Reverse Tashlich: Hands on Tikkun Olam for All

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Reverse Tashlich: Cleansing Our Shores, Renewing Our Souls

As the rains return to the Pacific Northwest and the air fills with the scent of cedar and saltwater, our community gathers once again by the water: to heal and repair. Walking the talk.

This fall, members and friends of Congregation Kol Ami will join together for Reverse Tashlich, an act of teshuvah (return) for the earth itself — a ritual of restoration perfectly suited to our wet and wonder-filled landscape.

🐚 What Is Reverse Tashlich?

In the traditional Tashlich ceremony, we symbolically cast away our wrongdoings into flowing water, letting go of the habits and choices that no longer serve holiness or life.

Reverse Tashlich turns that ritual outward: instead of casting away, we return to the water to remove what does not belong — plastics, litter, and the debris of human forgetfulness. We cleanse the shore as we cleanse our spirits, joining Jews around the world who are transforming repentance into repair.

🌎 Our Partnership with Puget Soundkeeper

We’re partnering this year with Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, the regional coordinator for the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), a global initiative of the Ocean Conservancy that mobilizes communities to remove debris from waterways and record data that helps shape environmental policy.

Our Reverse Tashlich cleanup will be part of this worldwide effort.

Volunteers can track the debris they collect using data cards or the Clean Swell app, and Puget Soundkeeper will provide all necessary supplies.

This hands-on project connects the Jewish value of tikkun olam — repairing the world — with meaningful, tangible action to protect our local waters and ecosystems.

And what better time than our rainy season, when we are surrounded by reminders of water’s power — to nourish, to renew, and to wash clean the world.

A Jewish Reflection

In our tradition, water is both a symbol of creation and renewal. The rains that fall on our region echo the ancient words of Torah: “May my teaching fall like rain, my words descend like dew” (Deuteronomy 32:2).

To care for the waters of Puget Sound is to honor that sacred balance — to turn our hearts toward teshuvah not only for ourselves, but for the world that sustains us.

Reverse Tashlich calls us to respond to the season — to transform the cleansing rains into acts of repair and reverence.

Blessing for Reverse Tashlich

Opening Verse:

הַשָּׁמַיִם שָׁמַיִם לַיהוָה, וְהָאָרֶץ נָתַן לִבְנֵי אָדָם׃

Ha-shamayim shamayim l’Adonai, v’ha’aretz natan livnei adam.

“The heavens belong to the Eternal, but the earth has been given to humankind.” — Psalm 115:16

Leader:

As we gather by these waters,

we remember the flow of creation

the rivers and rains that sustain all life.

Today, we return to the water not to cast away,

but to bring healing.

All:

We come to return, to repair, to renew.

Leader:

We lift from the shore what does not belong

the debris of human forgetfulness

and we offer our labor as prayer.

All:

May this act of cleansing the earth

cleanse our hearts as well.

Leader:

Source of Life, teach us to move gently on this earth,

to honor the sacred balance of creation,

and to be partners in the world’s renewal.

All:

May the work of our hands

bring blessing to the waters,

peace to creation,

and hope to the generations yet to come.

Together:

Amen.

💧 Join Us

This Sunday at 10am 11/2 at Gas Works Park in Seattle

Register!

Dress for rain! And all materials provided. Snacks too!

Thank you to all our volunteers for embodying the spirit of tikkun olam- for helping to keep our shores, our waters, and our hearts clean, even as the rains fall and the Sound swells with new life.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg

Congregation Kol Ami – A Center for Jewish Life, Kirkland WA