128 Friday, September 11, 1982 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 500-Year-Old Custom of Tashlikh Casts AwaySins By RABBI DAVID GEFFEN World Zionist Press Service JERUSALEM — "A foul, watery stream apparently not much more than ankle- deep ran along the drainage way. Reb Yehiel Mazur crouched all doubled over with a foot on each side of the pipe above the stream. The Jewish boy, Wladislaw, held the light down through the jagged, chiseled hole, as the voice of Reb Yehiel Mazur echoed and echoed in the arched conduit. "And Thou will cast (tashlikh) all their sins into the depths of the sea.' " This poignant depiction of the tashlikh ceremony in a subterranean sewer area in the Warsaw ghetto from John Hershey's novel, "The Wall," typfies the determi- nation of the Jew, in spite of all obstacles, to perform this symbolic ritual on Rosh Hashana. Fortunately, today in most locales around the world the obser- vance of tashlikh is much easier. Nevertheless, the actual act itself, wherever it maybe performed, is rooted in 500 years of tradition and may even have deeper roots than that. The actual name tashlikh derives from the verse in Micah 7:19 ("And thou will cast all their sins into the sea"), which along with ver- ses from Isaiah and Psalms are recited during the cere- mony itself. The earliest specific reference is found in the 15th Century Sefer Maharil authored by German Rabbi Jacob Moellin. "It is customary on Rosh Hashana after eating," he wrote, "to go to the sea or to a river and to cast one's sins into the depths of the waters." He continued by forbidding the throwing of bread crumbs into the water in order to feed the fish. His prohibition was not accepted since the use of bread crumbs has be- come a normal part of the ritual. Rabbi Moshe Isserles, the commentator on the Shulhan Arukh, suggested that we go to the water's Tashlikh prayers on a Tel Aviv beach. edge for the ceremony be- cause the "depths of the seas" were created on Rosh Hashana. In communities today, tashlikh is performed on the first afternoon of Rosh Hashana. However, when Rosh Hashana begins on Saturday, as it does this year, then the ceremony is put offuntil Sunday to avoid desecration of the Sabbath. Unusual tashlikh rituals include a Kurdistan custom of physically jumping into the water to observe the ceremony. Kabalists, Jewish mystics, shake their garments as a way of fre- eing themselves from the "shells" of sin which have formed during the year. Their act is based on the talmudic statement that the cleanliness of garments is a sign of moral purity. Sephardi - Oriental Jews have celebrated tashlikh since the 16th Century. While the Mediterra- nean and Sea of Galilee shores have been regular venues for tashlikh through the years, the residents of such land- locked cities as Jerusalem and Safed had to devise alternate ap- proaches. From the 18th Century on it was cus- tomary to climb to the roofs of these cities and look toward either the Sea of Galilee or toward the Dead Sea and recite the appropriate verses. Today the main location for tashlikh in Jerusalem is the Shiloakh or the Silwan tunnel through which the Gihon spring flows. The tunnel, cut through solid rock by King Hezekiah's workers in the Eighth Cen- tury BCE, is an amazing engineering feat. The Shiloakh is mainly accessible via the Dung Gate since it is in the City of David area now being exca- vated. From all parts of the city Jerusalemites are drawn by the magnet of the onl natural spring in the municipality. Moreover, they are also attracted by the opportunity of seeing friends for the first time in the New Year. A multitude of languages are heard on the way down to the Shiloakh at the base of the Kidron Valley. All along the way greetings for a good and sweet year are heard — in Jerusalem it is a wonderful way to begin the year. This year, 5743, as Jerusalemites come to the Shiloakh as Jews the world over go to their own rivers, streams, seas and oceans for tashlikh they will, as Reb Yehiel did in the ghetto and as our ancestors have done for over 500 years, meas- ure themselves and the year just past. From this introspection and soul searching they will pray for a year filled with shalom and fulfillthent, not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for all mankind. Major Events Affected Israel and Jewry During 5742 By GEOFFREY WIGODER World Zionist Press Service JERUSALEM — The main focus of Jewish con- cern over the past year has been Israel. The country has been involved in one crisis after another and indeed the attention of the world has been disproportionately fixed on this tiny area. Events followed one an- other at dizzying speed — the annexation of the Golan Heights, the withdrawal pains in Sinai, the war in Lebanon, not to mention Mr. Begin's virtuoso tight- rope performance to main- tain a precarious majority in Israel's Knesset. The Jews of the world have been fascinated and vicariously participated in Israel's triumphs, tragedies and problems. The war in Lebanon evoked demon- strations of sympathy and fund raising but the impact could not be expected to compare with that of the Six-Day