"What does Hashem want from us? He doesn’t want from us. He wants us"

"As people say the Selichos day after day, they start to say it a bit faster, with less kavanah. During the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, it even becomes a big rush. I once walked into a beis medrash and after I heard the chazzan hurrying through the Selichos, I told him, ‘It’s important to know the difference between the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah and the Aseres Bnei Haman [which are recited in one breath].”

—RAV AVIGDOR NEBENZAHL, rav of Jerusalem’s Old City

“My mother told me that in Minsk, the shamash would wake the people up each morning in Elul with the traditional sing-song of “Wake up to serve the Creator.” Now, even though Ashkenazim don’t say Selichos the entire Elul, it’s clear that everyone wakes up earlier than usual during the Days of Mercy to seize whatever more learning and tefillah they can.”

—RAV MOSHE STERNBUCH,

raavad of the Eidah Hachareidis

“Someone asked me, after all the unnatural and terrible tzaros of the last few months, what does Hashem want from us? I said, ‘He doesn’t want from us. He wants us. He doesn’t want us to do this or to do that, He wants us to be His, to give ourselves over to Him, to be totally and completely His.”

—RAV ELIMELECH BIDERMAN

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 876)