Question: When Shema Koleinu is recited during the High Holiday season, the cantor skips several lines during the interactive repetition. What is the reason?
A Reader
Wilkes Barre, PA
Answer: While Shema Koleinu, in most congregations, serves as a “highlight” of the Selichot prayers (which we also recite on numerous occasions throughout the year), it was not originally a High Holiday prayer.
Selichot are prayers of supplication that we recite to beg Hashem’s forgiveness for our iniquities. We start reciting Selichot in Elul, and continue up to and including Rosh Hashana and Yom HaKippurim, as well as the days between these High Holidays, known as Aseret Yemei Teshuva (lit. the Ten Days of Repentance) or, more simply, the Days of Awe.
In this period of time which has been set apart for repentance, Hashem is indeed nearer to us than ever, as we note in the acronym that has been appended to that month, based on a pasuk in Shir HaShirim (6:3), “Ani LeDodi v’Dodi Li” – I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.” The Song of Songs is an allegory of the relationship between G-d and the nation of Israel, as well as between G-d and Man. HaGaon R. Moshe Feinstein (Darash Moshe, Nissan 5759 p.95) explains: “When we realize that everything Hashem does for us is good and our whole life emanates from Him, then surely ‘I am my Beloved’s and He is mine.’” The prophet Isaiah aptly defines the time frame for repentance when he declares (Yeshayahu 55:6), “Dirshu Hashem be’himatz’o, kera’uhu bih’yoto karov” – Seek the L-rd while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”
However, this definition begs the question: Does G-d ever put impediments in man’s way, thus preventing him from engaging in repentance at any time of the year? Indeed, in the context of a discussion about who is worthy to enjoy the World to Come, R. Eliezer is quoted as stating (Shabbos 153a) that one must repent one day before dying. (This statement of R. Eliezer is also found in Avot 2:10.) His disciples asked him: “How can one possibly know when death will come?” To which R. Eliezer replied: “This is all the more reason that one must repent today (and indeed, every day of his life), lest he die on the morrow.” How can we then say that a particular time of the year is more opportune than others?
There is, in fact, a Biblical commandment to support the designation of a particular time of the year for repentance. Parashat Acharei Mot offers a description of the process of atonement and cleansing Aharon had to go through following the death of two of his sons because of the strange fire they had brought into the Tabernacle. The concluding verses (Vayikra 16:29-34) state: “Ve’haytah lachem lechukat olam, bachodesh ha’shevi’i b’asor lachodesh te’anu et nafshoteichem… Ki bayom hazeh yechapper aleichem le’taher et’chem mikol chatoteichem lifnei Hashem tit’haru… lechukat olam lechapper al Bnei Yisrael mikol chatotam achat bashana…” – This shall be an everlasting statute to you, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls… For on that day will He forgive you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before Hashem… an everlasting statute to you, to make atonement for the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year…”
The Talmud repeatedly refers to that time frame for repentance, and Rambam, based on the Talmud, rules (Hilchot Teshuva 1:1) that repentance and Yom Kippur act as a unit in the ultimate cleansing of man’s iniquities. He also states (ibid. 1:2) that in extreme cases where one has sinned gravely and forgiveness has been held in abeyance in spite of the sinner’s repentance, death effects ultimate forgiveness.
We thus see that while the Yamim Nora’im are not the exclusive time of repentance, they are a time of particularly close Divine presence and one must take advantage of this opportunity. Selichot are said in a reflective mood, and Shema Koleinu in particular is recited with much fervor and vocal anguish, making it the highlight of these prayers.
Shema Koleinu, as mentioned before, was not established as a Selichot prayer but as one of the Eighteen Benedictions referred to as the Shemoneh Esreh (lit. “the eighteen”) or the Amidah (because we say them standing) which we recite three times a day. Rabban Gamaliel states (Berachot 28b, Mishna) that we have to say these 18 benedictions daily in our prayers. The Gemara then cites a baraita according to which it was R. Shimon HaPakuli who presented to Rabban Gamaliel in Yavneh the order in which these benedictions are arranged. This same baraita is also cited in Tractate Megillah (17b), and there it is immediately followed by a second baraita in the name of R. Yochanan, stating that it was the 120 Elders – the Men of the Great Assembly, among whom there were many prophets – who set the Eighteen Blessings in a specific order. The Gemara then proceeds to explain, based on various pesukim, the reasons for that specific order. But if it was the 120 Elders who established the sequence of the Eighteen Benedictions, how can we attribute it to R. Shimon HaPakuli? The Gemara answers that it must mean that it were the reasons for the order of the benedictions [and not the order itself] that had been forgotten.
Based on the Baraitot in these tractates, Rambam (Hilchot Tefillah 1:4 – see Kesef Mishneh) identifies the 120 Elders as Ezra the Scribe and his beit din, or the Men of the Great Assembly. Since the returnees from the Babylonian exile had become assimilated in the lands of their dispersion, they had a very limited knowledge of Hebrew. Ezra saw the need to add an (oral) Aramaic translation (Targum) when the Torah was read before them (see Nechemia 8:8) and also to provide them with a set order of the daily Eighteen Benedictions.
In his commentary on the Tur (Orach Chayyim 112), the Bach notes Rashi’s explanation that the benedictions of the Shemoneh Esreh follow a set order that is derived from Scriptural sources, which the Gemara then elaborates. He adds that the Beit Yosef cites the Shibbolei HaLeket who, based on an aggadah (oral tradition), explains that the Men of the Great Assembly established the sequence of the blessings based on the chronological order of the events as described in Seder Olam. Thus the benediction of Magen Avraham (the Shield of Abraham) refers to Abraham’s escape from [Nimrod’s] furnace, Mechayyeh Hameitim [Who resurrects the dead] alludes to Yitzhak’s survival of the Akeidah, and so on. Similarly, each of the Eighteen Benedictions relates to an important historical event of our nation. Hence, the fact that the Men of the Great Assembly “established the sequence” of the benedictions, might simply mean that they reinstituted a sequence that existed before but had been forgotten.
The established order of the Eighteen Benedictions as well as the text of all our prayers as we recite them today is listed by Rambam (following Hilchot Milah), and the 16th blessing of the Shemoneh Esreh is identical to Shema Koleinu as found in our Selichot prayers. In fact, the exact wording of the Mishna referred to in Berachot (28b) is that R. Yehoshua states that one prays “me’ein Shemoneh Esreh,” i.e., “like the Eighteen Blessings,” which R. Akiva explains to mean that if one knows the text of the original Eighteen Benedictions, one recites the original Eighteen; otherwise one recites an abbreviated version.
The Gemara subsequently (29a) explains that “me’ein Shemoneh Esreh” refers to the text of “Havinenu,” [“Grant us discernment”], which concludes with the blessing “Shome’ah Tefillah”; there are also (29b) other prayers, such as Tefillat Haderech [the Wayfarers’ Prayer], all ending with the benediction of “Shome’ah Tefillah.” Thus we see that the 16th benediction of the Shemoneh Esreh is always appropriately referred to as “Tefillah,” or prayer.
(To be continued)
