Transcript:

Heres a program from our archives.ambience: shofar hornThat blast from the Ram's Horn signals the first day of the Jewish New Year. Yet another marker of this High Holy Day is the symbolic practice of Tashlicht. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Every year, Nashville Rabbi Ken Kanter leads his congregation to a local river to observe Tashlicht.Kanter: The tradition of Tashlicht is a 14th century tradition that we should cast our sins away into the deep. But the tradition is very much a physical manifestation of throwing away the sins that you have committed so that between Rosh H'shannah and Yom Kippur you can, in a way, be purified of those sins."Rabbi Kanter says the act may be simple, but as a ritual for Rosh H'Shannah, the New Year, it's very powerful.Kanter: For most of the Holiday services our congregants sit and listen. They sing, they read, they pray, and while it is in a small way active because it's something you do, it's in a large way passive -- you sit, you listen to the rabbi, you listen to the music. Tashlicht is something we can all do, it doesn't take any great training. All it takes is the recognition that by holding something in your hand that represents the failings we all know we have done in the past year -- and tossing them away -- that somehow we can rid ourselves and try to guide ourselves in the coming year to maybe have less to throw away next year.ambience: Hime Ma TovPulse of the Planet is presented with support provided by the National Science Foundation