A Brief Exploration of Water in Jewish Texts and History
From the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
The scarcity of water played a central role in the early history of the Jewish people. In order to sustain agriculture and replenish wells and cisterns, our ancestors in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) depended upon unpredictable and often inadequate seasonal rain and dew. This is the ecological context for the following texts.
For the land you are entering to inherit is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where, after sowing your seed, you irrigated it by foot (kicking open an irrigation channel), like a vegetable garden. But the land you are entering is a land of hills and valleys, watered by the rains of the heaven; a land which the Eternal your God cares for; the eyes of the Eternal are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. 
And it shall come to pass, if you hearken diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Eternal your God, and to serve God with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in its due season, the early rain and the late rain, that you may gather in your grain, and your wine, and your oil. I will provide grass in your field for your cattle and you will eat and be satisfied. Beware, lest your heart be seduced and you turn astray and serve other gods and worship them. Then the wrath of the Eternal will blaze against you.
God will restrain the heavens so there will be no rain and the earth will not yield its produce. And you will perish quickly from the good land which the Eternal gives you. -- (Deuteronomy 11:13-21)
The word of the eternal, which came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts: Judah is in mourning, her settlements languish, men sink to the ground, and Jerusalem's cry rises. The masters sent the boys for water; they came to the water holes but found no water there. They returned with empty vessels; they were shamed and humiliated, they bowed their heads. The soil is cracked because there is no rain.... Even the doe in the field forsook her newborn fawn because there was no grass. -- Jeremiah 14:1-6 (650 BC-586 BC)
All of Jerusalem's public water resources, including the Gihon Spring, were insufficient for the total needs of the city's constantly growing population. For this reason, throughout Jerusalem's history, each house had its own cistern to catch rain runoff.... The home cisterns caught every possible drop of water that fell on the rooftops and in the courtyards during the rainy season. -- Nogah Hareuveni, Desert and Shepherd in Our Biblical Heritage, commenting on the city of Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago
If we were to walk in the woods and a spring appeared just when we became thirsty, we would call it a miracle. And if on a second walk, if we became thirsty at just that point again, and again the spring appeared, we would remark on the coincidence. But if that spring were there always, we would take it for granted and cease to notice it. Yet is that not more miraculous still? -- Israel Baal Shem Tov (1700-1760), Eastern Europe
Tashlikh and the Sea
by Rabbi Lawrence Troster
and Kirsten S. Kleinman
From the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
On the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah (or the second if the first is Shabbat), there is an ancient tradition, in which we go to a natural body of water like a stream or a pond and throw crumbs into the water while reciting several verses from Scripture. It is called tashlikh. In Micah 7:18-20, the prophet proclaims the uniqueness of God in being forgiving of the people Israel. He says, "you will again have compassion upon us, subduing our sins and casting (ve-tashlikh in Hebrew) all our sins into the depths of the sea."
When one participates in this ceremony, it gives you a feeling of the casting away of the burdens that we carry from the year before. It can be a cathartic experience that serves to refresh and renew us for the coming year. The sea, then, is the place where we dump our unwanted spiritual waste.
Our ancestors felt that the sea was almost bottomless and beyond the impact of human activity. An environmental scientist once related that high school science textbooks still reflected that idea as late as the early 1960s. We now know that the sea is not bottomless and that we can have an adverse affect on it, especially those parts of it that are of the most value for the biosphere. We can no longer dump our waste without thought into the sea.
So when we do tashlikh, we should reflect that the sea in fact does contain the environmental sins of humanity, but that we cannot escape them any more. While God may be as forgiving as a bottomless deep, the real oceans must be taken care of as any part of creation.
Let tashlikh this year remind us that the sea is part of Creation that touches all life and requires our restoration. One way is to watch which fish we take from the sea for food. Many of the common fish that we eat or are served in many restaurants are in decline. If you want to know which fish you should avoid or only eat occasionally, see www.montereybayaquarium.org, where you can download a seafood guide. There are regional versions that are updated twice a year.
Take another green tashlikh action this year. As you let go of disheartening past actions, why not clear your house of superfluous material items, too? Turn your clutter into tzedakah as you give your unwanted goods to a worthy charity. At the same time, protect the environment from overflowing landfills! Some charities accepting household and clothing donations include: Jewish Family & Children’s Services, B’nai B’rith, or contact your local Jewish Family Service Organization or National Council of Jewish Women Chapter.
