Tashlich “on one foot”:
Tashlich means “casting [away]” and is a ceremony done on or around Rosh Hashanah as part of the Jewish new year. The term comes from Micah 7:19.

How does one do Tashlich?
Traditionally, one takes bread crumbs and throws them in water. However, in and of itself, while this connects a person to Jews throughout time and around the world who are doing this, it does not have much benefit. The real benefit comes from thinking about something that you want to get rid of from the past year (an action, a character trait, something that you said or did that you shouldn’t have, something that you didn’t say or do that you should have, etc.) and then associating that with that which you throw. Tashlich is also really good for letting go of resentments and hurts from the past year because you can physically cast them away. The final step is apologizing to those whom you have physically or emotionally hurt in the past year and seeking their forgiveness.

What’s the idea behind Tashlich?
Think about a TV series. From one season to the next, there are plot lines that carry through and new plot lines that develop in the new season. The Jewish year is like a new TV season. We want to get rid of the old drama from the last season and start with a fresh start, and Tashlich helps us think about what we need to take action to repair.

With what is Tashlich done?
Traditionally, bread crumbs are used. However, in recent years there has been a concern about feeding bread to fish, ducks, geese, seagulls, etc (it’s not part of their natural diet), so some people use bird seed and throw a handful of it. Others use small pebbles, leaves / pine needles, twigs, or even pre-written on soluble paper that will dissolve your regrets. The concern about feeding wild animals on Rosh Hashanah extends back many years for halachic (Jewish legal) reasons; for more about that, see: https://jewishaction.com/religion/jewish-law/whats_the_truth_about_tashlich/

When is Tashlich done?
Tashlich is traditionally done on the first day of Rosh Hashanah in the afternoon. However, if the first day of Rosh Hashanah is Shabbat, then it is done on the second day (to avoid issues with carrying on Shabbat). If one is unable to do Tashlich on the actual holiday of Rosh Hashanah, one has until Hoshana Rabba (7th day of Sukkot) to do it. While it is possible to do it at night, it is preferable to do Tashlich during the day (especially because there's such a long window of dates when Tashlich can be done).

Where is Tashlich done?
Ideally at a body of “living water” (creek, river, lake, pond, etc). However, in a pinch, a toilet would suffice. Shortly after Tashlich began, John Pfefferkorn (1469-1521) described Jews saying "we feed our sins to you, oh fish", indicating that the presence of fish was originally considered important (when possible) when choosing where to do Tashlich.

With whom is Tashlich done?
Tashlich is often done with one’s community. However, many families do it on their own (or do it on their own as a subset of the communal activity). Tashlich can be done just as an individual as well. Tashlich does not require a minyan (quorum of 10 adult Jews, or 10 adult male Jews if you are Orthodox). Tashlich has the power to be a healing ceremony for a community that has undergone some trauma.

Why do we do Tashlich?
Leo Trepp explains this in his book A History of the Jewish Experience (p. 411): This ritual probably stems from a medieval German custom that found its way into Jewish observance. The Italian poet and traveler Petrarch (1304-1374) reports having watched crowds of people at the bank of the Rhine in Cologne on New Year's Day, strewing herbs and flowers on the river in silent prayer. They told the poet that with these herbs, they call all the misfortunes in store for them in the coming year into the waves. Rabbi Jacob Moellin, the "Maharil" (died 1427), rabbi of the Rhenish city of Mainz and a collector of Jewish customs, minhagim, is the first to mention Jews reciting the prayer for Micah (Micah 7:18-20) and casting their sins away, a custom that has since become worldwide. This minhag is an example of how Jews have transformed suitable non-Jewish customs, making them "Jewish".

Note that this was originally opposed by many rabbis because it was a folk custom, but now it has become normative, starting with the Ashkenazi world and spreading to the Sephardi world (but not the Yemenite community).

