[Avodah] Tashlich

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 02:11:32PM -0400, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> Any sources on why the practice is to do it specifically after mincha (on
> the first day of rosh hashana)? Why is it preferred to do it outside the
> city?

The earliest source I could find on either of these is MA 583:5. He
refers you to SA 592:2. The best I can guess is that it's a zerizim
maqdimin as possible for Tashlich without delaying Teqi'as Shofar
(the topic of siman 592.)

But I have no hint as to why the preference for outside the city.

>        How common is it to actually cast  food into the water?.

It's an old minhag. (But not capital-M Minhag; see previous post.) The
Maharil already object to it. And the Maharil is also our first written
recording of Tashlich altogether!

Via the Ari, it reached Sepharadim as well.

RAZ Zivitofsky in
<https://jewishaction.com/religion/jewish-law/whats_the_truth_about_tashlich>
cites John Phefferkorn (1469-1521) describing people shaking the breadcrumbs
out of their pockets to throw the fish, saying "Now we throw our sins to
you [the fish]."

When I led Yamim Noraim services in the Orthodox shul a"h in Fall River MA,
the minyan took such feeding the fish for granted. (Maybe Cantor Wohlberg
remembers the year. Suffice it to say, Avodah was well established by then.)

However, back in the Kew Gardens Hills of my childhood, the rabbinate had
managed to end the practice back in the early 70s.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Circumstances don't make a person,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   they reveal a person.
Author: Widen Your Tent
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF