Prayer and Blessings
Laws of Reciting Selichot as an Individual
Question
Hello, honored rabbi...
As Selichot approaches, I do not have the opportunity to pray with a congregation, and unfortunately I will need to recite Selichot on my own... I would be glad to ask a few questions and receive a detailed answer so that I can say Selichot as Hashem desires...
1. May an individual recite Vayaavor Hashem al panav and the phrase Hashem, Hashem, and so on?
2. When reciting Shema Yisrael in Selichot, immediately afterward there is Hashem is God, Hashem is God... May an individual say this?
3. There is a supplication in Aramaic: Danei lenayyei aninan, danei leasukei aninan, danei letabirei liba aninan, and so on... May an individual say it? I understood that there is a supplication in Aramaic that an individual does not say because the angels do not understand Aramaic... Is this what is meant, or some other section of the prayer? Or perhaps anything in Aramaic is not said by an individual?
4. Does an individual say Avinu Malkeinu at the end of Selichot?
5. Is there anything else I should know as an individual that I did not mention? If so, I would appreciate the details.
Thank you in advance for your help
Answer
Shalom rav,
1. An individual may not recite the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy in the verse Vayaavor, unless he says them merely as a reading, with the cantillation marks (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 565:5, and Mishnah Berurah there, seif katan 12). He may, however, say El Melech yoshev al kisei rachamim, etc. (Chazon Ovadia, Yamim Noraim, pp. 30-31).
2. An individual may say Hashem is God.
3. An individual may not say any section in Aramaic (Mishnah Berurah, siman 581, seif katan 4).
4. An individual may say Avinu Malkeinu (Responsa Shvut Yaakov, part 3, siman 42, and this is explicitly stated in the responsum of the Rivash, siman 112, and in Kitzur Shetei Luchot HaBerit it is also written so in the name of the great authorities. This was also ruled by the Eliyah Rabbah, siman 584, seif 5, and the Mateh Ephraim there, seif 14. So too in Chazon Ovadia there, p. 205).
5. According to Ashkenazi custom outside Jerusalem, one does not perform Nefilat Apayim in a place where there is no Torah scroll (see Rama, siman 131, seif 2, and Siftei Eretz Yisrael, siman 1, seif 9).
With blessings, Hillel Meirs