Are there variations on Tashlich?
Why yes! One simple variation is to think about not only what you want to let go of from the past year, but also what you want to keep from the past year. Another variation is “Reverse Tashlich” (not usually done on Rosh Hashanah itself). This is where you clean up trash that other people have thrown, usually near water. Gloves and trash bags are important for making a Reverse Tashlich work. Here’s an example: https://www.ansheemet.org/events/reverse-tashlich/. Reverse Tashlich dates to 2016 and was inspired by a student of Rabbi Ed Rosenthal who was part of his college Jewish scuba-diving club in Florida (https://www.jta.org/2026/08/07/culture/from-fake-burps-to-reverse-tashlich-new-childrens-books-bring-the-high-holidays-to-life).

What is said during Tashlich?
Tashlich is unusual among Jewish practices insofar as there is not one set liturgy. Different machzorim (High Holiday prayer books) will give you different things to say and/or sing. Generally, there is agreement that Micah 7:18-20 should be said, since that is where the idea for Tashlich comes from. Those verses are found in the Haftarah for Shabbat Shuva, the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In the end, the most important thing to say in your head is your intentions for change that you associate with each handful that you throw, and the most important thing to say with your mouth is your apology to the people who you may have intentionally or unintentionally harmed.

- https://www.jewbelong.com/tashlich-the-rosh-hashanah-tradition-of-casting-away-the-past/

B'Shem Omro... The list of breads for tashlich was originally posted to Ravnet (the online discussion group of the Conservative rabbis) and is the brainchild of Rabbi Richard Israel in 1997. This page on the Web (maintained by Daniel Bricklin) has an explanation of R. Israel's original thoughts on the matter: http://www.bricklin.com/crumblist.htm. Rabbi Israel died in 2000, but his idea has entered the folk literature of our people.

For the sins of the righteous - Angel Food Cake
For sins of laziness - Any Very Long Loaf
For being holier than thou - Bagels
For having a hole where your heart should be - Bagels
For lying - Baked Goods with Nutrasweet and Olestra
For tastelessness - Bisquick
For sins of bigotry - Black and white
For committing auto theft - Caraway
For the sin of carrying something too far - Caraway rolls
For unfairly upbraiding another - Challah
For indecent photography - Cheese Cake [Ed Scheinerman]
For dependence on stimulants - Coffee cake [Ed Scheinerman]
For telling bad jokes - Corn Bread
For racism - Crackers
For acting like a mad person - Crackers
For bad temper - Crusty bread
For the sin of romantic misjudgment - Date-nut bread
For selling your soul - Devils Food Cake
For usury - Dough
For trashing the environment - Dumplings
For being money hungry - Enriched Bread or Raw Dough
For davvening off tune - Flat Bread
For exotic sins - French or Italian bread
For sins of chutzpah - Fresh Bread
For the sin of turning away strangers - host(less) cupcakes
For promiscuity - Hot Buns
For the sin of anger - Hot Cross Buns
For excessive sharpness - Hot Pepper Bread
For the sin of being a menace - Hun-ny Cake
For hardening our hearts - Jelly doughnuts,
For war-mongering - Kaiser Rolls
For insensitivity to poverty - Let them throw cake [Ed Scheinerman]
For the sin of fomenting chaos - Mandelbrot [Ed Scheinerman]
For indecision - Marble Loaf
For sins committed in haste - Matzah
For complex sins - Multi-grain
For silliness - Nut bread
For annoying others - Pesto Bread
For the sin of rabbis who philosophize excessively - philo dough [Ed Scheinerman]
For the sin of cruelty to animals - Pita (PETA) bread [Ed Scheinerman]
For substance abuse - Poppy Seed
For wearing immodest blouses - Pop Tarts [Eric Rubenstein]
For gluttony - Pound Cake
For truly warped sins - Pretzels
For twisted sins - Pretzels
For sins of pride - Puff Pastry
For particularly dark sins - Pumpernickel
For the sin of raisin' hell - Raisin bread
For the sin of misplaced levity - Reduced calorie bread
For tasteless sins - Rice Cakes
For fraudulent behavior - Rice cakes
For sophisticated racism - Ritz Crackers
For acting up - Rolls [Ed Scheinerman]
For flaunting wealth in the form of fancy cars - Rolls
For speed limit violations - Russian bread
For excessive use of irony - Rye Bread
For adding to injuries - Salt Rising Bread
For sins committed in less than eighteen minutes - Shmurah Matzah
For not giving full value - Shortbread
For rabbis whose sermons are too long - Shortn'n bread
For the sin of sinning - 'Sin'ammon bread
For cutting remarks - Sliced bread
For being ill tempered - Sourdough
For inhaling - Stoned Wheat
For wearing tasteless hats - Tam Tams
For immodest dressing - Tarts
For committing arson - Toast
For causing injury or damage to others - Tortes
For failing to do t'shuvah - Turnovers [Ed Scheinerman]
For sins of indecision - Waffles
For ordinary sins - White Bread
For lust in your heart - Wonder Bread
For jingoism - Yankee Doodles
For political chauvinism -Yankee Doodles

