Tashlikh ( "cast off") is a customary Jewish atonement ritual performed during the High Holy Days (Rosh Hashannah). Practice The ritual is performed at a large, natural body of flowing water (e.g., river, lake, sea, or ocean) on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, although it may be performed until Hoshana Rabbah. The penitent recites a Biblical passage and, optionally, additional prayers. During the Tashlikh prayer, the worshipers symbolically throw their sins into a source of water. Some people throw small pieces of bread into the water, though many rabbis consider throwing bread into the water on Rosh Hashanah to be forbidden by halakha. Origin of the custom Scriptural source The name "Tashlikh" and the practice itself are derived from an allusion mentioned in the Biblical passage () recited at the ceremony: "You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Possible early sources Josephus refers to the decree of the Halicarnassians permitting Jews to "perform their holy rites according to the Jewish laws and to have their places of prayer by the sea, according to the customs of their forefathers". However, there was an ancient Jewish custom to site synagogues of the Jewish diaspora on the seashore as an expression of desire to return to Zion. The Zohar states that "whatever falls into the deep is lost forever; ... it acts like the scapegoat for the ablution of sins". Some believe that this is a reference to the tashlikh ritual. Maharil Most Jewish sources trace a year of the custom back to Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin (d. 1427 in Worms) in his Sefer Maharil. There, he explains the custom as a reminder of the binding of Isaac. He recounts a midrash about that event, according to which Satan threw himself across Abraham's path in the form of a deep stream, in an attempt to prevent Abraham from sacrificing Isaac on Moriah. Abraham and Isaac nevertheless plunged into the river up to their necks and prayed for divine aid, whereupon the river disappeared. Moelin, however, forbids the practise of throwing pieces of bread to the fish in the river, especially on Shabbat. This would seem to indicate that in his time tashlikh was duly performed, even when the first day of Rosh Hashanah fell on the Sabbath, though in later times the ceremony was, on such occasions, deferred one day. Shelah Rabbi Isaiah