[Avodah] slichos skipping

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Saul Newman asked:

> curious if anyone sees shuls skipping parts of slichos,
> and if so which?

Both at Yeshivat Ohr Somayach in the 70s, and at JEC in Elizabeth (other Elizabeth shuls differ) since then, we have skipped selected Kinos on Tisha B'Av, and selected Selichos on Erev RH. I never really tried to figure out any pattern of which were chosen, but I could send you a list if anyone wants to analyze it. [Of course, at Ohr Somayach we said Vidui only once, instead of thrice, but that is the general Minhag Eretz Yisrael, so I don't count it as skipping.]

As far as the other days of Selichos, we don't skip any of the main Selichos, in that we get the full number of Yud-Gimel Middos. However other things do get skipped; for example, during Aseres Ymei Teshuva, we skip the selicha which is between Chatanu Tzureinu and Zechor Lanu Bris Avos.

Also, I've long suspected that some of what comes after Vidui gets skipped. I can never be sure, because (in my experience) no chazan ever says any of it out loud. (If anyone can explain why Selichos is different than Psukei Dzimra or Hallel, I'd appreciate it.) But I do see people putting their heads down for Tachanun, and they finish so very fast that I'd really like to believe that they're skipping *something*.

> other than some large MO shuls, is any other places doing
> slichos after maariv [ ie  pre-chatzot]?

When I was at YU in the 70's (which might count as MO, but is certainly more of a yeshiva than a shul) there were big crowds for Selichos immediately after the 10 pm Maariv.

Akiva Miller

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