End Of Summer Bonfire in Newport Sept. 22nd

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Fine. Tashlich happens on Rosh Hashana. Those living near large bodies of water can cast their SINS into the seas. That's SINS. For the guilt-ridden jews raised with the conspiratorial concept of sin that must be forgiven by God.

In Judiasm you ask God to forgive your sins AGAINST GOD (i.e. when you harm another person, you are sinning against God for having harmed another of God's children). If you believe in that, then it isn't absurd to symbolically cast those sins into the water (unless, of course, you don't believe in the concept of sin at all, in which case I can't really help you... but honestly if you intentionally harm another person then you are a'sinnin').

God cannot forgive your sins against other people, you've got to do it yourself. During the week between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur you're supposed to do t'shuvah, which means basically taking responsibility for your own actions and seeking forgiveness from the people you've wronged. There is no equivalent to the "say ten hail marys and you're forgiven" concept that the Catholics have.

In any case, Tashlich can be done at any point UP TO (not through)Yom Kippur, when God closes the gates of repentance, but is usually done the first day of Rosh Hashana.

I do like the idea though of casting your character defects into the water and asking God to forgive what you've done and to help make you a better person. It's like a tradition on Passover that some do where you write down what you are a slave to on a piece of paper and burn the paper (i.e. food, money, power, people, drugs, insecurities, etc.) as Passover is a celebration of freedom from slavery.

In any case.... heheh hopefully next year it won't coincide with the actual Yom Kippur and I'll be able to burn $hit with y'all