Since the beginning of the month of Elul, those who practice according to the Sephardi rite have been reciting Selihot. Ashkenazi folks began Selihot on the Saturday night that preceded Rosh Hashanah. The Selihot are prayers and psalms interspersed with poems that are meant to arouse feelings of repentance among the congregants and to call upon God to bestow mercy and forgiveness. Though most commonly associated with the period of the High Holidays, there are Selihot for fast days and other days that require special intercession. The Selihot pictured here were printed in Venice in 1600 and include the rituals for this High Holiday period, as well as Selihot for other fast days, and for Brit Milah. The handwritten pages at the end outline which piyutim were to be added or featured on certain days by the congregation who owned this work. 
The concept of Selihot is reflected in the biblical narrative that has become the central part of these prayers. After the sin of the golden calf, Moses was taught the thirteen attributes of God, and how to recite them in order to counteract any pending negative decrees.
A similar narrative, but on a communal scale, is described at the end of the book of Ezra. When the Jews returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, many Israelites took pagan wives, much to the dismay of Ezra. He wrote, “When I heard this, I rent my garment and robe, I tore hair out of my head and beard, and I sat desolate (9:3).” He begins to confess the sins of the people before God, asking for forgiveness, and pleading that He should not destroy the sad remnant of the Jews. The people gather around Ezra three days later, drawn to his piety, and earnest leadership. Eventually they are swayed to separate from any idolatrous wives and recommit to following the word of God.
Ms 430, pictured here is an earlier Selihot than the printed version above. Though hailing from Italy as well, these Selihot are from the latter half of the 15th century. This work features beautiful hand-drawn lettering, with especially attractive colored capital words. Some of these headwords are varied names of God, including, YHVH, Elohim, Eloha, and El. You may notice, however, that none of these names of God appear in standard form. In fact, each time God’s name is written anywhere in this work, it appears abbreviated.
One of the Ten Commandments is to not take God’s name lightly. This is the basis for numerous Jewish laws regarding holy works. The Mishna in Shabbat 115:a declares, “All Holy Writings may be rescued from a fire on Shabbat, whether they are read (in synagogues, i.e., Torah/Prophets) or not read (Ketuvim). Even if they are written in any language. They are required to be buried.” In other words, anything that is deemed a holy work must be treated with special care, and when worn past the point of use, must be buried to avoid disrespecting it. Later scholarly discussions in the Talmud and beyond characterize what is considered a holy work. For Middle Eastern Jews, anything written with Hebrew letters was considered worthy of burial, leading to the development of the great Cairo Geniza. For Ashkenazi communities, the barest definition of a holy work was something that contained the name of God.
To avoid creating unnecessary holy works (that could later lead to disrespect), scribes formed a number of conventions for dealing with God’s name. One of these is to combine the letters “Aleph” and “Lamed” to form a ligature. This single character is not considered holy enough to require burial (though must still be treated respectfully). Thus, we see in a number of the examples here, the first two letters of Elohim, and so on, are combined artfully to represent God’s name without writing it in full.
Similarly, manuscripts from the second century BCE and on include the four letter name YHVH in dozens of permutations. These are sometimes written with two, three, or four “Yuds” and often incorporate dots, lines, and curves, as well as unique arrangements of the letters clustered in various ways. As per Jacob Z. Lauterbach (Substitutes for the Tetragrammaton, 1931) these are most likely a scribal evolution of the abbreviation of “Yud-Heh.” This acceptable abbreviation used throughout the Talmud is made up of a series of short strokes, which could at times look like a pair of Yuds combined with an abbreviation sign. This led to the dozens of variations for YHVH found in early manuscripts. Ms 430, here, uses two Yuds followed by an elaborate abbreviation sign to represent the Tetragrammaton. As you can see from these examples, God’s name is represented somewhat differently even on a single page, with one abbreviation mark comprised of more strokes/dots than the other.
As we enter the next stage of the High Holidays, let us consider the great reverence and import assigned to God’s names, and in that merit let all our prayers and hopes be granted when we call upon the thirteen attributes of God.
Shana tova!
Contributed by Abigail Bacon, Head of Public Services and Outreach