Do you / your husband go to selichot?

freidasima

Sun, Sep 01 2013, 2:13 pm

Of course DH goes (and sometimes leads them) and of course I don't go, where I come from married women don't go to slichot only single girls and even that only the first one. But as for the 13 midot I was taught that davka one is permitted to say them if one reads them not as tachanun but with trope as if you were reading the torah, which is why in school they taught them to us with trope and that is how we were taught as women saying slichos at home, we should read them. As for the aramaic at the end, we were also taught that we were permitted davka as women to say it, it's men who aren't supposed to say it if they daven at home and not in a minyan, I never asked why we can and they can't but I remember finding it to be "reverse discrimination" in a sense...

I understand the piyyutim and find them very beautiful just as I love the ashkenazi piyyutim for Rosh Hashana and say them all. I say them before shacharis every morning when I daven and have always done so since I was married including with small children. They learned to be quiet when mommy davened, and if we are talking babies I would do it between feedings while they slept. It was always important to me for whatever reason, I find I connect with slichot very much.

Mrs Bissli

Sun, Sep 01 2013, 4:54 pm

Not my thing personally. Firstly we start from the 2nd of Elul so it's more of a slichot-marathon. It is also not easy to find enough Sephardi men willing to start at 5:30 so they finish shacharit in time for people to get to work on time. Normally we manage to find enough Sephardim but not this year as so many people were on holiday through Elul. DH has been very frustrated he had to travel further and couldn't go to his regular miniyan until this week when Ashkenazim "catch up".

I don't know if Sephardi version is inspiring, I think Ashkenazi one is beautiful on its own. But one thing for sure, I think ours is pretty darn long.