Tashlikh

Tashlikh at New York's Hudson River

Tashlikh (Hebrew: תשליך, "casting away") is a simple Jewish practice carried out after the afternoon service on the first day of Rosh Hashanah (or the second day if the first day coincides with Shabbat). People gather, often as a community or congregation, by a stream, river or sea and recite Micah 7:19 in which God is said to "cast all their sins into the depths of the sea". Some make a physical demonstration of casting away all that is sinful about their lives by emptying out crumbs or dust from their pockets. Many Jews in New York City perform the ceremony each year from the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.