Selichot arrives just in time this year, ushering in the season of prayer, humility and reflection — a powerful antidote to our society’s growing focus on self, and at a moment when we yearn for a spiritual uplift.

Selichot, the weeklong penitential prayers that begin around midnight on the Saturday night before Rosh HaShanah (Sept. 16 this year), is unique not only for the late hour of the service but the urgency of its message, which is focused on repeated recitations of God’s 13 attributes of mercy (Exodus 34: 6-7), “reminding” the Creator of His promise to Moses of compassion for the Jewish people. There is also the powerful sense of communal humility, which sets the tone for the Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur services as well. We readily acknowledge our sins, listing a litany of them as we beat our hearts, and praying for forgiveness as individuals and as a people.

Such actions, linking us to generations of ancestors who felt a more direct connection to God and to each other, are contrary to American society’s increasing emphasis on satisfying, communicating and promoting our personal wants and desires without shame or embarrassment. We see this everywhere in our popular culture: reality TV and confessional talk shows in which people will say and do almost anything for the chance to have a national audience, our fascination with people like Paris Hilton who are famous simply for being famous and the enormous popularity of personalized profiles on MySpace.com and other Internet sites that turn diaries into public documents for all the world to see.

Inner reflection and self-criticism seem inconsistent with a society that so highly values autonomy and personal decision making and expression. In America, confessionals are best represented by best-selling memoirs about secrets and taboos which are shared with boldness rather than discomfort.

In Judaism, confession — a key component of the High Holy Day season — is a humbling act, an admission that we are all sinners. Indeed, the themes and liturgy of the High Holidays draw us back to a very different way of seeing ourselves, and our place and role in history. Judaism teaches that life is a precious blessing whose goal is to recognize, praise and emulate God by imitating His qualities of compassion and goodness, and thus improving the world as best we can. The Torah gave the world the powerful concept that we are each holy because we are created in the image of God.

If we took this message to heart, the cruel and violent wars fought in the name of God would be seen as the very desecration of His name.

These thoughts come to mind as we near the end of a Jewish calendar year that has had more than its share of pain and division. America is torn over the war in Iraq, as it was over Vietnam four decades ago, widening the gap between red and blue, between those who vilify the president and those who support him, between those who want to bring our troops home and those who feel the need to press on. The Jewish community is increasingly divided between those seeking greater religious observance and those who feel little personal connection to their heritage. And while the attacks this summer from Gaza and Lebanon brought a heightened sense of support for Israel among many Jews, it also made us realize how lonely and potentially vulnerable Jerusalem is in the world.

The High Holy Day season reminds us that for all the problems that beset us, despair is not our way. We are instructed that if our prayers are sincere, they can bring renewal and another page in the Book of Life. What is required of us, though, is not just communicating with our Creator but strengthening our bonds with our fellow man, starting with asking forgiveness of each other for hurtful actions taken or words said in anger during the year.

The healing process, whether for an Israeli society still angry over the government’s conduct of the war in Lebanon or for American Jews who show little tolerance for denominational differences, begins within our hearts. When we confront our own faults, we become more tolerant of those around us. But we must push ourselves to move forward.

Five years after 9/11, when life seems increasingly frightening and fraught with danger, we are commanded not to withdraw from the world but to embrace and improve it. Selichot and the High Holy Day prayers emphasize God’s mercy on us; we need to carry that over to caring for His creations.

In that way, the shofar’s blast can rouse us to appreciate the blessings around us and the potential within us for change and for good.

Gary Rosenblatt can be reached by e-mail at gary@jewishweek.org.