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variety of vegetables and fruits,
but always including honey and
carrots. In Yiddish, the word for
carrot is meiren, which also trans-
lates to "multiply." By eating car-
rots on Rosh Hashanah, we hope
that our blessings multiply in the
coming year.
Sliced carrots coated with
honey further are believed to
resemble gold, which reflects our
wish for a year of prosperity.
Some Jews avoid nuts on Rosh
Hashanah because the Hebrew
word for nuts is egoz, which has
the same numerical value as the
word chet, or sin.

Tashlich
Some Jews observe tashlich,
which literally means "you shall
cast" It begins late afternoon on
the first day of Rosh Hashanah, or
on the second day of Rosh
Hashanah if the first day is
Shabbat. The inspiration for this
tradition reflects a desire to begin
the new year with a clean slate,
with God forgiving past sins that
are literally tossed away.
During tashlich, Jews assign
"sins" to bits of bread, then sym-
bolically rid themselves of these
by throwing the bread into the
water. Usually, this is accompa-
nied by the recitation of certain
verses, including Micah 7:18-20,
Psalms 118:5-9:33; and 130, and
Isaiah 11:9.
Tashlich is not Halachah
(Jewish law). The inspiration for
the ceremony is Micah 7:19,
which states: "You will cast all
their sins into the depths of the
sea," but little is known about how
the tradition began. Some say it is
an imitation of a pagan rite, while
others point out that fish, like
God, never close their eyes. (Thus
we should remember that God's

September 29 •2005

eyes are always observing our
actions.) Others note that fish
were among the first of God's cre-
ations, and so stood as witnesses
to the beginning of the world.
A custom associated with tash-
lich is shaking out your pockets at
the source of water, likely in refer-
ence to a talmudic verse compar-
ing clean clothing to moral purity.
Another is adding a few verses
from the Zohar while reading
psalms.

Fast Facts
The day immediately following
Rosh Hashanah is Tzom Gedaliah,
one of four fasts that begins at
sunrise and ends at sundown (as
opposed to Yom Kippur and Tisha
b'Av, which are 24-hour fasts).
Tzom Gedaliah commemorates
the murder of Gedaliah ben
Achikam, governor of Israel in the
time of King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar not
only attacked and destroyed
much of Israel (including the
Temple sanctuary), he exiled vir-
tually the entire Jewish popula-
tion there — except a few, includ-
ing the man he appointed gover-
nor, Gedaliah ben Achikam.
A rival king ordered the assas-
sination of Gedaliah and hired as
his hitman Yishmael ben
Netaniah, a Jew.
In their decision to institute a
fast day in his memory, the rabbis
said, "The death of the righteous
is likened to the burning of the
house of God." Today, some see
Tzom Gedaliah — a day on which
one Jew killed another Jew — as
a response to factionalism, rivalry
and hostility within the Jewish
community .

❑

1948- AFMDA ambulances leaving NYC for Israel

2005- AFMDA ambulance in service for all of Israel's people

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