The Tashlich Ceremony: Another Bribe to Silence Satan

 

Tashlich is a rite like kapparot whose non-rational basis is very obvious.

The tashlich ceremony preserves a superstitious belief held by the Jewish masses of ancient times concerning water and the divine beings that dwell around it. The rite has been reinterpreted over time, modified slightly and rationalized, but its original superstitious and pagan origin is quite clear.

The name tashlich is derived from Micah 7:19 where the prophet states v’tashlich, “you will cast all of their guilt into the depths of the sea.” However, most scholars believe that the practice began in the Middle Ages.

The basic idea behind tashlich is the recitation of certain prayers near a body of water. Many of those who observe the ceremony prefer a river or stream or any body of water that contains fish. They toss breadcrumbs or other foods to the fish. Either consciously or unconsciously, they feel that the bribe of breadcrumbs will stop Satan from accusing them of past misdeeds before God. Underlying the practice is the belief that God and demons are always near water.

The association of God and demons and water can be seen long before the Middle Ages, indeed as early as the beginning of Israelite history.

Questions

  1. What is the source of the notion that God counsels with angels and demons before making decisions?
  2. What is the purpose of tashlich?
  3. What examples demonstrate that ancient Jews thought God and demons dwelt near water?
  4. Why is tashlich performed on the first day of Rosh Hashanah?

The Ancient Uneducated Jew Believed That God Consults Demons

Many unsophisticated Jews in ancient times retained a primitive notion that God does not make decisions without first consulting with angels and demons and that the angels and demons can persuade God to act contrary to the interests of humans. This was supported by misreadings and misunderstandings of many biblical and post-biblical sources.

For example, these Jews took the first chapter of Job literally. The chapter relates a satan having a discussion with God about Job and trying to persuade God to punish him. The term satan in Job does not refer to the demon who was given this biblical name many years after the book was composed. In the book, satan means adversary. Nevertheless, the average Jew saw the Job story as a depiction of the very thing he feared and wanted to avoid: Satan acting as a prosecutor in the heavenly court, seeking to persuade God to punish him.

Jews found reinforcement in Midrashim such as Genesis Rabbah 8:3, which comments upon Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man.” The Midrash disregards the Bible’s use of the “royal plural” and asks: “With whom did He take counsel? Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: He took counsel with the works of heaven and earth, like a king who had two advisers without whose knowledge he did nothing whatsoever.”

The Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 38b, bolsters this view. It clearly states: “God does not do anything without first consulting heavenly beings.” These beings, the masses were convinced, were angels and demons.

Tashlich: Another of Several Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Practices to Bribe Satan

The ancient custom of gathering before water and preventing Satan from appearing before God with accusations against the Jewish people was especially important on the day of Rosh Hashanah when the people expected to be judged. The ancients were convinced that heavenly beings, including God, angels and demons, could be found in the vicinity of water. They attempted to use bribery, giving the demon gifts to keep him from accusing them. The tossing of bread to the fish was one of several methods used to transmit the bribe. The Jews were confident that the fish would take the offered food and deliver it for them to Satan.

Bribing Satan in Other Contexts

The Midrash Sifra and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to Leviticus 9:3 report that Moses advised his brother, the priest Aaron, to bribe Satan with a gift before entering the Holies of Holies to obtain forgiveness from God. Moses was telling his brother that the bribe would stop Satan from interfering with his goal of obtaining forgiveness.

The Ancient Belief That God and Demons Are Found Near Water

Maimonides and other rationalists would certainly reject the superstitious notion that God, whom they believe to be present throughout the entire universe, is located in a body of water. They would be shocked at the thought that a Jew should seek God at bodies of water for prayer or for any other purpose and reject the idea that demons exist near water or anywhere else. Nevertheless, the vast majority of uneducated Jews held these beliefs; they are reflected in talmudic and midrashic statements by rabbis who also bought into the superstition. The average Jew may have turned to the Bible itself for proof of divine figures, God, angels and demons near water. The following are some examples.

