Why we cast away sins on Rosh Hashana

[Jewscout]

Why we cast away sins on Rosh Hashana


On the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashana, millions of Jews all over the world will search out a river, a sea, even an aquifer or a reservoir. Some will even settle for an aquarium. First preference will be given to a body of water that contains fish.

Once there, pockets will be turned inside out, special prayers will be recited, and sins will be symbolically "cast" away.

The custom, tashlich, is loosely associated with the verse in Micah, "And thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."

As Dr. David Zafrani of Tel Aviv University's Hebrew Culture faculty points out, "Nowhere in Micah is Rosh Hashana mentioned. It is just a prophesy that at some later date God will expiate our sins." Nevertheless, about 700 years ago in what is now France and Germany, Jews began the custom of tashlich.

Rabbi Ya'acov Molin Segel (known by the acronym Maharil), the most important halachic authority of Ashkenazi Jewry in the 14th century, first mentions the custom, says Rabbi Dr. Haim Talbi of Bar-Ilan University's Talmud department. "Jews went to the seas and the rivers to symbolically 'dispose' of their sins so that they should not be remembered."

Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri, son of the respected Kabbalist Rabbi David Batzri, and head of Yeshivat Hashalom in Jerusalem, says that of all the different bodies of water, rivers are especially symbolic. "It intimates the binding of Isaac," says Batzri. "According to the Midrash Tanhuma, Abraham was confronted by the Satan, who transformed himself into a river to thwart his attempt to bind and sacrifice his son. But Abraham walked straight into the river. We remind God of this act of faith on Rosh Hashana, which is the day of judgement."

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