# Tashlikh > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tashlikh > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tashlikh.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashlikh > Source revision: 1341449682 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Jewish atonement ritual}} thumb|200px|Holiday card depicting Tashlikh (early 20th century) '''''Tashlikh''''' or Tashlich ({{langx|he|תשליך}} "cast off") is an [customary](/source/minhag) [Jewish atonement ritual](/source/Atonement_in_Judaism) performed during the [High Holy Days](/source/High_Holy_Days) on [Rosh Hashanah](/source/Rosh_Hashanah) for [Ashkenazi Jews](/source/Ashkenazi_Jews). In some [Judaeo-Spanish](/source/Judaeo-Spanish)-speaking communities the practice is referred to as ''sakudirse las faldas'' ('to shake the flaps [of clothing]') or simply as ''faldas''.{{cite book |last1=Cowen |first1=Ida |title=Jews in remote corners of the world |date=1971 |location=Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ |page=276}} ==Practice== The ritual is performed at a large, natural body of flowing water (e.g., [river](/source/river), [lake](/source/lake), [sea](/source/sea), or [ocean](/source/ocean)) on the afternoon of the first day of [Rosh Hashanah](/source/Rosh_Hashanah), the Jewish [New Year](/source/New_Year), although it may be performed until [Hoshana Rabbah](/source/Hoshana_Rabbah). If the first day of Rosh Hashanah falls on [Shabbat](/source/Shabbat), most Ashkenazim recite Tashlich on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, whereas most Sephardim recite it on the first day as normal. The [penitent](/source/Repentance_in_Judaism) recites a [Biblical](/source/Tanakh) passage and, optionally, additional [prayers](/source/Jewish_prayer). During the Tashlikh prayer, the worshipers symbolically throw their sins into a source of water. Some people throw small pieces of bread into the water, though many rabbis consider throwing bread into the water on Rosh Hashanah to be forbidden by [halakha](/source/halakha).Shurpin, Yehuda. "[https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4498624/jewish/The-Problem-With-Feeding-Fish-at-Tashlich.htm The Problem With Feeding Fish at Tashlich]". ''Chabad.org''. Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center. Retrieved August 29, 2020. ==Origin of the custom== {{Expand section|for=It could be expanded from [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3367512&seq=319 J. Z. Lauterbach, "Tashlikh"]|date=October 2024|small=no|talksection=|section=2}} ===Scriptural source=== The name "''Tashlikh''" and the practice itself are derived from an [allusion](/source/allusion) mentioned in the [Biblical](/source/Hebrew_Bible) passage ({{bibleverse-lb||Micah|7:18-20|HE}}) recited at the ceremony: "You will cast (''tashlikh'') all their sins into the depths of the sea."{{Cite book|last=Trachtenberg|first=Joshua|author-link=Joshua Trachtenberg|chapter=STRATAGEM|chapter-url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/jms/jms13.htm#page_165|title=Jewish Magic and Superstition|location=Philadelphia|publisher=[University of Pennsylvania Press](/source/University_of_Pennsylvania_Press)|year=2004|orig-date=Originally published 1939|isbn=9780812218626|page=165|access-date=Mar 22, 2023}}{{cite web |url=http://www.ou.org/index.php/jewish_action/article/28204/ |first=Ari |last=Zivotofsky |title=What's the Truth About ... Tashlich? |publisher=Jewish Action online |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070810214253/http://www.ou.org/index.php/jewish_action/article/28204/ |archive-date=2007-08-10 }} ===Possible early sources=== * [Josephus](/source/Josephus) ({{Circa|100}}) refers to the decree of the [Halicarnassians](/source/Halicarnassus) permitting Jews to "perform their holy rites according to the Jewish laws and to have their places of prayer by the sea, according to the customs of their forefathers".[Antiquities of the Jews](/source/Antiquities_of_the_Jews) 14:10, § 23 However, there was an ancient Jewish custom to site [synagogue](/source/synagogue)s of the [Jewish diaspora](/source/Jewish_diaspora) on the seashore as an expression of desire to [return to Zion](/source/return_to_Zion).