God and Demons and Water in the Bible

  1. Abraham and Abimelech make a covenant before a well at Beer Sheba in Genesis 21:31–32, perhaps believing that the chosen location enables them to swear before God that they will not breach the covenant.
  2. David’s son Adonijah gathers his friends at the well of En Rogel in I Kings 1:9 and offers sacrifices there, perhaps thinking that he is standing before God who can help him succeed his father David to the throne of Israel.
  3. Similarly, after Adonijah fails in his attempt to secure the throne, Solomon is appointed king at the well of Gihon in I Kings 1:33, again, possibly thinking that he stands before God.
  4. The Babylonian Talmud, in Horayot 12a and Kerithoth 5b, seems to support this interpretation. The Talmud states that kings were appointed only at wells so that their reign may be longlasting. The Talmud states that a prayer for a long reign was said at God’s dwelling place, water.
  5. The Psalmist affirms: “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters … the Lord is upon many waters” (Psalms 29:3).
  6. Daniel and his friends gather at a river to pray and have a divine vision (Daniel 10:4).
  7. The exiles from Judea sit by the rivers of Babylon and weep to God (Psalms 139).
  8. Ezekiel has a vision from God at the river Kebar (Ezekiel 1:1–3).
  9. The very first religious service practiced by the exiles on returning from Babylonian captivity on the first day of Tishrei (Rosh Hashanah) is held before the water gate where they give thanks to God (Nehemiah 8:1).
  10. Ezra the Scribe, the leader of Jewry during the early Second Temple Period, institutes a fast for his nation while standing at the river Ahava, where the people are expected to pray to God (Ezra 8:21).

Demons and Water in the Midrash and Talmud

  1. A story in the Babylonian Talmud, Hullin 105b, may reflect the belief in the efficacy of feeding spirits. The Talmud relates that breadcrumbs and grass were tossed into the water as a gift for the good spirit that dwelt there. Bribed by the gift of food, the good spirit would stop the “demon of poverty” from harassing and harming the people. However, if the good spirit did not receive the bribe, he would unleash the “demon of poverty,” leading to poverty and starvation.
  2. The Midrash Kohelet Rabbah 11:1 relates a similar story. A man threw a loaf of bread into the sea every day. One day he caught a fish and found a treasure in its body. His friends understood that the treasure was a gift from the well-fed spirit living in the sea.
  3. The Babylonian Talmud, Pessachim 112a, warns people not to drink from a river at night lest they be inflicted by sabriri. Rashbam, the grandson of Rashi, reasonably explains sabriri as blindness: drinking water from a river at night when the drinker is unable to see what he is drinking may result in the drinker becoming quite ill, even blind. However, his grandfather Rashi understood sabriri to be the demon that was granted by God the power to inflict blindness: drinking the water from his dwelling, the river, could disturb him, causing him to lash out in anger and strike the drinker blind. Rashi may have captured the Talmud’s true intent; the Talmud states that if the person needs to drink from the river, he should first recite certain incantations, which would render the sabriri harmless.
  4. The Midrash Leviticus Rabbah 24:3 and Midrash on Psalms 20 tell a tale of a spirit who appeared to Abba Jose and warned him about a demon who was dwelling in a well.
  5. The Mekhilta d’Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the Mekhilta d’ Rabbi Ishmael on Exodus 12:1 clearly report that God is revealed everywhere in Israel but outside of Israel he is revealed “only at a place near water.”
  6. The Babylonian Talmud, Makkoth 11a, relates a legend that the foundation of the Jerusalem Temple reached down to a deep spring, suggesting that it reached toward God.
  7. According to the Mishnah Sukkoth 4, the Simchat Bet Hasho’eivah ceremony, the highlight of the Second Temple Sukkoth celebration, began with the Judeans going to a well where they prayed and drew water.

