Sep 1, 2026
Interesting Psak: Musical Selichot
With the imminent start of the Ashkenazi selichot season, the Torah Council of Sages, led by Rav Dov Landau and Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, have put out a letter decrying the trend of "musical selichot" - that is selichot events that include musical accompaniment and a concert or kumzitz atmosphere.
The Rabbis discourage participation in such events and also call on the public and public offices to not arrange them or support them or fund them. They call such musical selichot "inappropriate" and in clear opposition to the actual purpose of the days of selichot being to arouse people to teshuva, to cheshbon nefesh, taking an accounting of one's behavior, for the Days of Judgement upon us. They say that these events, by their very nature, corrupt the concept of the prayers. It takes a holy and elevated concept and turns it into a form of entertainment and a show, besides for all sorts of other breeches of kedusha and tzniyut that accompany such events.
source: Hamechadesh
Far be it from me to support or argue against the above psak. I would just note from my my own experience that the "musical selichot" events I see happening (within the Haredi community at least) are all designed to be musical in the way that they think inspires the crowd to teshuva, not a form of concert or the like.
And that being said, my shul is hosting (not arranging as it is not a shul event, just hosting) a chazzanut selichot (if that is what you might call it), this Motzash at 10pm (regular shul selichot after a shiur/sicha by Rav Ahron Pessin at 12:10)
The event, as you can see by the logo, is sponsored by the City of Bet Shemesh. As far as I can tell this is chazanut, no musical accompaniment. I do not know if this falls into the category of musical selichot of whch the rabbis above spoke out against. I suspect not, but you can each decide this for yourselves. .
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Far be it from me to decide. Selichot are hard enough, I’ve had many conversations about selichot at 10:00 at night vs 4:45 AM. For me, if the music or cantorial bit inspires you to do Teshuva, good for you. What bothers me about these bans is not that they are wrong exactly, they have a point that davening shouldn’t be turned into a pay-per-view event. But that doesn’t stop them from the enormous spectacle of Meron, Uman and other events that end up bringing $ to their pockets. So I take their psak with a grain of salt. And maybe a bucket of popcorn if I end up watching a musical selichot. Also, IMHO if the “Torah Council of Sages” ( I like the title, makes me think of the Stone cutters episode of the Simpsons, but I digress) sees that their flock is uninspired, maybe rather than just banning things, they could offer a better alternative.
ReplyDeleteWell, over half the population of Israel (and probably a larger percentage of those who say selihot) are not Ashkenazi, and singing them is a long-established part of their tradition.
ReplyDeleteI participate in a "Nusach Eretz Yisrael" selihot, which mixes the two. A few sung Sephardi selihot and some of the Ashkenazi ones, and overall much shorter than the usual Ashkenazi versions. I find it much more meaningful. Every person is different, something these bans seem to miss.