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Olenn. AO.
9/18
1998
itulooft c Outclarpt livacks
46 Detroit Jewish' News
a
XaCtittethate
concerned that I may have offended
you. Please tell me whether you have
felt hurt. And if you have, what can I
do to heal this?"
Then, and only then, can we hon-
estly say: "I ask you to forgive me."
If to you this sounds impossibly
revealing, taking impossible chances,
then you need to know there are actu-
ally people who undertake this path in
the days before the New Year. They
are not saints, unless this practice by
itself qualifies them. They are people
who have cheated, insulted, exploded,
maligned. Courage, it rakes; saintli-
ness, not.
As we move closer to Rosh
Hashanah, we can prepare ourselves
for Tashlich itself— though it need
not be reserved for use only on the
day of Rosh Hashanah.
What does Tashlich
add to the kind of seli-
chot we have just
described? It adds the
earth, a river. In the
traditional Tashlich,
Jews have gone togeth-
er on Rosh Hashanah
afternoon to the near-
est stream, there to
toss a few bread
crumbs into the run-
ning water, reciting
the verse V'tashlich
bimtzulot yam ch. ol chatotam — "Into
the depths of the sea will You cast all
their misdeeds."
Did the act of casting itself cleanse
one of misdeeds? Of course not. It was
the evocative connection to water, the
sun, the earth, moving from human
community inside the synagogue to
the broader community of all earthly
life, that helped people turn their lives
in a new direction.
What might it mean to transform,
rather than eliminate, a misdeed?
Suppose someone is feeling guilt over
a shady financial transaction. There
are several steps to achieving transfor-
mation. If someone has been cheated,
that person is entitled to restitution.
Thinking about ethics and deciding
the. transaction was unethical is neces-
sary, but not enough. Feeling bad
about it is necessary, but not enough.
Acting to restore what has been stolen
— that too is necessary.
To move ourselves to a new level,
we need to ask the question: What
was at stake in my misdeed of cheat-
ing? Simply more money? Why? One
way to do Tashlich is to take several
beans of different colors — green, red,
white. At the.edge of the living waters,
focus on discerning those misdeeds
that have no redeeming value, those
that stem from a life-oriented need
and those that stem from sheer care-
lessness.
Assign one color to those behaviors
that should simply be cast off, those
that need transformation, those that
need more thought during the next
few weeks. Cast each bean with a
focused intention for dealing with that
behavior.
But don't become a mere bean-
counter. The 10 days from Rosh
Hashanah to Yom Kippur are called
the Days of Awe. Open yourself to
awe. We can see that our own lives fit
into a larger rhythm of the sun, the
moon and earth. So we can take a
larger view of the warmth and love
and majesty the universe can offer us.
When we see a majesty
that includes us, we
can respond not bro-
ken in fear but uplifted
in awe. Our own pride
and our own shame
can fade into the back-
ground as we stand in
the face of this majestic
cycle. If this is what we
have in mind as we
enter Tashlich, we can
experience a synagogue
Tashlich in a deeper
way.
For many of us, one of the most
awesome aspects of the Days of Awe is
the unearthly shriek of the shofar.
First calling out, "Awake!" then break-
ing into wails and sobs. God's voice
— and our own.
Those of us who experienced it as
children or came to it with "beginner's
mind" as grown-ups may have had
imprinted on our souls a moment
when the eerie sound dissolved our
very selves. Not a bad moment to re-
experience, if we are seeking deep
renewal. So one aspect of the shofar
service is to open ourselves precisely to
that moment of dissolving.
As adults, we need not stop there.
The traditional Rosh Hashanah ser-
vice shows us three different facets of
the shofar-blowing: Malchuyot, or
majesty; Zichronot, or remembrance;
and Shofarot. The prayerbook sets
aside 10 biblical verses for each of
these shofar-modes. When we look at
the verses, we realize that
* Malchuyot is majestic justice, the
karma through which ill deeds bring
their own punishment and decency its
own reward;
* Zichronot is remembering not in
.