Tashlich: Casting Sin to the Water's Edge

On the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, after the shofar has been blown and the meal has been eaten, Jews across the world walk together to the edge of a river, a lake, or the sea. There, beside the moving water, they recite the Tashlich prayer, the verses of mercy from the prophet Michah that give this custom its name and its hope. The water moves, the words are spoken, and a person feels, in some way words cannot fully hold, that the weight of the year can be set down and carried off. It is one of the most quietly powerful moments of the Days of Awe, a ritual of the body that gives the soul a way to express what it has been struggling to say since Elul began.

Tashlich is, at its heart, an act of turning, and turning is the work of this whole season — the same work that Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities, founded in 1799, has long paired with giving to the poor of Eretz Yisroel. As we ask Hashem to cast our sins into the depths, we are reminded that mercy received is meant to become mercy given. Before we stand at the water ourselves, let us understand what Tashlich is, where it comes from, and what the verses we recite are truly asking.

Understanding Tashlich

Tashlich means “you will cast,” and the name is taken directly from the closing words of the prayer, “v’sashlich bimtzulos yam kol chatosam,” “and You shall cast into the depths of the sea all their sins” (Michah 7:19). The custom is to go on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, after Mincha and before sunset, to a body of water, ideally one that contains fish and flows naturally, and there to recite verses of Divine mercy. When the first day of Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, the custom is moved to the second day, so that no one comes to carry a machzor through a public domain. If one did not recite Tashlich on Rosh Hashanah, many have the custom to recite it later during Aseres Yemei Teshuva.

Who performs Tashlich, and where does it sit in the season? It is a widespread minhag observed by communities across the Jewish world, men and women alike walking to the water, and it belongs to the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah within the larger avodah of teshuvah. The Rema records the practice in Orach Chaim 583:2, noting the custom of going to a river on Rosh Hashanah, and the Mishnah Berurah there explains its meaning and its safeguards. It is important to grasp from the outset that Tashlich is a minhag, a hallowed custom, rather than a Torah or Rabbinic obligation, and that its power lies in what it awakens in the heart.

The choice of water with fish is deliberate and rich with meaning. Several reasons are given in the seforim: the Levush offers that fish are caught suddenly in a net just as we are caught in the net of judgment, and that a fish’s eyes never close, recalling the unceasing watchfulness of Hashem over His world, while later halachic sources point to the fish as a sign of blessing and increase and as a creature not subject to the ayin hara. The flowing water itself evokes the verses of mercy that flow without measure, and the depths into which sin is “cast” recall the prophet’s promise of a forgiveness so complete it cannot be retrieved.

The History and Origins of Tashlich

Among the earliest widely cited sources for Tashlich is the Maharil, Rabbi Yaakov Moelin of fifteenth-century Ashkenaz, who is quoted as describing Jews going to the rivers and seas on Rosh Hashanah and connecting the practice to the verse in Michah. An older tradition associated with the custom ties it to Akeidas Yitzchak: as Avraham Avinu walked to bind his son, the Satan placed a river in his path to stop him, and Avraham waded in until the water reached his neck, refusing to turn back. Going to the water on the day we recall the Akeidah in our tefillos thus re-enacts that unwavering devotion, the willingness to press through every obstacle to do Hashem’s will.

The custom spread widely and gathered deeper layers of meaning, especially through the teachings of the Arizal, who gave Tashlich kabbalistic kavanos connected to the sweetening of judgment and the verses of the Thirteen Attributes embedded in Michah’s prophecy. As the practice grew, the poskim also guarded it carefully. Some authorities cautioned that Tashlich must never be misunderstood as a ritual that physically removes sin, as though one could shake out one’s clothes and be cleansed without teshuvah; the Mishnah Berurah and others stress that the custom is a prompt to the heart, not a transaction with the river.

In this the poskim preserved the mesorah’s true intent rather than reshaping it. The differing customs that developed — which verses to add, whether to shake the corners of a garment, how the Chassidic and Sephardic communities each frame the moment — are branches of a single tradition, machlokes l’sheim Shamayim, each community giving honored form to the same prophetic words. What unites them all is the verse from Michah and the longing it carries: that Hashem, Who delights in kindness, will once again subdue our sins and cast them where they can no longer weigh us down.

The Prayers, Readings, and Customs of Tashlich

What Tashlich Means: A Deeper Look

The few verses of Tashlich hold a complete vision of teshuvah, and the meforshim draw remarkable depth from each phrase. Let us walk through four of them.

Mi Kel kamocha — who is like You. The prophet opens not with a request but with wonder, and the meforshim note that the name of the prophet Michah is hidden in the acrostic of these very words, Mi Kamocha. The Maharal explains that genuine teshuvah begins in awe, in the recognition that there is no other power capable of truly forgiving, that the One we wronged is the same One who longs to lift the wrong away. For the reader standing at the water, this opening reframes the moment: we have not come to perform a ritual, but to stand astonished before a G-d whose mercy has no equal.

Nosei avon — bearing iniquity. As in the Thirteen Attributes, the verb nosei means to lift and carry, and the Ben Ish Chai teaches that Hashem does not merely overlook sin but actively bears it away, as a parent carries a child who can no longer walk. The deeper meaning is that the past is not denied but transformed, lifted off the shoulders of one who returns. The person who arrives at the water bowed under a year of regret hears that the burden is not theirs alone to carry.

