During the month of Elul (starting on the days immediately after Rosh Chodesh) Afro-Sephardic and other Sephardic Jewish groups recite Selichot or confessions. One of these confessions is Adon Ha'Selichot has no single author credited to it. It first appeared in the 9th-century siddur (prayer book) of Rabbi Amram Gaon. The text has since become an obligatory prayer in many Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish communities during the month of Elul.
Why this poem? Why in alphabetical order?
This and other alphabetical confessions were instituted because of the Rabbinical understanding that Hashem created the world using the Hebrew Alef-Bet. Our sins destroy the world which Hashem created using the letters of the Alef-Bet. In Hebrew “Aseret HaDibrot” and “Asarah Maamarot” both mean “Ten Sayings.” The former were proclaimed on Har Sinai and the latter were used to create the world (Avot 5:1).
Further, whenever we recite these confessions we notice the focus is not on our individual sins but our collective ones. Why are the confessions composed in the plural, so that we say "We have sinned," rather than "I have sinned"? Because all Yisrael is one body and every one of the people of Yisrael is a limb of that body.
May we strive to know that we are not that we are all connected to one another and that by fixing one another we fix ourselves and the world.
Shavua Tov.
Why this poem? Why in alphabetical order?
This and other alphabetical confessions were instituted because of the Rabbinical understanding that Hashem created the world using the Hebrew Alef-Bet. Our sins destroy the world which Hashem created using the letters of the Alef-Bet. In Hebrew “Aseret HaDibrot” and “Asarah Maamarot” both mean “Ten Sayings.” The former were proclaimed on Har Sinai and the latter were used to create the world (Avot 5:1).
Further, whenever we recite these confessions we notice the focus is not on our individual sins but our collective ones. Why are the confessions composed in the plural, so that we say "We have sinned," rather than "I have sinned"? Because all Yisrael is one body and every one of the people of Yisrael is a limb of that body.
May we strive to know that we are not that we are all connected to one another and that by fixing one another we fix ourselves and the world.
Shavua Tov.