The Israeli version of "Excuse me" and "Pardon me" familiar to westerners is "Selicha".

There is an old joke about an American tourist to Israel who thought that the local resident was introducing himself when he said "Selicha" and responded with "Ginsburg from Chicago".

Seriously speaking it is incorrect when Jews speak of "saying Selichot" in these days before and in-between the Days of Awe. It is only G-d who is capable of saying "Selichot" as He forgives us for our mistakes of the past year. It is our job to express regret for those mistakes and to ask G-d to "say Selichot".

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