Who Wrote the Selichot? The Fascinating History Behind the Prayers

The Selichot prayers we recite during Elul and the days leading up to Yom Kippur have a history stretching back more than a thousand years. Their familiar words were shaped by verses from the Torah, teachings of the sages, ancient Jewish poets, and the customs of communities scattered across the Jewish world. But how did the Selichot service we know today actually develop, and who wrote its prayers?

The First Printed Selichot

Around 1475, a small Hebrew printing house operated in the Italian town of Piove di Sacco, near Padua. Founded by Rabbi Meshullam Kuzi, the press used cast lead letters arranged in wooden frames, with pages inked and pressed one after another.

The press managed to publish only two works: part of Arba'ah Turim and a collection of Selichot according to the Ashkenazi custom. This Selichot collection is considered the first Hebrew prayer book ever printed, predating even the printed siddur.

After Rabbi Meshullam’s death, his widow, Devorah, continued operating the press and completed the printing of the Tur. A surviving copy of the Selichot preserved at the National Library also bears the signatures of two women who owned it: Esther, daughter of Rabbi Asher, and Lipheit, daughter of Rabbi Asher.

But the history of Selichot itself began long before the printing press.

Who Wrote the Selichot?

The earliest foundation of Selichot is found in the Torah. After the sin of the Golden Calf and the breaking of the Tablets, Moshe ascended Mount Sinai once again. There, the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy were proclaimed before him: “Hashem, Hashem, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abundant in kindness and truth” (Exodus 34:6).

The sages teach in Rosh Hashanah 17b: “Rabbi Yochanan said: This teaches that Hashem wrapped Himself like a prayer leader and showed Moshe the order of prayer... Whenever Israel sins, let them perform this order before Me, and I will forgive them.”

Rav Yehudah adds: “A covenant is made regarding the Thirteen Attributes, that they never return unanswered.”

This became the foundation and centerpiece of Selichot: the recitation of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.

The liturgical poems surrounding these verses serve as a pathway toward that central moment. They speak of sin, repentance, mercy, and the covenant with our forefathers, repeatedly leading the congregation back to the Thirteen Attributes.

Alongside them, Selichot incorporates Moshe’s prayer following the sin of the spies: “Please forgive the sin of this people according to the greatness of Your kindness,” followed by Hashem’s response: “I have forgiven according to your word” (Numbers 14:19–20).

Daniel’s plea is also included: “Hashem, hear; Hashem, forgive; Hashem, listen and act” (Daniel 9:19).

These verses were first incorporated into the prayers of Yom Kippur and later became part of the Selichot recited during Elul.

How the Selichot Service Developed

The concept of Selichot appears in the siddur of Rav Saadia Gaon, approximately a thousand years ago. His order includes the selichah “You Are Slow to Anger” and “Master of Mercy,” together with the Thirteen Attributes and additional verses recited after each selichah. Rav Saadia Gaon designated these prayers for fast days.

The wording of the confession and the verses that follow it already appear in the siddur of Rav Amram Gaon, who lived about a century earlier.

Originally, the Selichot of fast days were recited during the cantor’s repetition of the Amidah, sometimes within the blessing of “Forgive us.” By the time of Rambam, however, there was already an established custom of reciting Selichot during the Ten Days of Repentance.

Rambam writes: “Everyone has the custom of rising at night during these ten days and praying in synagogues with words of supplication and submission until daylight.”

The Shulchan Aruch records the Sephardic custom of beginning much earlier: “The custom is to rise before dawn to recite Selichot and supplications from Rosh Chodesh Elul onward until Yom Kippur.”

The Rema records the Ashkenazi custom of beginning on the Sunday before Rosh Hashanah. If fewer than four days remain before Rosh Hashanah, Selichot begin on the Sunday of the preceding week.

As the practice of rising before dawn for Selichot became established, communities needed more liturgical poems, and generations of Jewish poets began composing them.

The Great Sephardic Poets

Documents from the Cairo Genizah indicate that Rabbi Yosef ibn Avitur and Rabbi Yitzchak ben Levi ibn Mar Shaul were among the early Sephardic poets to compose Selichot.

By the time of Rambam, Sephardic Selichot poetry had reached a high point in the work of Rabbi Moshe ibn Ezra. He became known as the Sallach because so many of his Selichot were incorporated into the prayer books of Spain and Jewish communities around the Mediterranean.

His poems portray a person rising during the night, recognizing human weakness, contemplating the fleeting nature of life against the eternity of the Creator, and seeking to draw close to Hashem once again. One begins: “I rose before dawn to ask forgiveness for my sin.”

