RABBI YAKOV YOSEF SCHECHTER
רמ"א O:C 581:1 - The Minhag of Ashkenazim is to arise early on the Sunday before Rosh Hashanah to begin saying Selichos, until Yom Hakippurim. If Rosh Hashanah falls out on Monday or Tuesday, then Selichos begin the Sunday of the previous week. We need to understand why we always begin Selichos on a Sunday.
Noam Elimelech - How can we perform any actions of Kedusha with the limbs that we have, the limbs with which we Chas V’sholom sinned and caused a P’gam, a deficiency, in those limbs? We are only able to do so by connecting ourselves to Klal Yisroel. There is a world called, “כל ישראל,” and that world is complete without any deficiencies. Klal Yisroel as a whole are Tzaddikim, as the Posuk in Yeshayah 60:21 says, “ועמך כולם צדיקים” – “And Your people – all of them are righteous.”
Although individuals of Klal Yisroel may sin at times, “Klal Yisroel” always remains in its pristine state, and its Kedusha. The Satan has no power against it. We recite before we perform Mitzvos, “הריני מוכן...בשם כל ישראל”. For if a Yid connects himself to the unit called, “Klal Yisroel” – then the limb he is using to perform the Mitzvah is considered to be a part of the limb of the unit of Klal Yisroel, which is pure and holy, and thus he is able to perform the Mitzvah.
There is another way for one to be able to perform Mitzvos. When one heeds Shabbos Kodesh properly, and refrains from the thirty-nine melachos of Shabbos, the Tikunei Hazohar tells us that all of the Klipos (spiritual impurities) disperse and leave.
Moshe Rabbeinu was alluding to these two things to advise Klal Yisroel how they would be able to perform Mitzvos. “אלה הדברים” alludes to heeding the thirty-nine melachos of Shabbos, as the Gemara in Shabbos 70a says, “אלה הדברים” refers to the ל"ט מלאכות – the thirty-nine melochos. (אלה is the Gematria of 36, together with the three letters is a total of 39 – alluding to the 39 melachos of Shabbos Kodesh). The second way is, “כל ישראל” – for one to make himself part of Klal Yisroel – for then one is a Tzaddik.
With this we explain why we begin Selichos on Motzai Shabbos. As we stand at the entrance of the days of Rachamim, the days of Selichos, to knock on the doors of Rachamim, great embarrassment and shame covers our faces when we remember how we acted the past year. How we wasted our time with silliness, instead of focusing on what is really important in this world. Where is our Torah; where are our Mitzvos to protect us from the upcoming days of judgment? Perhaps we have some – but it really is nothing compared to what we really should have. What are we to do?
We must use the advice of the Noam Elimelech: to connect ourselves to all of Klal Yisroel, so that we are one with Klal Yisroel, and to really heed Shabbos according to all of its laws. This is why we begin Selichos on Motzai Shabbos Kodesh, so that the Zechus of Shabbos Kodesh, together with our davening with the tzibur of Klal Yisroel, that we should be zoche to be purified from all of our sins, that we should receive a kapparah for our sins, and that Hakodosh Boruch Hu should listen, “אל הרינה ואל התפילה” – “to our song of praise, and our prayer.”
