## Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Festivals, Tashlikh

###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Festivals, Tashlikh 1
[Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Festivals, Tashlikh 1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Festivals,_Tashlikh/r/1)

**English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:**
TASHLIKH: THE CASTING
It is a custom, on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh HaShana (or second, if the first is Shabbat) to go to the shore of the sea, the bank of a river, or other running stream of water, as a symbolic enactment of the words of the prophet Micah: “You will cast (*tashlikh*) into the depths of the sea all their sins” (7:19).
The first mention of the custom is in *Sefer Maharil* of Rabbi Jacob Moellin (d. 1425). Various explanations have been given. Rabbi Moellin himself relates the custom to a midrashic tradition about the binding of Isaac (on Rosh HaShana, according to the Talmud, we blow the ram’s horn in memory of the ram Abraham offered as a sacrifice in place of his son). On the journey, the Accuser placed a river in his way. Abraham was undeterred and walked straight through (*Tanḥuma, VaYera* 22). Thus, as with the blowing of the shofar, we ask God to forgive us in the merit of Abraham.
Water, too, is a symbol of Torah – of the knowledge that leads to virtue and peace: “They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Is. 11:9).
Rivers are a symbol of tears (*Avot deRabbi Nathan,* chapter 31) and thus a sign of repentance and remorse. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept as we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1). Flowing water is also a symbol of time, mortality and the shortness of life: “One generation goes, another comes…All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.” Consciousness of mortality is a fundamental theme of Rosh HaShana (“Write us in the book of life”).
Some have the custom to shake the hems of their clothing, in accordance with Nehemiah 5:13, “Also I shook out my lap, and said: So may God shake out…” (*Maḥzor Oholei Yaakov*).