Selichot Tour

4 am on the Selichot Tour

Beginning the Tour

Early in the morning on 8/30 (beginning at 3 am), Toby and I had an experience that cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the world.  With his classmates, we went on a Selichot tour of old orthodox neighborhoods to observe the prayers that are traditionally chanted from midnight to dawn in the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah.  What a privilege to  be able to observe this ritual!

Toby's teachers led the tour which took us through the neighborhoods of Zikhron Yosef, Ohel Moshe and Nakhalat Tsiyon.  It included a visit to the Great Synagogue Adas of the Glorious Aleppo Community and the boyhood home of Yitzhak Navon, Israel's 5th president. It was interesting to see how the synagogues were built right into the fabric of the neighborhoods.

 



After 45 minutes of walking through the narrow streets of the old neighborhoods, we visited four synagogues and saw the selichot prayers. (Women and girls upstairs, men and boys downstairs).  The tour ended with a short service at another synagogue, led by the school Rabbi, and chocolate milk and cookies for the kids. At least there the genders were together.