V’oveir al pesha — passing over transgression. The image is of Hashem “passing over,” choosing not to dwell on the offense of those who return to Him. The Sfas Emes draws out that this passing over is itself an act of love, a deliberate looking-past that makes room for renewal. In our own lives, the verse teaches the middah we are meant to acquire in return: to learn to pass over the slights and failures of others as we ask Hashem to pass over ours.

Bimtzulos yam — into the depths of the sea. Why the depths, and why the sea? The seforim explain that the sea’s depths are the place from which nothing returns, an image of forgiveness so total that the sin cannot be dredged back up to accuse us. The flowing water before us makes the metaphor visible: what is cast into the current does not come back. For the reader, this is the promise that drives the whole custom — that a sincere return can place the past beyond reach, in waters too deep for despair to follow.

The Laws and Customs of Tashlich

The halachic framework of Tashlich is built around its status as a minhag and around the laws of Rosh Hashanah and Shabbos that shape how it is performed. The Rema (Orach Chaim 583:2) records the custom of going to a river on Rosh Hashanah afternoon, and the standard practice is to go on the first day after Mincha; when the first day falls on Shabbos, the Mishnah Berurah (583:5) records the custom of delaying Tashlich to the second day so that one does not come to carry the siddur or machzor in a place without an eruv. Those who cannot reach a natural body of water may use a well or a place where water gathers, and where no water is available at all, some authorities permit reciting the verses near any water source.

Several customs surround the act itself, and the poskim are careful to label them. The shaking of the garment’s corners, which the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (129:21) describes as a symbol of shaking off sins and examining one’s ways, is a widespread minhag and a visual aid to teshuvah, not a halachic requirement; the seforim caution against treating it as though the sin physically transfers to the cloth or the water. Feeding the fish or throwing bread is, in fact, discouraged by many authorities, both because of the prohibition against feeding animals one is not responsible for on Yom Tov and because it risks turning a moment of teshuvah into a folk gesture detached from its meaning. The clear halachic principle is that Tashlich accompanies and expresses teshuvah; it never substitutes for it.

A word on intent rounds out the halacha. Because Tashlich is a custom whose entire purpose is to stir the heart, it must be approached as the seforim intend — as a minhag associated with awakening teshuvah and recalling Hashem’s mercy, never as a guaranteed mechanism. Only Hashem grants pardon, and He grants it in response to genuine return; the water is a teacher, not a power of its own.

The Spiritual Power of Tefillah and Tzedakah

The verses of Tashlich speak of a G-d who “delights in kindness,” and Chazal teach us that the way to draw down that kindness is to live it. The Gemara in Bava Basra (10a) teaches that tzedakah brings the redemption near and stands between a person and the harshness of judgment, and the season’s liturgy repeats that charity, prayer, and teshuvah together temper a decree. The Rambam (Hilchos Teshuvah 3:4) writes that a person should see himself and the whole world as evenly balanced, so that a single mitzvah can tip the scale toward merit and salvation, and he adds that during these days Israel increases in tzedakah and good deeds. Standing at the water and asking Hashem to cast our sins into the depths, we accept the responsibility to become people through whom His kindness flows to others.

This is precisely the avodah that Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities has carried since 1799, upholding the tzaddik’s legacy to intercede in Heaven for those who give to the poor of Eretz Yisroel in his memory. To recite Tashlich having given tzedakah for the needy families of the Holy Land is to complete the circuit the prophet describes: we ask Hashem to pass over our transgressions, and we make ourselves into people who give freely and judge others gently. The tefillah at the water is a way to align our own with His, to become worthy of the abundance He wishes to grant. The giving is an act of emunah, a way of saying that we trust the One whose mercy runs deeper than the sea.

Give Tzedakah in the Merit of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness As you stand at the water and ask Hashem to cast your sins into the depths, let your teshuvah become an act of kindness toward His children. A gift to the poor of Eretz Yisroel, given in the merit of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, turns the prayer of Tashlich into a deed that tips the scales toward life. [Donate Now] → https://rmbhcharities.com/reb-meirs-guarantee/

About Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities

Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities, founded in 1799, is one of the oldest and most trusted tzedakah organizations serving the poor of Eretz Yisroel, upholding Rabbi Meir Baal Haness’s legacy that those who give to the needy in his memory find heavenly intercession in their time of need.

Today it distributes funds to Torah scholars, widows, orphans, and needy families throughout Eretz Yisroel — an unbroken chain of compassion and a zechus for the giver and their family.

Support the Mission of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities] → https://rmbhcharities.com/reb-meirs-guarantee/

Frequently Asked Questions About Tashlich

Closing

When we turn from the water and walk home in the late afternoon light of Rosh Hashanah, we carry less than we brought. We have stood before the One whose mercy has no equal, watched the current take the year’s weight, and resolved to be people through whom kindness flows. May the teshuvah we express at the water, joined to the tzedakah we give for the poor of Eretz Yisroel, be accepted before Hashem, and may He cast our sins into the depths and grant us a year of sweetness and kapparah.