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: “He [God] will cast (tashlikh) into the depths of the sea all their sins” (Micah 7:19). In Jerusalem the custom is to perform the ceremony by a well or water cistern. In towns in the north of Israel where rivers are not accessible, many go to high points from which Lake Kinneret is visible. 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 it to a midrashic tradition about the binding of Isaac (on Rosh HaShana 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. Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz says that the water reminds us of fish: just as they never close their eyes, so God’s eyes are ever-open, watching over the deeds of humankind (Shenei Luḥot HaBerit). Rabbi Moses of Przemysl relates the ceremony to the creation of the universe of which Rosh HaShana is the anniversary. Marine creatures were the first life forms (Gen. 1:20) and thus the first witnesses to creation (Matteh Moshe). There are other symbolic associations. Water 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” (Isaiah 11:9). Rivers are a symbol of tears (Avot deRabbi Natan, ch. 31) and thus a sign of repentance and remorse. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept as we remembered Zion” (Psalms 137:1). Flowing water is also a symbol of time (as in Isaac Watts’ paraphrase of Psalm 90: “Time, like an ever-flowing stream, bears all its sons away”). It represents mortality: “One generation goes, another comes… All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full” (Eccl. 1:4, 7), and consciousness of mortality is a fundamental theme of Rosh HaShana. Rivers, for Jews in the Diaspora, were places where they felt a special connection with the Divine Presence. Ezekiel, in exile in Babylon, prophesied by the banks of the river Chebar (Ezek. 1:3). Daniel, also in Babylon, had a vision “by the stream Ulai” (Dan. 8:2). Thus, when the prophets outside Israel sought inspiration they found it by going to a river (Mekhilta deRabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai, Bo12:1). 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). Many folk customs have become associated with Tashlikh, among them the custom of throwing crumbs into the water as a symbolic gesture to accompany the process of repentance, begun on Rosh HaShana, as if we were “casting away” our sins. This practice was dismissed by some halakhic authorities and ridiculed by gentiles. However it is less ridiculous than it seems. Maimonides writes about the scapegoat on Yom Kippur, over which the High Priest confessed the sins of the people, and which was then sent out into the wilderness: There is no doubt that sins cannot be carried like a burden, and taken off the shoulder of one being and laid on that of another. But these ceremonies are of a symbolic character, and serve to impress people with a certain idea, and to induce them to repent, as if to say: we have freed ourselves of our previous deeds, have cast them behind our backs, and removed them from us as far as possible. (Guide for the Perplexed, III:46) That, undoubtedly, is the underlying psychology of the folk custom of casting away crumbs as sins: a symbolic gesture, no more, no less. The Judaic concept of teshuva, repentance, is not psychologically straightforward. For those who feel a strong sense of guilt it is not easy to believe that God forgives and that the past is in some sense erased (the root meaning of kippur in Yom Kippur). Feelings of stigma, shame, self-reproach, dishonor, disgrace, even defilement, may remain, trapping us in the past and barring our way to a new beginning. If a symbolic act was needed in biblical times, might it not be needed even now, for though the world has changed, human psychology remains? There is, therefore, in the custom of throwing away crumbs – as often with Jewish folkways – a psychological depth not to be lightly dismissed. It is a gesture of breaking with the past and letting it be carried away on the river of time while we set out on a new journey in a different direction.