Ritual Bath Path to Enlightenment

Sep 26, 2009 04:30 AM
Brendan Kennedy
Staff Reporter

Standing on a small bridge in North York, where the Don River winds under Bathurst St., an Orthodox Jewish man bows his head and prays quietly. A few feet away, a 10-year-old in a yarmulke rips off a piece of crusty bread, cocks his arm and launches the morsel into the river like a baseball, laughing with his brother and sister as a group of ducks jostle for the tidbit below.

At turns solemn and playful, the custom of Tashlich is being performed this week by members of the Jewish community at bodies of water across the city.

The ritual is usually performed on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which was celebrated last weekend, but may be permissible until the last day of Sukkot (Oct. 9). It's a way for Jews to atone for sins committed in the previous year by symbolically casting them into a flowing body of water and asking God for absolution.

"Overall it's a time of introspection," said Yaron Derman, who performed the ritual with his wife, Bracha, and their four children. "It's another opportunity to think about how you can be a better person."

Since it is held at Rosh Hashanah, one also typically asks God for good fortune for the coming year.

"Before Yom Kippur (which begins tomorrow night) we try to wash away our sins," said Riva Sochaczewski, who was saying prayers on the Bathurst Park bridge with her 15-year-old daughter, Shoshana. "It's cathartic."

At the bridge Wednesday evening, people of all ages came and went, by themselves or with their families, to practise the ritual.

The children especially seemed to enjoy throwing bread into the water.

Martin Lockshin, professor of humanities and Jewish studies at York University, said the ritual falls somewhere between a folk custom and a religious law.

"It's become a social event also, as opposed to just being a prayer service," he said. "It's just a pleasant way of thinking for a short time about self-improvement, about sin, about new starts."

The water is significant on multiple levels. It's viewed as a place of contemplation, and it's also symbolic of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to God, when Satan tried to deter Abraham by putting waterways in his way.

Lockshin said water is also seen cross-culturally as a purifying agent.

"But I have to admit that the creek that we go to in the G. Ross Lord Park (also in North York) isn't the cleanest body of water in the world," he said.

For Tzibi Perl, who came to the Don at Bathurst St. with her husband, Chaim, and their three children, Tashlich is a way to get into the high holiday spirit.

"And (the children) like to throw the bread," added Chaim.