Another famous opening poem, “Human being, why are you sleeping?” was written by Rabbi Yehudah ibn Balaam, an 11th-century commentator and grammarian who lived in Seville. The poet calls upon the sleeping worshipper to awaken, wash away his sins, and stand before the Creator.

Over the centuries, the poem traveled with Jewish communities around the world. In the 20th century alone, eight different melodies were documented in traditions from Jerusalem, Izmir, Morocco, Egypt, and Amsterdam.

Alongside works whose authors signed their names, anonymous poems also became central to the Sephardic service. Perhaps the best known is “Master of Forgiveness,” an alphabetical poem in which each line offers another description of Hashem, including “Examiner of hearts,” “Revealer of hidden things,” and “Speaker of righteousness.”

Its author did not leave a name, but the poem became one of the defining passages of Sephardic Selichot, sung responsively by the cantor and congregation from Rosh Chodesh Elul through Yom Kippur.

How Ashkenazi Selichot Developed

In the Jewish communities of the Rhineland, France, and northern Italy, Selichot poetry developed differently.

Originally, cantors did not necessarily have one fixed order for every day. Instead, communities possessed large collections of poems from which the cantor could select. The choice could depend on the particular fast, the weekly Torah portion, local circumstances, or events the community had experienced.

Because not every poem was recited each year, Ashkenazi and French poets continued adding new compositions to this growing treasury. Hundreds survived in manuscripts, while only a fraction eventually entered the printed Selichot traditions of Poland and Lithuania.

Ashkenazi manuscripts preserve Selichot written by Rabbeinu Gershom, the Light of the Exile, including “We Were Hastily Lost from a Good Land.”

These poems also became records of Jewish history. Their authors referred to persecutions, expulsions, the Crusades, and communities that had been destroyed. Out of fear of Christian authorities, events were often described indirectly through biblical imagery such as Edom, Seir, the children of Kedar, fire, sword, and captivity. The Jewish communities reciting them, however, understood what those references represented.

The manuscripts contain more than 350 Ashkenazi and French Selichot that had never previously been printed.

One poem even crossed the traditional boundary between Ashkenaz and Sepharad. “If the Quarter of the Nest Has Ceased,” composed by Rabbi Ephraim ben Yitzchak of Regensburg in the 12th century, describes the Binding of Isaac and invokes the merit of Abraham and Isaac in an era without the Temple and its sacrifices.

In Ashkenazi communities, it is recited during the Ten Days of Repentance. In many Sephardic and Eastern communities, however, it became a daily part of the Elul Selichot service. An Ashkenazi composition thus became one of the familiar passages of the Sephardic order.

How Printing Changed Selichot

Before printing, there was no single universal “book of Selichot.” Each community had its own machzor or collection.

A scribe in a French city might copy one order, while a scribe in Worms added a poem composed following a persecution. An Italian community could combine Ashkenazi tradition with local customs, while communities in Spain selected different poems for particular prayers and fast days.

The surviving manuscripts reveal how flexible these collections once were. Poems were added in the margins, erased, moved from one day to another, and identified by headings such as “selichah,” “Binding,” “refrain,” “three-part poem,” or “supplication.”

The cantor therefore needed considerable knowledge. He had to know the melodies, understand where to pause for the Thirteen Attributes, and determine which poems were appropriate for the congregation and the occasion.

Printing gradually changed that.

The Selichot collection printed in Piove di Sacco around 1475 established a particular selection from the enormous Ashkenazi treasury. Later editions printed in Prague, Venice, Krakow, and Amsterdam repeated, edited, and expanded those selections according to local custom.

A poem that made its way into a printed book could be reproduced in hundreds of later editions. A poem that remained only in manuscript was far more likely to fade from communal memory.

Even after printing, however, there was never a single universal Selichot text. Ashkenazi editions developed according to the customs of Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia, western Ashkenaz, and Italy. Sephardic and Eastern communities developed traditions in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Aleppo, Baghdad, Yemen, the Balkans, and Spanish-Portuguese communities.

The poems, their order, and their melodies could vary enormously from one community to another. At the heart of them all, however, remained the same ancient words revealed to Moshe: the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.

The language of Selichot is rich, its history stretches across centuries, and its prayers carry the voices of Jewish communities from many different lands. Yet behind all those variations lies one shared purpose: to ask for forgiveness, awaken the heart to repentance, and draw closer to our Father in Heaven.