Historical References to Demons and Water

  1. The philosopher Philo records the Egyptian Jews’ custom of praying near water on special occasions. He states that the Jews requested permission from the city authorities for the special privilege and received it.
  2. The Jewish historian Josephus (c. 37–100 C.E.) relates (in Antiquities 14, 10, 23) that the Jews requested and received permission in the second century B.C.E. to have their prayer houses at the most propitious place “at the seaside according to the custom of their fathers.”
  3. The first translation of the Bible from the Hebrew original into the Greek that was spoken at that time in about 250 B.C.E was done according to the Letter of Aristeas “in a house that had been built upon the sea shore” apparently to be near God whose work they were translating.

These sources show that the belief in the presence of God and demons in or near bodies of water was quite widespread. It should therefore surprise no one that the superstitious rite of tashlich arose, sending Jews to seek the demons at bodies of water in order to persuade the demons not to harm them.

The Mystics: Removing the Element of Bribery but Retaining the Satan Concept

Sympathetic magic is a subject that is discussed in Sir James Frazier’s classic The Golden Bough. Simply stated, sympathetic magic is a non-rational attempt to cause God or nature to act in a certain desired way by acting out the behavior that one desires God or nature to perform. A good example of sympathetic magic is the well-known practice of some Native Americans to attempt to cause rain to descend from heaven by engaging in a dance that mimics the falling of rain. The ancients used sympathetic magic in their attempts to create what they needed and to prevent what they wished to avoid.

The mystics of Safed, Israel, in the mid-sixteenth century stated that they went to the water as a symbol of mercy. These mystics were practicing sympathetic magic, hoping that, just as they involved themselves with mercy, so, too, God would make sure that mercy would spread over the entire world, like the flow of water, and thereby save the guilty Jews from the threat of Satan. They also shook their garments, again in sympathetic magic, to cause God to toss Satan and his demon cohort into the depths of the sea.

Attempts to Rationalize Tashlich

Some rabbis understood the pagan roots of tashlich but chose to allow the continuation of the custom because of the rabbinic principle minhag avoteinu Torah hi, “the customs of our ancestors is law [for us].” However, they set about disguising its origin, rationalizing it and turning it into a symbolic ceremony with religious significance.

For example, Rabbi Moses Isserles (1520–1572) argues that tashlich is a reminder of the sacrifice of Isaac, a symbolic prayer for a good life and a blessing that Jews should multiply like fish in water. It is also, he states, an opportunity to observe the mighty wonders of God who made the sand a boundary of the sea.

Rabbi Mordecai Jaffe (1530–1612) suggests that the ceremony reminds us of the trial of Abraham who, when he went to sacrifice his son Isaac at God’s command, was, according to a Midrash, hindered in his journey by a deep river. Abraham was able to overcome the obstacle and continue on his mission. In his opinion, Jews go to a place with fish to help them realize that, like fish, they can be caught in a net. Thus both the river and the fish remind the Jew to avoid obstacles but, if ensnared, make every effort to escape the difficulty and accomplish God’s wishes.

Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz (1555–1630) writes in his popular Shney Luchot Habrit that Jews go to the water to see fish. This prompts them to think that – just as fish have no eyelids and their eyes are always open – Jews should always keep their eyes open to God.

The Time of Tashlich

Originally, tashlich was performed immediately after the noon meal on Rosh Hashanah because it was felt that Satan would be insulted if food was given to him later than the time that humans eat. However, as the rite began to be rationalized and Satan was removed from it, the time was moved to after the afternoon Mincha service; the Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 6b, states that “a person should be careful with the Mincha service because Elijah [the prophet] was only answered [by God] with the Mincha prayers.” Thus it was felt that this would be an appropriate time for this important prayer service.

Opposition From Many Rabbis

Many rabbis opposed the tashlich rite. Despite the attempt of other rabbis to rationalize, ennoble and spiritualize it, it was clear to them that the root and purpose of the practice lay in ancient pagan superstition. Elijah Gaon (1720–1797) and his disciples did not practice tashlich at all because they saw it as pagan superstition. Maimonides did not include this rite in his code of Jewish law for the same reason.