{{citation needed|date=August 2016|reason=J. Z. Lauterbach argues that synagogues were sited on seashores even in pre-exilic Israel ("Tashlik"). Any citation would have to indicate an exclusively post-exilic feature. (August 2023)}} * The ''[Zohar](/source/Zohar)'' ({{Circa|1290}}) states that "whatever falls into the deep is lost forever; ... it acts like the [scapegoat](/source/scapegoat) for the [ablution](/source/Ritual_washing_in_Judaism) of [sins](/source/Jewish_views_on_sin)".Zohar, "Vayikra" 101a,b Some believe that this is a reference to the ''tashlikh'' ritual. thumb|On a river bank "in a small town" (English caption) women bend over prayerbooks during Tashlikh (1920s-1930s, Lithuania). ===Maharil=== Most Jewish sources trace the custom back to [Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin](/source/Yaakov_ben_Moshe_Levi_Moelin) (d. 1427 in [Worms](/source/Worms%2C_Germany)) in his ''Sefer Maharil'', where he explains the custom as a reminder of the [binding of Isaac](/source/binding_of_Isaac), and the general impression has therefore been that it originated not earlier than the fourteenth century, with the German Jews. Moelin recounts a [midrash](/source/midrash) about that event, according to which [Satan](/source/Satan) threw himself across [Abraham](/source/Abraham)'s path in the form of a deep stream, in an attempt to prevent Abraham from sacrificing [Isaac](/source/Isaac) on [Moriah](/source/Moriah). Abraham and Isaac nevertheless plunged into the river up to their necks and prayed for divine aid, whereupon the river disappeared.{{cite web |url=http://www.eretzhemdah.org/newsletterArticle.asp?lang=en&pageid=48&cat=7&newsletter=162&article=562 |title=Ask the Rabbi: Shabbat Rosh Hashana 5765 |publisher=Eretz Hemdah Institute}} Moelin, however, forbids the practise of throwing pieces of bread to the fish in the river, especially on [Shabbat](/source/Shabbat). This would seem to indicate that in his time ''tashlikh'' was duly performed, even when the first day of Rosh Hashanah fell on the Sabbath, though in later times the ceremony was, on such occasions, deferred one day. [[File:Tashlikh lake ontario 1916.png|thumb|At [Lake Ontario](/source/Lake_Ontario) (before 1916)]] ===Shelah=== Rabbi [Isaiah Horowitz](/source/Isaiah_Horowitz) (born [1555](/source/1555) in [Prague](/source/Prague) — died [1630](/source/1630) in [Tiberias](/source/Tiberias)) offers the earliest written source explaining the significance of allusions to fish in relation to this custom. In his [eponymous](/source/eponymous) [treatise](/source/treatise), ''Shelah'' (214b), he writes: * Fish illustrate man's plight, and arouse him to repentance: "As the fishes that are taken in an evil net" ({{bibleverse-lb||Ecclesiastes|9:12|HE}}); * Fish, in that they have no eyelids and their eyes are always wide open, allude to the [omniscience](/source/omniscience) of the [Creator](/source/God_in_judaism), who does not sleep. [[File:Jews brooklyn bridge.jpg|thumb|On the [Williamsburg Bridge](/source/Williamsburg_Bridge) (1909)]] ===Rama=== Rabbi [Moses Isserles](/source/Moses_Isserles) ([Kraków](/source/Krak%C3%B3w), d. 1572), author of the authoritative [Ashkenazi](/source/Ashkenazi) [glosses](/source/glosses) to the [Shulchan Aruch](/source/Shulchan_Aruch), explains:{{cite book |title=Torat ha-'Olah |page=3:56 |url=https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=35871&hilite=99c6766e-4b8d-4545-982f-c6605cea9480&st=%D7%AA%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%97&pgnum=146 |first=Moshe |last=Isserles}}
The deeps of the sea allude to the existence of a single Creator that created the world and that controls the world by, for example, not letting the seas [flood](/source/Genesis_flood_narrative) the earth. Thus, we go to the sea and reflect upon that on [New-Year's Day](/source/Rosh_HaShannah), the anniversary of Creation. We reflect upon proof of the Creator's creation and of His control, so as to repent of our sins to the Creator, and so he will figuratively "cast our sins into the depths of the sea" ({{bibleverse-lb||Micah|7:18-20|HE}}).
