Reverse Tashlich
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On Rosh Hashanah, many traditional Jewish communities participate in Tashlich - "sending away" ("throwing away" would be a more descriptive translation). Traditionally, Jews would throw the bread crumbs they found in their pockets and bags into a body of water with fish and other aquatic creatures living there.
(Stock Photo by Erwin Pieloor, Vecteezy)
(Community-Wide Reverse Tashlich 2022)
Today, we are proud to join Tikkun HaYam in their annual Reverse Tashlich. Before we throw our sins into the water, we remove other people's sins from the water - these "sins" are the garbage that other people have thrown or allowed to fall into and near bodies of water. Once we have cleaned up the water, we can then observe Tashlich and cast our own sins into the newly cleaned body of water.
(Graphic by Tikkun HaYam artist)
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(Previous Years' Reverse Tashlich Photos, Beginning in 2022)
These crumbs symbolized their sins, bad habits, missteps, and mistakes from the previous year. The removal of the crumbs functioned both as a physical cleaning and a symbolic cleansing before Yom Kippur (the "Day of Atonement"). The fish and creatures that ate the crumbs symbolized the community that would help them make better choices in the New Year.
We have made a few changes to the traditional Tashlich custom, as well. In place of bread crumbs, which we no longer find at the bottoms of our pockets and bags, we throw fish food or turtle food. Bread is not good for animals' digestion, so we are happy to throw something that is better for the animals who are helping us complete this ritual by eating our cast "sins." We also observe the custom of Tashlich on a convenient Sunday morning, rather than on Rosh Hashanah itself. We do not have any bodies of water with fish in them within walking distance of our Synagogue, and therefore, we choose to wait until we can drive together to a fitting body of water. Finally, we have a meal together afterward as a fitting reward for all our hard work.
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