L'shana tova tikatevu

It is the last day of the month of Elul and tonight begins the first day of the new year, the month of Tishrei 5768.

Tomorrow afternoon is tashlich. The time for "casting off". Generally, this is known as the casting off of sins.

Sins, in Judaism, are a slightly different concept than the sins we know of Christianity. I wrote about this last year.

On Yom Kippur we recounted our sins together as a synagogue, as a family. Intended to collectively acknowledge that not one of us was perfect, the recounting mistakes I made was a good annual reminder of how to lead an ethical life. Some of the things I learned during the recounting of sins stick with me to this day.

This afternoon, between work and Rosh Hashanah with my family, I plan to have a little time to prepare for tashlich (casting off). It is not a ritual of hocus pocus (throw some crumbs into the water and you are cleared of any wrong doing). Rather it is intended to provide some time and meditation on the past year. The things I have done better, and the areas of my life in which I can do better still. And the parts in which I am still not living up to my potential, places where I have fallen down on the job. I plan to cast off some of that baggage into the water and try for a new start. Michael has gone to visit his parents for the night and sometime tomorrow morning, around dawn, I plan to visit a body of water to do a little tashlich.

Shana tova, y'all!