08 Sep PARSHA IN PRACTICE: SKILLS FOR BETTER LIVING ROSH HASHANAH – I AM NOT MY AVEIROS

Teshuvah requires
a supporting
“cast”
As Rosh Hashanah
approaches, we
are reminded that sincere teshuvah
requires serious introspection and
conscientious planning for a better
year. The shofar alerts us that the time
has come: We need to confess our
wrongdoings, break habits, regret the
past, and commit to a brighter future.
And if all that sounds too hard, don’t
worry about it – just feed your sins to
the fish.
Wait – what?!
How does Tashlich work? How can
we “throw our aveiros away” – just
like that? Where is the hard work and
commitment?
I once heard from Rabbi Dovid

Orlofsky shlita that Tashlich is not,
in and of itself, an act of repentance.
Instead, it is the symbolic gesture we
perform to inspire ourselves to begin
the daunting teshuvah process at this
critical time.
It can feel overwhelming to approach
Hashem with a mental list of all the
things for which we need to seek
atonement, all the ruts we hope to
escape from. And with year after
year of failed resolutions, too many
regressions back into old ways, we
may feel that it is impossible to really
change. We are at risk of throwing up
our hands and declaring it a lost cause.
We resign ourselves to a dreadful
realization: “Maybe I am not capable
of change; maybe this is just who I
am.”

What is the answer to these all-too-
familiar feelings?

Tashlich!
We arrive at the
riverbank, sins in
hand, and declare
that we have the
ability to throw them
into the depths of the
water. This allows us
to externalize our
aveiros; they are
not intrinsic to our
identities. Despite how many times
we have struggled to shake off these
patterns of behavior, they never truly
become part of our inherent selves.
We would never – could never – throw
our arms or legs into the river; we are
too attached to our bodies. The ritual
of casting our mistakes to the fish
forces us to declare, “No, these aveiros
are not who I am. They are just habits
that I have been holding. I can cast
them away any time that I want – just

like that!”
Because we often do not feel this way
naturally, Tashlich helps evoke this
perspective of optimism. If we can
properly internalize this message of
Tashlich, then we can be instilled
with hope that we do, in fact, have the
ability to change. While it may not
be a formal act of teshuvah, Tashlich
emboldens us with the confidence

to start the process of genuine self-
improvement as we begin the new

year!