In honor of the Jewish High Holy Days, President Isaac Herzog on Thursday hosted a traditional Selichot service at the synagogue of the President's Residence.
The service was accompanied by the paytan (performer of Jewish liturgical poetry) Lior Elmaleh and the singer Uriel Shay. The service was joined by local residents, students in pre-military academies, and IDF soldiers.
President Herzog began his remarks by saying, "These are the Ten Days of Repentance, the Days of Awe. The Yom Kippur service will mark the climax of many weeks of Selichot services and prayers. It is a long service, centering on the Vidui, the confession, which reads: 'But, indeed, we and our fathers have sinned. We have trespassed. We have betrayed. We have stolen. We have slandered.' For many years now, I have been preoccupied by the question: why is this prayer recited in the plural? Is it an attempt to evade a genuinely personal confession? Is it a way to avoid asking hard questions of oneself? To avoid admitting one's shortcomings and necessary personal soul-searching?”
"In recent years, I have started thinking that the recitation of the Vidui in the plural is the beginning of a process of tikkun, of repair. It is the most striking symbol of the compassion that the Jewish faith seeks to bestow. Of kindness, an embrace, forgiveness. Nobody is as lonely as the sinner. Sins are committed in secret, out of shame. The Jewish confession, recited in the first-person plural, embraces the sinner and tells him: You have sinned, but you are still part of us. We have sinned. We are all guilty, all of us. We know the sense of guilt engulfing you and we want to tell you: We are with you. You are not alone. All of Israel are responsible for one another,” added Herzog.
"Today we observed the Fast of Gedaliah, marking the day on which a political assassin murdered the head of the Jewish autonomous polity in the Land of Israel after the destruction of the First Temple, Gedaliah, son of Ahikam. The Fast of Gedaliah was enshrined for generations in the Hebrew calendar as a moral hazard light, to warn us against the murder of a Jewish leader by a Jewish murderer; to warn us about those who would take the law into their own hands, who feel that they are unaccountable to anyone, who do not understand what it means to be part of a community, part of a nation, and also part of a global world. Societies crumble when individuals think only of themselves, when they have no deep obligations toward each other."
In his concluding remarks, President Herzog said, "I want to offer a prayer in the spirit of my inaugural address: May we choose to triumph together, not over each other. May we choose to be gracious, to be generous with love of Israel. May we choose to be united not only in our values and principles, but also in our hopes and dreams. May we choose to put an end to the fissure tearing us apart, all together. And may all our wishes come true. Shanah Tovah, well over the fast, and may the whole House of Israel be inscribed in the Book of Life."
