Tashlich

For the Sins of... toss:

The custom of tossing bread crumbs to symbolize the errors in our behavior is shrouded in mystery. The custom of tossing something comes from the Prophet Micha.

Micha 7:19:
He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

יָשׁוּב יְרַחֲמֵנוּ יִכְבֹּשׁ עֲוֹנֹתֵינוּ וְתַשְׁלִיךְ בִּמְצֻלוֹת יָם כָּל–חַטֹּאותָם

The origin may be shrouded in mystery, but, naturalist that I am… I think it comes from a few rather prosaic aspects of our lives.

You’ll notice that even after you shower and wash yourself thoroughly you still have lint in your pupik.
Even after you send your slacks to the cleaner, when you look in the pockets and turn them inside out, you’ll still find lint.
Before the days of dry cleaners and “lunch boxes”, workers would take their lunches (often a chunk of bread) to work wrapped (if they were wealthy enough to have it) in paper. Crumbs would collect in their pockets. A thorough method of cleaning would be to turn those pockets inside out… and crumbs would fall out.

And so, when we are ready to thoroughly clean our lives of all the crumbs that have accumulated over the year… we turn our pockets inside out. Lo and behold, they are filled with bread crumbs!

B'Shem Omro... The list of breads for tashlich was originally posted to Ravnet (the online discussion group of the Conservative rabbis) and is the brainchild of Rabbi Richard Israel. A page on the Web (maintained by Daniel Bricklin) has an explanation of R. Israel's original thoughts on the matter. Rabbi Israel died in 2000. You can read tributes to his memory. Rabbi Israel’s idea has entered the folk literature of our people. I've collected all that I received over the past years and "alphabetized" them. (If you know of more please send them to me for inclusion here.)

If I learn that an item was created by someone in particular, I'll add that source in [square brackets].

For the sins of the righteous - Angel Food Cake

For sins of laziness - Any Very Long Loaf

For being holier than thou - Bagels

For having a hole where your heart should be - Bagels

For lying - Baked Goods with Nutrasweet and Olestra

For tastelessness - Bisquick

For sins of bigotry - Black and white

For committing auto theft - Caraway

For the sin of carrying something too far - Caraway rolls

For unfairly upbraiding another - Challah

For indecent photography - Cheese Cake [Ed Scheinerman]

For dependence on stimulants - Coffee cake [Ed Scheinerman]

For telling bad jokes - Corn Bread

For racism - Crackers

For acting like a mad person - Crackers

For bad temper - Crusty bread

For the sin of romantic misjudgment - Date-nut bread

For selling your soul - Devils Food Cake

For usury - Dough

For trashing the environment - Dumplings

For being money hungry - Enriched Bread or Raw Dough

For davvening off tune - Flat Bread

For exotic sins - French or Italian bread

For sins of chutzpah - Fresh Bread

For the sin of turning away strangers - host(less) cupcakes

For promiscuity - Hot Buns

For the sin of anger - Hot Cross Buns

For excessive sharpness - Hot Pepper Bread

For the sin of being a menace - Hun-ny Cake

For hardening our hearts - Jelly doughnuts,

For war-mongering - Kaiser Rolls

For insensitivity to poverty - Let them throw cake [Ed Scheinerman]

For the sin of fomenting chaos - Mandelbrot [Ed Scheinerman]

For indecision - Marble Loaf

For sins committed in haste - Matzah

For complex sins - Multi-grain

For silliness - Nut bread

For annoying others - Pesto Bread

For the sin of rabbis who philosophize excessively - philo dough [Ed Scheinerman]

For the sin of cruelty to animals - Pita (PETA) bread [Ed Scheinerman]

For substance abuse - Poppy Seed

For wearing immodest blouses - Pop Tarts [Eric Rubenstein]

For gluttony - Pound Cake

For truly warped sins - Pretzels

For twisted sins - Pretzels

For sins of pride - Puff Pastry

For particularly dark sins - Pumpernickel

For the sin of raisin' hell - Raisin bread

For the sin of misplaced levity - Reduced calorie bread

For tasteless sins - Rice Cakes

For fraudulent behavior - Rice cakes

For sophisticated racism - Ritz Crackers

For acting up - Rolls [Ed Scheinerman]

For flaunting wealth in the form of fancy cars - Rolls

For speed limit violations - Russian bread

For excessive use of irony - Rye Bread

For adding to injuries - Salt Rising Bread

For sins committed in less than eighteen minutes - Shmurah Matzah

For not giving full value - Shortbread

For rabbis whose sermons are too long - Shortn'n bread

For the sin of sinning - 'Sin'ammon bread

For cutting remarks - Sliced bread

For being ill tempered - Sourdough

For inhaling - Stoned Wheat

For wearing tasteless hats - Tam Tams

For immodest dressing - Tarts

For committing arson - Toast

For causing injury or damage to others - Tortes

For failing to do t'shuvah - Turnovers [Ed Scheinerman]

For sins of indecision - Waffles

For ordinary sins - White Bread

For lust in your heart - Wonder Bread

For jingoism - Yankee Doodles

For political chauvinism -Yankee Doodles