Selichos: What Kind of Prayer?

Va’ya’avor Hashem ‘al panav vayikra, And ‘the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed [etc.] (Shemos 34:6). R. Yochanan said: Were it not written in the text, it would be impossible for us to say such a thing; this verse teaches us that the Holy One, blessed be He, drew his talis round Him like the sheliach tzibur and showed Moshe the order of prayer. He said to him: Whenever Israel sin, let them carry out this service, reciting the yud gimel midos ha’rachamim, thirteen attributes of mercy, before Me, and I will forgive them. Hashem, Hashem, ‘The Lord, the Lord’: I am the Eternal before a man sins and the same after a man sins and repents. ‘A God merciful and gracious:’ Rab Judah said: A covenant has been made with the thirteen attributes that they will not be turned away empty-handed, as it says, Behold I make a covenant. (Rosh Hashanah 17b).

The basic core of the selichos are these pesukim of the thirteen midos:
Hashem, Hashem, El Rachum v’Chanun….
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…(Shemos 34:6-7).

A covenant has been made with the thirteen attributes that they will not be turned away empty-handed. But, is that always the case? It appears many do come away empty-handed. The Tzror ha’Mor explains that one does not come away empty-handed if it is not merely used as a magic formula when saying these words. Only if one has internalized and emulated these Divine attributes in their behavior does the promise of this reward come true (Ki Sisa).

Rashi says: A covenant: A covenant has been made with the thirteen attributes, that if Yisrael mentions them in their prayers on fasts, that they will not be turned away empty-handed.

We learn two points from Rashi: 1) the yud gimel midos are recited on fasts and 2) that they are said be’tzibur, in public prayer.

Yet, there is no mention of the 13 midos in Gemara Ta’anis (15) on the subject of tefilas ta’anis!
The Rambam does not mention the 13 midos either in his hilkhos tefilah or in the seder ha-tefilos. However, the Rambam does say: The whole house of Israel has formed a custom to engage in the performance of charity and good deeds between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to a much larger extent than during the entire year. Besides, during these ten days, they are all accustomed to rise in the night and to pray and supplicate in the synagogue until daylight (Teshuvah 3:4).

The Rokeach mentions reciting the13 midos in hilkhos yom hakippurim for ne’ilah only.
It appears that at first selichos was said on Yom Kippur just as the Torah tells they were first said by Hashem on Yom Kippur when the second tablets were given.

The Rav says, ‘al panav, according to the Gemara, does not mean and passed before him, Moshe. Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, drew the talis robe round Himself, so to speak, like the sheliach tzibur and showed Moshe the order of prayer for teshuvah. Every sheliach tzibur for selichos is, so to speak, playing the role of God, the first Sheliach tzibur for selichos. Therefore, we are especially careful in choosing a qualified sheliach tzibur; someone who is an accomplished person in the areas of Torah and good deeds for selichos and the yamin noraim.
(Based on the works of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik presented in Harerei Kedem by R. Mechel Shurkin, I, pp. 1-2 and Machzor M’soras Harav, pp.XXV-XXVI).

What kind of prayer is selichos?
It is a unique tefilah for special days modeled after the selichos on the Yom HaKadosh in which we ask for forgiveness. We have a bris with Hashem that we will not turned away empty-handed if we imitate His attributes and mention them. This was His lesson on prayer to us.