Weird and Wacky Rituals: Tashlich

Is there any divinity save You who forgives the sins and pardons the transgressions of the remnant, Your people? You do not maintain anger forever, for You delight in love. You will return to us compassionately, overcoming the consequences of our sin, hurling our sins into the depths of the sea. You will keep faith with Jacob, showing enduring love to Abraham, as You promised our ancestors in days of old.

Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” They assembled at Mizpah, and they drew water and poured it out before the LORD; they fasted that day, and there they confessed that they had sinned against the LORD. And Samuel acted as chieftain of the Israelites at Mizpah.

The goat [of the Day of Atonement] that was sent [into the wilderness] (Lev. 16:20, seq.) served as an atonement for all serious transgressions more than any other sin-offering of the congregation. As it thus seemed to carry off all sins, it was not accepted as an ordinary sacrifice to be slaughtered, burnt, or even brought near the Sanctuary; it was removed as far as possible, and sent forth into a waste, uncultivated, uninhabited land. There is no doubt that sins cannot be carried like a burden, and taken off the shoulder of one being to be laid on that of another being. But these ceremonies are of a symbolic character, and serve to impress men 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.

(12) On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes (ibid., v. 4). Since the distance was extremely short, what delayed them three days? When Satan realized that they would not pay any attention to him, he went ahead and created a river in their path. When Abraham stepped into the river, it reached his knees. He ordered his young men to follow him, and they did so. But in the middle of the river the water reached his neck. Thereupon, Abraham lifted his eyes heavenward and cried out: Master of the Universe, You have chosen me; You have instructed me; You revealed Yourself to me; You have declared: I am one and You are one, and through You shall my name be made known in My world. You have ordered me: Offer, Isaac, thy son, as a sacrifice, and I did not refuse; but now, as I am about to fulfill Thy command, these waters endanger my life. If either I or my son, Isaac, should drown, who will fulfill Your decrees, and who will proclaim the Unity of Your Name? The Holy One, blessed be He, responded: Be assured that through you the Unity of My Name will be made known through the world. Thereupon the Holy One, blessed be He, rebuked the source of the water, and caused the river to dry up. Once again, they stood on dry land.

(1) For the leader. On shoshannim. Of David. (2) Deliver me, O God, for the waters have reached my neck; (3) I am sinking into the slimy deep and find no foothold; I have come into the watery depths; the flood sweeps me away. (4) I am weary with calling; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for God.

Because there is a Midrash that Abraham crossed the river up to his neck when he went to go sacrifice his son Isaac. He then said, (from Psalms 69:2): Save me, O God, for water has come up to my soul. So we do Tashlich as a way of remembering the Akeidah/binding of Isaac. And it is good if it is a place that has living fish as a sign that the evil eye should not fall upon us and we should be able to multiply like fish, as fish are incapable of being affected by the evil eye. And in the writings it says at a river or well, and it is good if it is outside the city.

The Sages taught: One anoints the kings only upon a spring, as an omen, so that their kingdom will continue like a spring, as it is stated with regard to the coronation of Solomon: “And the king said unto them: Take with you the servants of your lord, and let Solomon my son ride upon my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.

(32) Then King David said, “Summon to me the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” When they came before the king, (33) the king said to them, “Take my loyal soldiers, and have my son Solomon ride on my mule and bring him down to Gihon. (34) Let the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anoint him there king over Israel, whereupon you shall sound the horn and shout, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ (35) Then march up after him, and let him come in and sit on my throne. For he shall succeed me as king; him I designate to be ruler of Israel and Judah.”

The custom of the Jewish people is law, that we go to the water and say tashlich at the abyss of a deep sea. It is the nature of the elements that water covers the land, for land is in the center [of the earth] is below the waters. The land was revealed [out of the sea] for the needs of mankind and creatures who dwell on it. This was certainly not unintentional, for He created the earth, according to His will for people to live on it. Therefore, we go to the water to see there the sand bordering the sea. We say, until here we can walk and no further. When we go there we see the strength of the Creator. This is why we come to the water on Rosh Hashanah, Judgement Day, [to realize that] because of every individual the world was created. G-d is the king of the world and for this we say, we send our sins into the depths of the sea.

(1) the entire people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the scroll of the Teaching of Moses with which the LORD had charged Israel.

After the Minchah service²¹This should be done before sunset. (Ibid) you should go to a river [or stream] (to recall the merit of the Akeidah, [the binding of Yitzchak] for the Midrash relates that when our Father Avraham went to the Akeidah with his son Yitzchak, Satan transformed himself into a river to deter him. But our Father Avraham, peace be upon him, walked into the river until [the water reached] his neck and said, "Deliver me, O God, for the waters have reached until my soul." (Psalm 69:2) There is another reason [for this custom]; for on this day we proclaim the kingship of the Holy One, blessed is He, over us, and it was the custom to anoint kings near a river bank as a sign that their kingdom may endure without end.)²²Maseches Horayos 12a. It is preferable that [this river] should be outside the city limits and it should contain fish (as a reminder that we are compared to living fish who are caught in a net. We too, are caught in the net of death and judgment, and as a result [we will be inclined] to think more of repenting. Another reason is to symbolize that the evil eye shall have no power over us, just as [it has no power] over fish, and that we may be fruitful and multiply as the fish. Others say the reason is that fish have no eyelids, and their eyes are always open, the purpose is thus to arouse the compassion of the All-Seeing Eye above us.) But if there is no river that contains fish you may go to any river, or to a well, and you should recite the verses, Mi keil kamocha [Who, Almighty, is like you] etc. as it is written in the prayer books in the text of Tashlich. You should then shake the ends of your clothes, symbolizing your resolve to cast away your sins, and to examine and scrutinize your ways, from now on; so that your "clothes" will be white and innocent of all sin. If the first day of Rosh Hashanah is on Shabbos you go [to the stream for Tashlich] on the second day.