QUESTION
What is Selichos all about?
ANSWER
Selichos means that a man must make some time for hisbonenus, for thinking. על לבבכם ימו ̆רכיכם„ – Put your minds on your path in life. Are you walking in the right way? When we say Selichos, so every day we’re saying, “רכינו„ ה ̆נחפ רה ̃ונח – Let us search out our ways and investigate.” All the frum Jews are saying that. But do you do it? How many frum Jews have stopped and given five minutes to think over the past year? Believe me, very few. Five minutes inventory, five minutes bookkeeping, is very little for a whole year of business and yet it would be a great thing if somebody could boast, “I’m the man! I fulfilled ורה ̃ונח רכינו„ ה ̆נחפ. I spent five minutes thinking of the past full year.” It’s a very poor little boast, but halevai v’halevai.
At least two minutes you should spend! Did you spend two minutes? Even on Yom Kippur, do you spend two minutes thinking about your past year? People are talking, but they don’t even know what they’re saying. They say, רכינו„ ה ̆נחפ – “Let’s search out our ways and make an inventory,” and then they forget about actually doing it.
And it’s so essential. It’s imperative—you must have some time to think. Unless you want to continue in your blindness until you fall over the precipice when it’s all over and then it’s too late. At the end you’ll realize that your life has been wasted for a lack of using your mind. The golden opportunity of life comes once in history—you won’t come back again. And that’s what Selichos is for; it’s meant to wake you up.
February 1977
