At what point to start saying סליחות

1

We are נוהג to get up באשמורת to say סליחות and תחנונים from ראש חודש אלול and on until יום כפור [1]. This is because these days are ימי רצון during which משה רבינו ascended הר סיני to receive the second לוחות [2]. So is the מנהג of the ספרדים. The מנהג of אשכנזים, however, is that where ראש השנה is on Thursday or שבת then we start saying סליחות on the Sunday immediately prior. (Some also fast and daven a תפלת תענית, including עננו and ויחל, etc.)  [3]. The חשבון of these 4 days before ראש השנה on which סליחות are said is to compensate for the 4 days between ראש השנה and יו"כ on which we eat סעודות מצוה such that we cannot fast as some used to [4]. Where ראש השנה falls on Monday or Tuesday, however, then we start on Sunday of the week before ראש השנה, rather than the Sunday of the week of ראש השנה [3]. The reason for this difference is because even though, strictly speaking, 4 days would be enough, nevertheless they instituted that סליחות should consistently begin on Sunday, so that no one should get confused what day סליחות start [5]. אשכנזים do, however, blow שופר every morning (and in some places every evening) from ראש חודש and on, which is a subject for its own article.

The reason for the specification of אשמורת is because הקב"ה floats, as it were, in 18,000 metaphysical worlds, and at the end of the night (which is, evidently, what אשמורת refers to) - He floats, as it were, in this world, such that the end of the night - i.e. before dawn - is an עת רצון [6]. The source of this concept (as pointed out by ביהגר"א [7]) is איכה ב:יט where the idea is expressed that ראש אשמרות (lit. the head of watches) is an appropriate point at which to pour one's heart out to Hashem.

2

There are those who are נוהג that whoever leads סליחות also leads the davening throughout the rest of the day [8].

3

On a practical level, ערוה"ש [9] offers an advisory that those who are not fasting should replace words referencing fasting in a given סליחה with words referencing תפלה. Additionally, there are words in סליחות referencing night or אשמורת הבוקר as the time where the particular סליחה is being said. One who says סליחות in the morning (i.e. before שחרית) should skip those words so as not to be saying falsehood.

Postscript:

There are various other technical דינים relating to who should lead סליחות, in what specific order they need to be said with what liturgical framework (such as אשרי, קדיש and the like), what do if one is wants to say סליחות individually, etc. These are purely halachic (rather than מנהג) in nature and, as such, are far beyond the scope of this article.

[1] שו"ע או"ח תקפא:א

The טז (ס"ק ב) points out that on ר"ח itself, however, we do not say סליחות and תחנונים.

[2] ביהגר"א אות א שם ע"פ פרקי דרבי אליעזר פרק מו

[3] טור שם

[4] פרישה שם ס"ק ו

[5] שם ס"ק ז

[6] מ"א שם ס"ק א

A vague reference to this point is made in :עבודה זרה ג.

[7] שם אות ב ובפסוק "קומי רוני בלילה לראש אשמרות שפכי כמים לבך נכח פני ה" ופי' הריד שהוא לשון תפלה, כמו אל הרנה ואל התפלה

[8] רמא שם

[9] שם סעיף ד

Where to Make על נטילת ידים

There are those who are נוהג to wait until they get to shul before making a ברכה on washing their hands in the morning. When they get to shul, they then arrange the ברכה together with the rest of the morning ברכות [1], which are said in shul to be מוציא those who don't know how to make their own [2] ברכות (and even where there are no such people, nonetheless, there is no exception made [3]). [4]

The reason for this is because we don't make the other ברכות juxtaposed to washing our hands rather we leave them for where we get to shul, therefore the ברכה on washing hands also gets pushed off with them. ספרדים, on the other hand, hold that washing hands is no different than any other מצוה whose ברכה has to precede the מצוה, only that here one cannot make the ברכה before washing their hands because there is still רוח רעה on one's hands, to which end one should make the ברכה at the earliest opportunity, namely immediately following washing one's hands. The רמא himself (uncharacteristically) conducted himself like the ספרדים [5].

לבוש is singular among the אחרונים [6] to the effect that once עובר לעשייתן is not possible due to one's hands being unclean, there is therefore no preference at all to say the ברכה as soon as possible, but rather once it is pushed off it is then pushed off completely.

[1] שו"ע או"ח ו:ב. Additionally, there are those who wish to answer אמן to each other's ברכות, to which end they purposely say the ברכה later than they would have otherwise, in order to facilitate the saying of אמן to each other's ברכות. See שו"ת הרמע מפאנו סימן קט.

[2] ביהגר"א שם אות יב

[3] פרישה שם ס"ק ג

[4] According the בח (שם) this would only be allowed if one goes to shul right away, whereas if one engages in other tasks prior to going to shul then one must make the ברכה at home.

The בח seems to assume that if one goes straight to shul then that is already some form of עובר לעשייתן, whereas engaging in other tasks prior to that would be considered a הפסק גמור. This point, however, is not entirely clear from the בח itself but rather constitutes my own attempt to fill in the blank.

[5] טז שם ס"ק ד

[6] או"ח שם סעיף ב

אמירת קרבנות בכל יום - או"ח א:ט

There are those who are נוהג to say פרשת הכיור which was the first עבודה done in the בית המקדש on a daily basis, followed by the פרשה of תרומת הדשן, and then פרשת התמיד, followed by the פרשה of the מזבח הקטורת and the פרשה of the ingredients of the קטורת and how it is made, because after the קרבן תמיד is brought - the קטורת is brought. They then say the פרשה of ברכת כהנים, because at that point the כהנים would bless the nation [1]. This is the order of the עבודה as it was done in the בית המקדש, which our תפלה is supposed to take the place of.

Those who say קרבנות before מנחה, however, say פרשת התמיד before קטורת because that was the order of the עבודה of the afternoon קרבן תמיד [2].

[1] שו"ע או"ח א:ט וב"י על הטור שם

[2] מ"א שם ס"ק יב