Hello golfer and yichusdik,
Thank you so much for your advice! And I have to apologize for taking this thread off-track for a few posts here — I’m sorry BaalHabooze!
It really means a lot to me what both of you said about my journey in becoming Orthodox 🙂 Thank you for pointing me in the right direction regarding S.Y. Agnon. It makes sense, what you said yichusdik, about him using many Torah sources, because Days of Awe does not list him as the author, but rather as the editor. I suppose he was kind of splicing together various sources, because he seems to take stuff from all over the place — a lot of interesting stories. Some of what he cites I can understand, but there is also plenty that confuses me because I lack the necessary context, I think. For instance, with the section on Selichot, I could gather from what he cited when one starts saying the penitential prayers (in terms of time of day and time during Elul), but I am not even remotely sure what prayers are said or the proper way to say them! I have to get more info on the basics, I’m sure.