and Yom Kippur Wars when Israel itself was endangered. American Jews were involved in various struggles on Israel's be- half, notably over the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia. Their attempt to stop the sale almost suc- ceeded — not only be- cause of the threat to Is- rael but also because many Americans, citing the precedent of Iran, opposed sending sophis- ticated weapons to an un- stable country. Intense pressures by President Reagan saw the bill through, but not before the major issue had stir- red up anti-Semitic as well as anti-Israel man- ifestations. Israeli soldiers talk with Lebanese civilians after the battle for Sidon. The Jews of the world rael and most of the others were also in the front line of to the U.S. The Zionist movement international terror. Pales- tinian terrorists again tried to persuade the showed that they did not American Jewish organiza- distinguish between Is- tion HIAS from helping ref- raelis and Jews as they ugees, and to cease assisting selected their targets. As in Russian Jews who reached the previous year, when the Vienna to go onto the U.S. It transpired, however, Paris synagogue in Rue Copernic was the scene of a that the Jews were con- murderous attack, so this tacted by other bodies, year synagogues were again ultra-religious as well as non-Jewish, who financed sites of bloodshed. In October, two women their journey to the U.S. and were killed and 90 injured eventually HIAS resumed when a 200-pound bomb its activities. Inside the USSR, `!refus- exploded outside the Sephardi synagogue in niks" continued to be perse- Antwerp and in February a cuted. One of the best bomb was thrown at the known, Ida Nudel, was re- synagogue in Rome. There leased after four years exile was loss of life when a and returned to her home in Jewish restaurant in Berlin Moscow but was still not was bombed in January allowed to join her sister in while the would-be assas- Israel. Events Poland sins of the Israel ambas- sador in London were found showed that you don't to have a hit list of leading need Jews to have anti- Semitism. Within a few English Jews. Ambassador Shlomo hours of the clamping Argov was shot and criti- down of martial law in cally wounded in London in December, the state radio broadcast a harangue al- early June. leging that the extremist The controversy over the faction in Solidarity had Soviet Jewry "drop-outs" been seized by Jews and (i.e. not going to Israel) Freemasons! The official among Jews leaving Russia Communist organ became almost academic as branded leading Solidar- the gates of the USSR al- ity advisers for "Zionist" most closed once again, sympathies and even the leaving only a trickle where former Communist Party recently there had been a boss, Edward Gierek, stream. Only a few hundred was accused of being in Jews a month were allowed league with the "Zionist to leave — and of these conspiracy." about 20 percent went to Is- All this in a country with a mere 5,000 Jews. A sinister sign was the emergence of the powerful "Grunwald Patriotic Union" with a membership - of 100,000; the union stres- ses "Jewish influence on Polish affairs." However, there is no evidence that this anti-Semitism has caught the ear of the Polish masses who are more anti- Russian than anti anything the fate of the Falasha Jews else. And the Polish gov- in Ethiopia. Conflicting re- ernment, pragmatically, - ports have been received has permitted the Joint Dis- concerning their plight but tribution Committee to op- their situation has deter- erate inside Poland for the iorated drastically in recent first time since 1967. years and some are living as In the field of Jewish- refugees in the Sudan. Christian relationships, a In another troubled area, highmark of the year was Afghanistan, only 17 the Pope's address in March Jewish families now re- to Catholics engaged in re- main, while further east in lations with the Jews. He China, the last foreign said that the terrible perse- Jewish refugee died in cutions of the Jews have fi- Shanghai; before 1949, nally opened many eyes and 30,000 foreign Jews were disturbed many hearts. living in China. Apart from In sharp contrast to the six part-Jews in Shanghai, historical attitude of the the last Jew in China is a Church, he stressed the 73-year-old woman in Har- common spiritual heri- bin in Manchuria. She lives tage and called for a new in a room with a former relationship based on the synagogue, the last sur- respect for the full iden- vivor of a community once tity of each community. humbering 10,000. He told Catholics that In Latin America, the teaching about Jews and Falkland Islands witnessed Judaism must be done on a small scale a Jewish honestly and objectively, tragedy that was particu- without prejudice or giv- larly poignant in World ing offense, and stressing War I — the spectacle of the common heritage. Jew fighting Jew in oppos- Elsewhere, there has ing armies. A number of been widespread concern for Argentinian Jews died. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin are shown embrac- ing last October at the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.