Tossing bread into ocean for New Year
Couple of hundred people gather before sunset at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach, where children and adults alike blow shofar, cast off their sins from previous year
It’s the custom of casting off sins from the previous year, and getting a fresh start for the Jewish New Year.
Video courtesy of jn1.tv
"The Torah gives us this idea that if you have been a certain way, you can change. You can change and you can forgive," explains Rabbi Noa Kushner. "What this tradition is meant to do is help you dig deep and figure out what it is you need to let go of and what it is you need to change so that you can do it."
A couple of hundred people gathered at the beach before sunset, where children and adults alike blew the shofar and where people from a wide variety of cultures came together to celebrate the Jewish New Year.
An eclectic mix of musicians joined the group as they walked down to the ocean’s edge. People practicing the ritual of Tashlich often recite prayers near natural flowing water, and symbolically cast their sins into it. These participants used stale bread to stand for their sins.
Some wrote words in the sand for the waves to wash away, to represent what they wanted to change about themselves in the New Year.
Laurie Blavin, an animation industry recruiter, was one of the organizers of the first Ocean Beach Tashlich. She says it helped bring Jewish meaning into her life.
"About 12 years ago, on this beach, three of us came down here to have Tashlich and we tossed bread into the ocean. And from there it’s grown into this massive unbelievably beautiful moving community of people coming together."
A bonfire and marshmallow roast followed the Tashlich ceremony, which is a fairly recent Rosh Hashana ritual.
The consensus is the tradition started in the Middle Ages but no one knows exactly when. Jews are practicing it today in front of streams, rivers, lakes and oceans across the globe.
