Piyutim at the end of slichos.

Several seforim mention that the pituyim that grace selichos each day, are secondary to the long paragraph of introductory psukim, and to the reciting of the 13 midos harachamim. In reality all of selichos is an absolute treasure, if we had any inkling of what we are saying. Same goes for the most used book in every shul, the siddur. Our routine and robotic recitation of the regular tefilos is a “swing and a miss” (baseball lingo). We have precious opportunities to speak directly to Hashem. Clearly, diverting that time and energy to social chatter is a horrible waste. But babbling the words without emotional involvement, which would be facilitated much by better understanding of what we say, is a similar waste.

Shulchan Aruch obligates us to review tefilos prior to Rosh Chodesh – inasmuch as printing presses were not common then, and there were limited handwritten copies of the siddur. The Mishna Berurah comments that since we have siddurim and machzorim, this halacha pertains to piyutim. I ask, which yeshivos reserve time to review tefilos, whether year round or before Yomim Tovim? Do we review the piyutim of Selichos or of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? How about the Hoshanos recited during Sukkos? As per the MB, this is a halacha. I believe we would do ourselves a huge favor by gaining more understanding of what we utter in tefiloh so that we do not squander the precious opportunity to speak directly to HKB”H (upon his express invitation).

We say like the poor who knock on Hashem’s door recognizing that we lack zechusim worthy to be heard. It says in SA O’CH 98 that we should not daven with the mindset that we are worthy of being granted our wishes. We should daven for a matnas chinom, a free grant, as ki lo chofetz bemos hames ki im beshuvo miderochov vechaya, Hashem does not want to punish the sinner but do teshuva to live. Anu melei avon, we are full of sin, veato malei rachamamim, and You are full of mercy.

TLIK

“ll our tefilos, including selichos are critical to our very existence.”

Do yo uhave a source for this statement? I would love to see a source that saying every selicha is critical to our very existence.

It seems to be against an explicit Mechaber in the very first siman in Shulchan Aruch “Tov me’at tachanunum im kavana me’harbos be’lo kavana”

U:

I am not suggesting that one must say every piyut. You are correct, a little with kavanah is better than a lot without. I am referring to either babbling through it to get done fatser. I am also addressing those who skip parts just to rush, perhaps to get to work earlier, etc. Starting earlier. A talmid chochom who I share the minyan with, begins selichos almost 10 minutes early so that he can keep up.