Slichot Seminar September 6

We got information about our Slichot seminar a few days ago, and found out that we would be leaving Ashkelon at 1:30am to head out to Jerusalem. While most people thought about taking naps before we left, it didn't really happen for most of us. We all headed out to the bus in the dark and proceeded to sleep the whole way into the city. Once we got there we met up with our lecturer/guide Jared.
Jared led us into the city and we all sat down to read about Rosh Hashana from some parsha portions and writings. There were some really great discussions about why we do Slichot prayers, and the differences between how they are done by Ashkenazi and Sephardic jews.
For anyone that doesn't know what Slichot is, allow me to explain. Slichot is a time period in which you are supposed to pray for forgiveness from God and work on repenting for the bad things that you have done during the last year. In the states we tend to be taught that this is all done during the 10 day period between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, but in reality it is different depending on your sect. The Ashkenazi start the Slichot prayers on the Shabbat prior to Rosh Hashana, while the Sephardic actually perform slichot prayers for the entirety of the (Jewish) month prior to Rosh Hashana up until Yom Kippur - 40 days. The slichot prayers are supposed to be performed during the night, and usually as close to the start of the morning prayer as possible, this means that the prayers are started somewhere between 3:30-4:00am.

The reason that we were in the city at 3am was so we could sit on an overlook over the Kotel (Wall) and hear the Slichot prayers while we discussed the impact this holiday season has on us.
During our seminar we were asked to break into pairs and discuss our past year, and anything we may have regretted. I sat with Lauren and we talked about our last year and found that we had quite a bit in common.
After visiting the wall we regathered again and headed through the city, we climbed up to the top of the city and settled in to watch the sunrise. From where we were sitting we could watch as the sun came up from behind the hills and rose into the sky.