rosh hashanah

To Cast Or Not?

JOYCE WISWELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ABOVE: This young
woman is among 1,250
participants in The Well’s
tashlich event at Chene
Park in Detroit last year.

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September 14 • 2017

S

everal thousand people will gather on
Sept. 24 on Belle Isle to symbolically
cast their sins into the Detroit River in
what is most likely the largest observance
of tashlich in Michigan.
All across the area, Jews will throw
breadcrumbs or pebbles into a body of
moving water as cited in Micah 7:19: “And
Thou shall cast all their sins in to the depth
of the sea.” While some enjoy a large com-
munal gathering, others prefer an intimate
observance — and some choose not to par-
ticipate at all.
“The rules pretty much
are go to the water, take
a piece of bread, take a
minute to reflect and then
throw it away,” said Rabbi
Dan Horwitz, who heads
The Well, an outreach to
young Jews, families and
intermarried couples.
Rabbi Dan Horwitz
“Beyond that, you can
pretty much do what you
want. You can do it on
your own, if you like, or do it with com-
munity.”
The Well is hosting the large tashlich
gathering from 2-5 p.m. at the Belle Isle
Boat House. Other hosts are Temple Beth
El, Congregations Beth Shalom, B’nai Israel
and B’nai Moshe, Temple Kol Ami, Temple
Shir Shalom and Temple Israel.
“It’s a beautiful ritual and has the abil-
ity to be intensely personal,” Horwitz said.
“There is also something very special about

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coming together on a large scale with
friends or loved ones who don’t necessar-
ily worship at the same house of worship
or any house of worship or are not even
Jewish, to symbolically get rid of pieces of
ourselves we know we need to work on.”
This is the third year The Well is gather-
ing in Detroit. In 2015, about 500 amassed
in Hart Plaza; last year about 1,250 people
came to Chene Park; and this year “we’re
expecting well north of 2,000 people,”
Horwitz said.
Rabbi Jennifer Lader
of Temple Israel will be
among them.
“A lot of the High
Holidays are for individual
introspection, how you
can make better choices
for you and your family,”
she said. “This is a com-
Rabbi Jen Lader
munal moment we can all
share as we are casting off
things we are not proud of
and reinventing ourselves. I think it’s bet-
ter when it’s more people, then we can see
everyone has things they want to change
for the coming year and see it’s not just
them — it’s the entire Jewish community.”
Temple Israel preschoolers ages 2-5
have their own tashlich ceremony at the
temple’s on-site pond. “The tiny members
get to talk about things like ‘I will try really,
really hard to be a good brother’ or ‘I’ll lis-
ten to my mother and father,’” Lader said.
“It’s the cutest thing in the entire world.”

JOINING FORCES IN DETROIT

JOHN HARDWICK

Different takes
and locations
for the tashlich
tradition.

This year marks the first communal
tashlich for Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue (IADS), which is gathering with
Detroit’s other synagogues, Congregation
T’chiyah and Reconstructionist
Congregation of Detroit — the only syna-
gogue that has held High
Holiday services in Detroit
continually for the past
18 years — at 2:30 p.m. on
Sept. 21 at Milliken State
Park along the Detroit
RiverWalk.
“We are very excited
because our communi-
Rabbi Ariana
ties wanted to do more
Silverman
together and this seemed
like a really nice way to do
it,” said Rabbi Ariana Silverman of IADS.
“The most meaningful piece for me is that
it needs to be done outside. As someone
who connects very deeply to the Divine
and the outdoors, I like that I am required
to go outside for part of my Rosh Hashanah
observance and worship — whether or not
I am casting my sins.”
Several miles away, 20 to
30 members of the Grosse
Pointe Jewish Council will
gather at Grosse Pointe
Shores Park for a “short
but meaningful service”
on Lake St. Clair, said
Mike Kasky, a lay leader
Mike Kasky
who chairs the Religious