the sixth scriptural month, is the month of “Repentance and Return.” Each day of Elul, the shofar is blown to awaken the people of YHWH from their spiritual slumber, to warn them of the impending coming of Messiah, and to cause them to repent of their many sins. But repentance without a return to righteousness is a vain thing. Return, or “Teshuvah,” is the object of Selichoth prayers. Each morning during Elul, we rise and pour out our hearts before our Creator in hopes that He will hear and quickly restore us to right-standing with Him before He comes.
There is scriptural precedent for Selichoth prayer. It was during the month of Elul that Moshe returned to Mount Sinai for forty days and nights to obtain the second set of tablets, after breaking the first ones because of the sin of the golden calf. It is thought that the children of Yisrael prayed and fasted during this time of waiting. It was prior to the fall festival that Sh’lomo dedicated the first temple with his famous prayer, asking that YHWH hear and forgive His people their sins wherever they might be, when they turn toward His house and pray to Him with all their hearts. And it was during the month of Elul that Yehoshua Hamashiach prayed, fasted and was tested in the wilderness prior to the beginning of His ministry on earth.
It is not enough to wait until the day of His return, and then plead for forgiveness in Judgment - not for His Remnant, those who will be His at His coming. Like the parable of the Ten Virgins, we must be of those who do not slumber, but remain awake and vigilant, ready and waiting for our Savior’s return. It is to that end that Sabbath Keepers Fellowship is posting this article and presenting our small booklet of Selichoth prayers to our brothers and sisters in faith, in order that they may have oil in their lamps and be dressed in clean white linen on the day that our Bridegroom comes for us. May YHWH speed that day.
By His Grace,
Ovadyah Ben Yisrael
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Selichoth prayers are traditionally performed in the early morning before dawn, usually beginning just after midnight. As on any other day, the Modeh Ani, Sh'ma, and other morning blessings are to be be said before doing these or anything else. If for some reason one cannot pray Selichoth in the morning, they should be done whenever possible. The most important thing is that one does pray.
Most of the prayers can be said while seated, with a few exceptions being: the Sh'ma, Qaddish, El Melek and the Vidduy, which are said standing. If available, tephillin and the tallith should be worn. However, it is our opinion that if they are not, one should say the prayers anyway. Repentance and Teshuvah are more important than any clothing.
If possible, Selichoth should be said in a quiet place, free from distraction or interruption. Once begun, they should be said and finished in their entirety. When in private, personal or "free" prayers of repentance may always be added to enhance Selichoth. Each day, the penitent should search for and find deeper meaning and relevance in the prayers until finally, at Yom Hakippurym, they are as prepared as humanly possible to appear before the throne of their King.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ...
#ephesians 4:11-12
Paul didn't mean this as a comprehensive catalog of all roles and offices in the Kingdom. There are also healers, accountants, administrators, musicians, artists, editors, lawyers, and more. If you think the human body is a complex system of interworking parts, the full body of Messiah is a hundred times greater.
(No one is beating you up for your beliefs so don't act like it after reading this. Study the matter or ignore it and carry on. The choice is yours. We just share the info and challenge everyone to question everything. If you'd rather not question anything, so be it and be blessed.)
We never bother mentioning outside our own areas of authority how abominable it is to call the Elohim of the Bible by the old heathen British epithet of “God”.
We simply scroll on by if it’s on social or ignore it if it’s in live conversation.
…But when it’s one of those posts about how we desperately need to get the man-made tradition out of our religion and it’s posted in the name of “God” which is arguably one of the most deeply rooted of those man-made traditions, then the irony is just too much to ignore.
True that we do need to be strategic and to know our audience and meet people where they are, but is there not a difference between meeting people where they are and adopting their position?
Sure it’s easier to use their terminology, it’s more comfortable for them, more recognizable, and creates a more inclusive environment for dialogue, but to what end?
Are we not moving them from one room of a burning house into another room of the same house?
When we are trying to make a point about Torah it’s important not to muddy the waters with other subject matters. Very true.
Yet do we not muddy the waters anyway by teach them the Torah of the Biblical YHWH Elohim is the Torah of the British LORD God?
We will be giving them an accurate understanding of the requirements and an inaccurate understanding of the One requiring them.
Are we advocating shoving the Sacred Name in their faces when they won’t yet possess the framework for why it’s important? No.
And beating anyone up over things they don’t know and can’t comprehend yet is hardly fair.
But the questions still must be asked. If we are going to call out the imperative need to leave behind our man-made traditions, especially those adopted into Christianity from previous heathenism, we can’t do so with full integrity if we do so selectively. Can we?
We are obligated to remove all our pagan tradition, not just some. Not merely the ones that matter to us. Not just the ones we judge to be important. And not only the ones we notice.
We owe it to the Truth itself and to those desperately dying for it, to get out all the lies from our lives as we notice them.
Our Christian cousins know YHWH by the terms, Father, Heavenly Father, Most High, Creator, Sovereign, King, and Mighty One which are all truisms of Him, contrary to the irrelevant pagan moniker of “God”.
And we’ve found that by glossing over the term “God” when they say it and calling Him by these decent titles instead, they are familiar enough for carrying on conversation, they keep the people comfortable, and they don't fill up the minds of our audience with an adjusted inaccuracy.
Furthermore, in the 20 year test, the data is in on the Messianic movement as a whole, how dramatically our long-standing approach to ministry has failed.
Sure we win people over to our particular brand of Torah Observance for a time. But in years and decades we lose them back to churchianity, to deconversion into foreign religions such as Asatru and Islam, full conversion over into Judaism, or degeneration into atheism and agnosticism.
And what’s the one commonality all these people seem to have? They all say that the more they studied, the more they found out they were still being lied to.
They left whatever religion they were part of initially, usually Christianity or Judaism, because they saw the holes in their theology. And the Hebrew Roots Movement filled up many of those gaps their own religions couldn’t manage to do.
And if that’s as far as these people were going to go then maybe it would be enough…but so many are hungry for the truth in all its fullness, with none of the lies attached, even those they currently hold to dearly.
They want to believe the truth of Scripture but when they later find out we mixed truth with lies to make it easier for them to receive it, most within 20 years reject it entirely as all lies.
We’d urge you all to please consider this matter very carefully.
For the sake of intellectual integrity and for the sake of your audience, please do a deep dive into the etymology of the term “God” so you can see for yourself how important this issue is.
What does the word mean?
Where does it come from?
How did we get it?
Why do we still use it?
Is it really a translation of Elohim?
How do we justify calling our Elohim by the moniker of “God” when the idol “Gad” was His rival in the Bible and his name sounds exactly the same as our title for our Elohim?
So many questions need answering.
Wherever you land on it, be blessed and shalom
Question Everything
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Oh! We're half way there! Just a couple more days til shabbat. We can do this!
Morning y'all ?
Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Ephesians 4:8-10
The ascension referenced here is #yeshua's ascension to heaven ("on high"), so the descent probably isn't talking about going to Hell or Hades or Sheol, but coming to earth. It doesn't say "to the lower regions *of* the earth", but "to the lower regions, *which are* the earth". The captives he set free are all of us who were eternally condemned by our sins. See John 13:3.
That is not to say that Yeshua didn't descend to Sheol, the Hebrew word for the place where the spirits of the dead await resurrection, often called "the grave". I just don't think that's what this verse is about.
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