With a tradition that "God is most merciful in the midst of the night," the Selichot service is traditionally held at midnight on the Saturday night proceeding Rosh Hashanah.  So we will gather tomorrow evening, not at midnight, but at 8:00 for a learning session and dessert, and at 9:30 for our service.
 
Selichot means "pardon," and refers to prayers in which we seek pardon from God and renewal for another year.  Selichot is the service that really sets the tone for the upcoming High Holy Days.  Repentance, self-evaluation, consideration of priorities, the reaffirmation of our most important hopes and strivings; all of this is what Selichot is about.
 
Our sages refer to the upcoming days as "the days of awe."  They did so out of the belief that while there is much in life over which we have little control, so also is there much over which we do have much influence, if not control.  How we live and what we live for.  How we treat our loved ones, and those about whom we claim to care.  How we lessen the distance between what we are and what we could be.  These are all central themes of Selichot and the "days of awe" which follow.  
 
May the sounds of the Shofar arouse us all, and may we do what is in our power to do, to assure that this will be a year filled with blessing and goodness.  I wish that for all of us.