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Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer: Demons and Angels

The Tashlich service was not the only High Holiday ceremony that the masses felt they must observe to avoid having Satan harm them.

The eighth-century Midrash Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer is a rather unusual volume of biblical folk legends that many Jews insisted were true. The Pirkei author believed that the fate of the Jewish people, both collectively and individually, was determined on Yom Kippur by God during God’s annual analysis of their behavior of the past year. He felt that God did not deliberate alone and could be persuaded by advice given to him by angels and demons. The author was also convinced that the chief demon, Satan, was corruptible and could be bribed to give a favorable report to the deity. He also thought that despite his angelic status, Satan was a dupe and could be fooled.

In part 46 of the 54 parts of the volume, the author informs his readers that many of the Yom Kippur practices were instituted to stop Satan from acting as an enemy advocate against the Jewish people and persuading God to punish the Jews for their past misdeeds.

Accordingly, like many of his co-religionists, the Pirkei author states that the goat that Leviticus 16 states was sent to Azzazel was, in fact, an annual bribe driven into the desert where Satan lived. The demon would smell it, take it, consume it, and, satisfied with this inducement, would reverse his usual evil demonic tactics and shift to the side of the Jews, acting as their advocate in his Yom Kippur discussions with God.

(The Pirkei author and most of his audience were unbothered that by the way in which he demeaned God. He portrayed the deity as an ignorant medieval prince who needed advice from both good and bad advisors, who was unable to differentiate his bad from his good ministers, and who was foolishly indirectly influenced by the bribe given to one of his advisors because he was too ignorant to see what was happening.)

In the event that Satan was not persuaded by the bribe, the author informs his readers, the demon was fooled by the Jews acting as if they were angels and not human beings because, presumably, Satan would not dare say anything bad about angels. The masses believed that angels did not eat, were unable to bend their knees and stood straight at all times, and did not wear shoes. Thus, he writes, on Yom Kippur many Jews fasted, stood upright for all or at least most of the holiday service, and were barefoot, or at least did not wear leather shoes.

The Babylonian Talmud (Yoma 31b, 32b, and 35a) of several centuries earlier contains the same idea. It states that the biblical book Leviticus required the high priest to wear white on Yom Kippur when he entered the Holy of Holies to pray for forgiveness for the misdeeds of the Israelites. It states that he was to be dressed like an angel. Jacob Z. Lauterbach[1] (explains that “The white garments were aimed to deceive Satan who, when seeing the High Priest dressed in white, would mistake him for an angel and not seek to harm him. The custom, still prevailing in the Synagogue, that the pious worshippers, and especially the reader and the leader of the service, wear a white robe (“Sargenes” or “Kittel”) on the Day of Atonement also aims to make the worshippers appear like angels.”

Lauterbach also explains that the masses thought that one of the reasons that the Bible told the high priest to enter the Holy of Holies with smoking incense was the belief that the smoke would drive the demon away and the high priest, whom Satan might recognize despite his disguise as an angel, would be protected from the demon.

Thus, four methods are used in dealing with Satan on the Day of Atonement. (1) He is bribed. (2) He is deceived by Jews disguising themselves as angels in order to ensure they are protected even if the bribe is unsuccessful. (3) To heighten the chances of success, the high priest prays to God on behalf of the people, disguised as an angel so that Satan does not harm him. (4) In the unlikely event that Satan is neither successfully bribed nor fooled, he is chased away from the Holy of Holies by the use of smoke while the high priest prays to God during the annual time that the deity is deliberating the fate of Jewry.

This was the primitive belief of many of the masses as recorded in the midrashic and talmudic literature. It was certainly not the understanding of rationalists such as Maimonides, who gave entirely different and more mature explanations for the practices.

 

[1] Rabbinic Essays, 63.