Every year on Tashlich, my family would walk down to Brooklyn’s promenade clutching half-eaten loaves of stale bread. After the obligatory game of Red Rover with the other children from shul, I would seclude myself to think very serious thoughts about my faults. For instance, I repeatedly tossed into the Hudson River my tendency to be late to everything. I hoped the river's three eyed, mutant fish, who had no need to be on time, would gobble up my bad habits. But over the course of this brand new year, I still found myself using "subway problems" as an excuse for why I was late.

But this year, instead of using the ritual to ruminate on something negative, I want to practice Tashlich in a constructive way. Originally, many rabbis objected to Tashlich because they believed it missed the point of teshuva (repentence). If one only counts her sins and then casts them away, how does that result in personal growth? Teshuva cannot just be a single step;  it must be a dialogue with one’s friends and family about how both the person and the community can grow from previous success and failure. Many of us have experienced the disappointment of an empty apology. Tashlich, without thinking about the next steps we can take in our lives  based on those reflections, will mean just as much as a hollow  “I’m sorry.”

So I pose these questions to the community on the erev of our Tashlich action: What habits or behaviors do you want to reinvent within yourself? What action do you want to take in your communities?

[see details of Or Tzedek's Tashlich Action on Facebook]