Photo of the Day: Casting Off Sin

With the summoning the "Days of Awe," members of symbolically cast their sins into the vast ocean off Jones Beach.

Rabbi Michael Churgel and Cantor Richard Pilatsky led the congregation and families and friends of Temple Beth Elohim in the beautiful Tashlikh service at Jones Beach State Park last Friday, the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

The ceremony is held in order to symbolically "cast off" the previous year's sins into a large, natural body of water. The words of the Prophet Micah are read which make allusions to the symbolic casting off of sins.

Those in attendance gathered at the ocean's edge with the clergy, reciting and chanting the prayers with the rabbi and the cantor. Cantor Pilatsky played his guitar.

After the traditional casting of bread into the water to symbolize the casting away of sins, everyone gathered around Rabbi Churgel as he blew the final T'kiyah G'dolah - a long blast of the shofar, to end the service.

Temple Beth Elohim is a Reform congregation serving the Plainview - Old Bethpage and surrounding communities since 1955.