High Holidays · Rosh Hashanah
What is Tashlich?
Tashlich is the custom of going to flowing water on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah, reciting the verse from Micah, and symbolically casting one's wrongdoings into the depths.
The verse it is named for
Tashlich — תשליך, 'you will cast' — takes its name and its heart from the prophet Micah (7:19), who says of the Holy One that He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. On the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah we gather beside a river, a lake, the sea, any flowing water, and read that verse aloud. The water carries the words the way we hope Heaven carries our wrongs — away, and out of sight.
What actually happens there
There is no magic in the water and nothing thrown that undoes a wrong on its own; the real work is teshuvah (return), the turning of the heart. Tashlich gives that turning a place to stand. Standing at the water's edge and letting the current take the verse from Micah is a way of saying with the body what the mouth has been praying: that the coming year need not carry the weight of the last.
What to do
After the festival meal on the first day, walk to the nearest flowing water and recite the verse from Micah. One note of the calendar: in 2026 the first day of Rosh Hashanah is Shabbat, so Tashlich is moved to the second day — we do not carry a prayer book to the water on Shabbat. Go with a few others if you can; this is a moment the whole community keeps together.
Source: Micah 7:19 ("You will cast into the depths of the sea…").
My Jewish Day (siddur, zmanim, the Hebrew calendar) keeps the words of Tashlich and the shape of both days close at hand, so you know which afternoon to walk to the water.
Open My Jewish Day