Misratzeh B'Rachamim - Selichot Service as sung by Cantor David Montefiore - Adath Israel 

Misratzeh B'Rachamim - Selichot Service as sung by Cantor David Montefiore - Adath Israel, Cincinnati, Ohio
The penitential prayers known by the name of Seliḥoth are essentially based upon biblical poetry and are a continuation of Psalms. In part, they belong to the age of the Talmud. They are chiefly concerned with the suffering of Israel in the various lands of the diaspora. For about fifteen centuries liturgical poets such as Rabbi Yehudah Halevi, Ibn Gabriol and Ibn Ezra, continued to enrich the seliḥah literature, the earliest examples of which go back to the first century. Tormented by merciless persecution in the course of many centuries, the authors of these prayer-poems described the misery of their people with the blood of their hearts.
The seliḥoth reveal the saintly character of past generations, who in profound humility sought the reason of their misfortune in themselves rather than in a divine injustice. The seliḥah (“forgiveness”) is a prayer in the strict sense of the term, for it gives utterance to the feelings of the worshiper who repents and pleads for mercy.
PHILIP BIRNBAUM