Appendix B: My Jewish Life, by Abigail Pogrebin (2017)
That afternoon, the rain begins just as my fifteen-year-old daughter, Molly, and I walk to the East River with follow congregants to observe Tashlich (casting off) -— the ritual of throwing one’s sins (aka hunks of challah) into a moving body of water. JTS professor Rabbi Visotzky hates Tashlich: “Throwing crumbs out of your pocket doesn’t absolve you of your sins,” he scoffs. “It’s not the real work.” But this is the one rite I’ve done since the kids were small, and I have always found it to be profound in the simplest way. Maybe because it’s a physicalized expiation instead of just atoning in our heads. Maybe because Tashlich has always made confession tangible for my children. Since they were little, I’ve taken them to the water to watch their faults float away.
I hesitate to confess what I threw into the East River this year, because it feels akin to revealing my birthday-candle wish -— too sacrosanct, too risky. Suffice it to say that I have a pretty clear sense of what needs fixing.
-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—
After services, I’m not quite finished with this holiday. It’s time to experience a more modern Tashlich. I signed up for “Let it Go: A Tashlich Walk” near the theater district, conceived by the Lab/Shul, a self-described “Experimental Jewish Community” based in Tribeca, in collaboration with Elastic City, which organizes “participatory walks.”
The self-selected group meets up near an open plaza in Hell’s Kitchen, and I instantly feel shy among a group of thirty mostly younger strangers. What puts me at ease is our leader, Lab/Shul founder Amichai Lau-Lavie, a kinetic Israeli in jeans and baseball hat, sunglasses hanging on his shirt collar, whose obvious lack of self-consciousness makes me let go of mine. “Welcome, everybody!” he shouts over the city noise. “Let’s get started.”
We make a circle around the plaza’s fountain, which includes four sculptural female figures representing the four seasons, all holding up the globe. Amichai directs us to stand near the season with which we identify most and to introduce ourself to somebody who’s chosen the same season. I’m an autumn. I end up chatting with someone named Tony who works at Friends of the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces), an organization that ships supplies and care packages to soldiers in the Israeli army. Tony grew up in New York, and of course we know people in common, because that happens with Jews. He ends up being my buddy for this short Tashlich pilgrimage to the water.
We form a loose trail of wandering Jews following behind Amichai on the sidewalks of Hell’s Kitchen. He pushes our group to make Tashlich urgent: “What are you holding on to?” he asks the group. “I invite you to find someone and confide what you are shedding today: skin, memories, iPhone apps.”
What should I shed? (Where do I start?). An over concern with others’ opinions. My obsession with productivity. My inability to hide judgement. Fear of failure. Fear of cancer. Fear of cooking. Bad golf.
We make a stop to “shed” clothing donations at Housing Works (a thrift shop that supports AIDS patients), then pause in front of restaurants with names like “Gossip” and “Perdition” -— apt stimuli for atonement. Amichai keeps demanding that we make this ritual real for us, that we don’t cheat the expiation. It’s not working if it’s too easy. We make our way to the 46th Street footbridge that leads to the Hudson River, where we pause in a cluster, a communal confession. People verbally throw out the things they’re discarding today: “Indecision.” “Intolerance.” “Guilt.” I’m tempted to say, “I’m shedding my initial resistance to this event.”
We cross over to the park by the river and Amichai gathers us in a large closing circle, holding hands once more, with the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier in view (more echoes of a summer of war). New Yorkers stroll by us, unfazed by the tambourine in Amichai’s hand, the ram’s horn jutting out of his jeans pocket, or our last flying breadcrumbs arcing into the Hudson. I’m struck by the unapologetic visibility of this faith: our big circle, the singing, the shofar, the bread lobs. Observance requires a certain boldness. Maybe today I’ve managed to shed a little of what’s holding me back.
- P. 36-37, 38-39

