We are now in chodesh Elul – a month dedicated to preparation for the coming yamim noraim – Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. Sephardic communities have the custom to begin saying selichot – prayers of penitence – at the beginning of the month of Elul, and Ashkenazic communities begin saying selichot closer to Rosh HaShana. One of the hallmarks of the selichot prayers is the recitation of the shelosh esre middot , Hashem’s thirteen traits of mercy. Hashem taught these traits to Moshe in the wake of the sin of the Golden Calf and instructed him to recite them when praying to Hashem for mercy. The Torah describes these traits in a verse in parashat Ki Tissa in Sefer Shemot: “Hashem, Hashem. Merciful and gracious G-d, long-suffering and abundant in loving-kindness and truth. Keeping kindness to the thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. And wipe away, He will not wipe away, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third generation and until the fourth...
Rabbi Benjy Owen, Dean, Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, Memphis, TN