3rd September 2026
Rabbi Scott’s latest blog
As we are in the Hebrew calendar month of Elul, our thoughts and reflections turn ever more closely to the upcoming Yamim Noraim, the days of repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This is a time of reflection upon the year that has passed and a time of preparation for the year to come. A central part of our liturgy at this time are the Selichot prayers, the prayers for forgiveness. The word is so embedded in the Hebrew language that when a Hebrew speaker makes a minor error like accidentally bumping into someone, they say selicha, forgive me, Selichot prayers are said in Sephardic communities during the entire month of Elul but Ashkenazic Jews reserve their formal Selichot prayers for the Saturday night before Rosh HaShanah. They are usually recited in a special service well after Shabbat is over, and the atmosphere is solemn and introspective, helping worshippers enter the season of teshuvah (repentance and return to God) in preparation for the ten days of repentance.
Key features of Selichot include:
- Confession of sins (Vidui) and self-reflection.
- Repeated recitation of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy from Exodus 34:6-7, which describes G-d’s compassion and forgiveness.
- Liturgical poems (piyyutim) and supplications asking for mercy and spiritual renewal.
For many Jews, marking Selichot is the first step toward confronting their errors and mistakes, whether intentional or unintentional, that they know are in need of forgiveness and repentance. Precisely because so many things are said in haste when one is angry or hurt, Selichot prayers are said at a measured pace to allow time for concentration and reflection on what one needs forgiveness for at this season of the year. Moreover, Selichot allows us to begin to think about how we are going to approach G-d for forgiveness because, as our Sages taught us, we have to seek forgiveness from the people we have wronged before we can ask G-d for forgiveness.
This Saturday our congregation will be joining our sister synagogue Menorah for a joint Selichot service. Together our communities will petition G-d for forgiveness and mercy as we begin to confess what we have done wrong this year and pray for strength and guidance to do better towards each other and G-d next year.
23rd July 2026, Tisha B’Av
Rabbi Scott’s thoughts on his and Donni’s first week in Manchester
This week is my first week on the job as the rabbi of Manchester Reform Synagogue and I’m just figuring out to use the Bee Network, learn what things like Toad in the Hole and Spotted Dick are, and being asked on which I stand of the dividing line between Red and Blue. My wife Donni is experiencing similar ah-ha moments, and we anticipate so many more as we acclimate to Manchester. It has not been lost on me that in the midst of us trying to integrate into Manchester and meeting so many welcoming and friendly people along the way we are also encountering Tisha B’Av (the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av) on Thursday, June 23rd.
Tisha B’Av historically marks the days of destruction of both the First and Second Temples, but our ancestors used it as a catch-all date for mourning and remembrance. Many historic tragedies happened around this date or season including the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290. We have historically marked this day with fasting and the reading of the biblical book of Lamentations which is an epic poem of loss and blame and anguish regarding the destruction of the First Temple and the expulsion of the Jews from Israel as part of the Babylonian Exile. Today many still mark the holiday through fasting, abstaining from pleasurable activities – Jewish summer camps in the United States will close their swimming pools for the day, for example – and the communal reading of Lamentations while sitting on the ground rather than furniture similar to what a mourner at a traditional shiva might do.
Our Sages proposed many reasons why G-d allowed the Temples to be destroyed on this day in history, but the most well-known reason they say is because of sin’nat chinam, senseless hatred. We as a community were so divided even back then over issues such as politics, observance, rabbinic authority and other issues (sound familiar?) that we could not see past what divided us to the common humanity amongst all of us. If we were going to treat each other so adversarial and inhumane, then G-d was not going to remain with us in The Temple. G-d withdrew from the Temples, so we are told, and let our enemies destroy those sacred places as punishment for our wretched treatment of each other, all of whom were (and are) made in G-d’s image.
My wife Donni and I have been so warmly welcomed here in Manchester this past week and people have done some wonderful things to help us get settled. The possibility of the local community engaging in sin’nat chinam seems remote to us. But at the same time, Tisha B’Av arrives to remind us that we all have the capacity to think and act negatively in ways that can cause real pain and destruction to others be they strangers or loved ones. This Tisha B’Av, don’t let the day go by without doing or saying something positive to someone. Family or friend or stranger, let someone know that you see them, that they matter, and that you believe in a world not dominated by senseless hatred but by ahavat rabbah, abundant love.