==Opposition to the custom== [[File:Aleksander Gierymski, Święto Trąbek I.jpg|250px|thumb|Jews on [Rosh Hashanah](/source/Rosh_Hashanah) in [Aleksander Gierymski](/source/Aleksander_Gierymski)'s ''Święto trąbek I'']] The Kabbalistic practise of shaking the ends of one's garments at the ceremony, as though casting off the ''[qlippoth](/source/qlippoth)'', caused many non-kabbalists to denounce the custom. In their view, the custom created the impression among the common people that by literally throwing their sins they might "escape" them without repenting and making amends. The [maskilim](/source/Haskalah) in particular ridiculed the custom and characterized it as "[heathenish](/source/Paganism)". A popular satire from the 1860s was written by [Isaac Erter](/source/Isaac_Erter), in which [Samael](/source/Samael) watches the sins of [hypocrites](/source/Hypocrisy) dropping into the river.[Isaac Erter](/source/Isaac_Erter), "HaTzofeh leBeit Yisrael" (pp. 64–80, Vienna, 1864) [Shulchan Aruch HaRav](/source/Shulchan_Aruch_HaRav) states that it is prohibited to feed wild animals on Jewish holidays, and some rabbis say that throwing bread into a body of water with fish on Rosh Hashanah is also prohibited. [Shulchan Aruch HaRav](/source/Shulchan_Aruch_HaRav) also states that it is prohibited to carry unnecessary items in a public domain on Jewish holidays, and some rabbis say that carrying pieces of bread to a body of water would be prohibited on Rosh Hashanah. The [Vilna Gaon](/source/Vilna_Gaon) also opposed the practice.Maase Rav 209. ==Mainstream acceptance today== [[File:PikiWiki_Israel_4165_quot;tashlichquot;praying_in_ramat_gan.jpg|thumb|250px|Tashlikh prayer in [Ramat Gan](/source/Ramat_Gan), [Israel](/source/Israel) (2006)]] Today, most mainstream [Jewish religious movements](/source/Jewish_religious_movements) view ''tashlikh'' as acceptable. It is generally not practised by [Spanish and Portuguese Jews](/source/Spanish_and_Portuguese_Jews), and it is opposed by the [Yemenite](/source/Yemenite_Jews) [Dor Daim](/source/Dor_Daim) movement, and it is not practiced by [followers](/source/perushim) of the Vilna Gaon, mostly in [Jerusalem](/source/Jerusalem){{Citation needed|date=September 2007}}. Many Jews in [New York City](/source/New_York_City) perform the ceremony each year in large numbers from the [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn_Bridge) and [Manhattan Bridge](/source/Manhattan_Bridge)s. In cities with few open bodies of water, such as [Jerusalem](/source/Jerusalem), people perform the ritual by a fish pond, cistern, or [mikveh](/source/mikveh).{{cite web|first=Rabbi Yirmiyahu|last=Kaganoff|title=Appreciating Tashlich|url=http://www.yeshiva.co/midrash/shiur.asp?cat=492&id=22445&q=|publisher=Yeshiva.co|accessdate=2 September 2013}} Congregations have different versions of the traditions depending on factors such as location of the synagogue relative to the closest body of water, as well as the [branch of Judaism](/source/Jewish_religious_movements) that the group is in. That being said, almost all Jewish congregations participate in some version of Tashlikh each year and the service has adapted to local characteristics in different communities, resulting in various interpretations. In [Kurdistan](/source/Kurdistan), for instance, Jews choose to jump in the water, and in [Galicia](/source/Galicia_(Eastern_Europe)), they throw branches into the water. In India, Jews used Tashlikh for [matchmaking](/source/matchmaking). ==See also== {{Teshuva}} {{Judaism}} *[Repentance in Judaism](/source/Repentance_in_Judaism) *[Atonement in Judaism](/source/Atonement_in_Judaism) *[Kapparot](/source/Kapparot) *[Minhag](/source/Minhag) ==References== {{reflist}}
{{High Holidays}} {{Authority control}} Category:Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish law Category:Rosh Hashanah Category:Water and Judaism --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tashlikh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashlikh) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashlikh?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.