I did my usual apple peel thing for the High Holidays. There’s a Jewish symbolic practice called tachlikh, which means to cast something off. The traditional method used to be throwing bread crumbs, representing sins, into moving water, to be carried away. The more environmentally-friendly version is to use leaves instead of bread crumbs.
The thing is, while letting go of the old miseries is a necessary part of the spiritual cleansing we do between the New Year celebration and Yom KippurThe holiest day of the Jewish year and the culmination of a season of self-reflection. Jews fast, abstain from other worldly pleasures, and gather in prayers that last throughout the day. Following Ne'ilah, the final prayers, during which Jews envision the Gates of Repentance closing, the shofar is sounded in one long blast to conclude the holy day. It is customary to begin building one's sukkah as soon as the day ends., the moving water thing doesn’t work for me personally because I don’t believe our words and actions go away, whether we cast them away or we run away from where they are. I do believe that they transform, for the good for for the bad. I want my poor choices, lack of self-control, avoidance, letting others down, harsh speech and my other human failings to dissolve and become a kind of more general energy that could maybe make things better. Like a piece of fruit peel which becomes a compost which feeds a future tree or a garden plant.
Even if the issue did some kind of damage that can’t be fixed, I can learn from my errors. The pain I cause can be a cautionary tale for others. Accepting my character flaws can help me learn to be a more forgiving person. Regret can remind me not to repeat bad choices, and motivate me to do good and loving and useful things to try and balance out how the world and I interact.
If moving water works for someone else when they do tachlikh, then I think that’s what that person should do. That’s how I used to do it. But for about 13 or 14 years I’ve been taking the peel and core of the apple which was dipped in honey for Rosh HashanahThe Jewish New Year, also considered the Day of Judgment. The period of the High Holidays is a time of introspection and atonement. The holiday is celebrated with the sounding of the shofar, lengthy prayers in synagogue, the eating of apples and honey, and round challah for a sweet and whole year. Tashlikh, casting bread on the water to symbolize the washing away of sins, also takes place on Rosh Hashana. and walking to the compost container and mindfully dropping in the remains of the apple to become something different, something that will feed the process of Life.