Appendix C: The Observant Life, by Martin Cohen (2012)
One of the beautiful customs associated with Rosh Hashanah is Tashlikh, a brief service that takes place by a body of water. Tashlikh is held on the afternoon of the first day day of Rosh Hashanah unless the first day is Shabbat, in which case it is then deferred to the second day. The ritual for this custom is very simple and involves the casting of bread crumbs on to the water and the recitation of some Biblical verses, of which the main ones are from the Book of Micah: “You will hurl all their sins in to the depths of the sea, thus keeping faith with Jacob and showing loyalty to Abraham just as You promised to our ancestors in days gone by” (Micah 7:19b-20). Tashlikh is not an ancient custom and, indeed, it does not appear in Jewish sources until Rabbi Jacob Moelin, who died in 1427, mentions it in his Sefer Maharil . It has, however, become a compelling contemporary tradition expressive of the desire to cast of sin and to be purified and spiritually renewed. Even the preference for flowing water inhabited by fish may be interpreted symbolically as an expression of the precariousness and fragility of human life. If for some reason Tashlikh is not performed at this time, it can actually be done any time during the High Holiday season, even up until Hoshana Rabbah.

Appendix D: A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice , by Rabbi Isaac Klein (1992)
During the afternoon of the first day [of Rosh Hashanah], or of the second day if the first day coincides with a Sabbath, it is customary to go to the banks of a river, or any body of water, and say such texts as the last three verses of the Book of Micah, which include the phrase “And cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
The name Tashlikh is derived from the phrase “and cast [tashlikh] into the depths of the sea.”
The custom is not found in the Talmud or in the responsa of the Geonim, but is first mentioned by the Maharil (Rabbi Jacob Moellin, 1355-1427). (See Lauerbach, Rabbinic Essays, p. 433, for an exhaustive historical study.)
The symbolism of the act is obvious. Nevertheless, some less obvious explanations have been given. Tashlikh reminds us of the ‘Aqedah because the Midrash relates (Tanchuma, Vayera 22) that Satan, in an effort to prevent Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, transformed himself into a deep stream on the road leading to Mount Moriah. Plunging into the stream, Abraham and Isaac prayed: “Save me, O Lord, for the waters are come unto my soul” (Psalm 69:2), whereupon the place became dry again (Maharil, Levush 596). The metaphor is that of a drowning person (Abrahams, Companion to the Authorised Daily Prayer Book, p. 56). The body of water should have fish in it, according to the custom of certain places. The precariousness of the existence of fish reminds man of his precarious existence and thus puts him in the mood to repent (Levush, O.H. 596).
A more rationalistic explanation suggests that Tashlikh gives us a chance to reflect on water’s purifying effect on the body and to be reminded that even as the body is purified by water so ought our souls be purified by repentance and the appeal to God’s help and mercy (Friedlander, The Jewish Religion, p. 405).
- P. 200-201