NEW YORK — As they ring within the new lunar 12 months of 5782, spiritual Jews around the globe will figuratively forged their sins into the water this week in a convention often called taschilch. On the similar time, over 100 teams of Jewish volunteers throughout the globe have determined to reverse the ritual and clear up the oceans as a substitute.
“After we take our sins and throw them into the ocean, we are literally sinning extra as a result of we’re making our surroundings much less pure,” 25-year-old Dominique Chor informed The Occasions of Israel through phone from her dwelling in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Chor and a bunch of Jewish college students will probably be among the many many Reverse Tashlich first-timers around the globe to take part on September 12; in one other first, teams from Israel may even take part in Reverse Tashlich this 12 months.
The age-old custom of tashlich usually takes place over Rosh Hashanah and the week main as much as Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, and consists of throwing pebbles or items of bread right into a physique of water to symbolically jettison the sins of the earlier 12 months. Reverse Tashlich, now in its fourth 12 months, sees Jews convene to gather trash strewn alongside rivers, lakes, oceans, and different our bodies of water, giant and small.
The occasion — which doesn’t preclude participation within the conventional tashlich ritual — is organized by Tikkun HaYam, or Repairing the Sea, a bunch that engages in marine restoration from a Jewish perspective. In line with the Reverse Tashlich web site, roughly 6 million tons of trash enter the water yearly on account of human negligence.
Shayna Cohen joined Tikkun HaYam in 2018. Born in Hawaii, 26-year-old Cohen has at all times thought of the ocean to be her “blissful place,” and he or she is now an authorized scuba diving teacher residing in Orlando, Florida.
Volunteers in Miami, Florida, take part in Reverse Tashlich on this undated photograph. (Courtesy)
“I used to be studying about the entire points that so many individuals weren’t speaking about and I felt a name to guard the ocean,” she stated.
After she joined the group, Cohen was tasked with spreading the phrase about Reverse Tashlich to Jewish communities around the globe. This 12 months, 134 groups in 15 international locations will have interaction within the seaside cleansing occasion, all below the framework of the Jewish precept of “ba’al tashchit,” a prohibition towards mindless injury and destruction. Meetups are deliberate from Baku, Azerbaijan, on the Caspian Sea, to the tiny South Pacific archipelago of Palau.
“It’s a extremely thought-provoking custom, and when folks forged their sins into the water they’ll replicate on what they need to deliver into the brand new 12 months,” Cohen stated of the tashlich ritual. “[Reverse Tashlich] is a approach I imagine they’ll tangibly see what they need to deliver into the brand new 12 months regarding the surroundings.”
Dominique Chor organized the 2021 Reverse Tashlich volunteer group for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Courtesy)
For Chor, who studied psychology at an American college in Rio and based a undertaking serving to at-risk youth, taking part in Reverse Tashlich is “essential, particularly with international warming.”
“Right here in Brazil, the ocean air pollution is horrible,” Chor stated. “I needed to deliver it to Rio too, and for it to additionally turn out to be a convention right here, as a result of we’d like loads to wash our waters. If folks discover a deeper function in doing so, I figured it could persuade extra of them [to participate].”
“It’s necessary for us as a group, as a society around the globe,” she stated.
Chor estimates that about 20 folks will present as much as her staff’s gathering at Arpoador, one in every of Rio’s trendiest seashores, the place she’s going to lead a brief meditation earlier than the cleanup.
“We expect we’ll discover loads of trash there, since lots of people go there through the weekend,” she stated. “And we’re planning on going on the finish of the day — because of the solar, which may be very sizzling right here in Rio, but additionally as a result of folks could have left extra trash than at first.”
Throughout the Atlantic ocean, within the county of Kent in the UK, Tim Spurrier, 53, can also be making ready for this 12 months’s Reverse Tashlich. As chair of the Thanet and District Reform Synagogue within the seaside city of Ramsgate, Spurrier stated that taking part within the new ritual “simply appeared like a no brainer.”
Tim Spurrier of Kent County within the UK organized his synagogue’s participation on this 12 months’s Reverse Tashlich occasion. Members of the Thanet and District Reform Synagogue will collect of their seaside city of Ramsgate on September 12 to assist clear the waterfront. (Courtesy)
“Tikkun olam has been a really sturdy custom in our group for so long as I’ve been concerned with it,” Spurrier stated, referring to the Jewish idea of repairing the world. “I assumed it fitted us completely and it fitted the imaginative and prescient that we must be an outward-looking group of motion, not simply phrases.”
Air pollution and particles, Spurrier stated, have been “a really huge drawback” in Ramsgate, which he describes as “an old style British seaside city.”
“Most individuals are nice, however there’s lots of people who simply dump their garbage and go — and so on the finish of the day there may be garbage all over the place, which is a hazard to wildlife and the like,” he stated. “For us, it completely has a direct affect as a group.”
After Spurrier’s congregation signed on to do Reverse Tashlich, the mayor of Ramsgate, Raushan Ara, joined the trouble by donating provides resembling trash selecting instruments and inspiring folks exterior of the Jewish group to participate.
“With the entire concept of the vacation being about being introspective and considerate, we need to be outwardly considerate about our affect as a group somewhat than being wholly introverted and fascinated by one’s personal motion,” Spurrier stated.
Tim Spurrier, chair of the Thanet and District Reform Synagogue in Kent County, UK. (Courtesy)
In presenting the concept of Reverse Tashlich to totally different Jewish communities, Cohen stated “lots of people are excited to have a extremely hands-on custom.”
“It appears to be actually invigorating. Individuals really feel impressed,” she stated. “It’s exterior and community-based, so it’s one thing that individuals can do on this new world that we’re in.”
Tikkun HaYam’s mission, Cohen added, is to see “that the Jewish group is actively concerned and dedicated to repairing the ocean.”
“We wish to see it as a stepping-off level to get folks concerned on this initiative in order that we will create actual change,” she stated.
Among the many taking part teams this 12 months are a number of Israeli groups organized by Noam Bedein, the 39-year-old founder and director of The Dead Sea Revival Project. Bedein’s NGO seeks to teach folks concerning the Useless Sea by showcasing its magnificence whereas additionally instructing concerning the dramatic environmental impacts it has endured lately, which have triggered the water stage to drop yearly.
“Being very concerned with the Useless Sea as a trigger, the deeper you go into the story, you begin valuing an increasing number of the entire idea of water and water sustainability,” Bedein stated. “I used to be fascinated by Tikkun HaYam’s method.”
The Useless Sea Revival Challenge founder Noam Bedein. (Courtesy)
Bedein has helped map out and manage groups across the Useless Sea, the Sea of Galilee, and alongside Israel’s Mediterranean shoreline to take part within the cleanup on September 12.
“Our groups have a range of individuals from all totally different backgrounds that participate on this, from ultra-Orthodox to liberal,” he stated. “It’s a theme that everyone can stand behind.”
Bedein believes that preserving our planet’s water is a standard denominator that may bridge totally different communities, and stated that Reverse Tashlich could be a nice technique of connecting Diaspora Jews and Israelis.
“On the finish of the day, these are Jewish values, and we’re capable of join from all totally different backgrounds,” he stated. “There’s loads of work that must be achieved in Israel in all sectors to protect the surroundings. It’s a really huge problem. These are issues that our totally different communities could be studying from one another.”
