New tune for an old ritual: tashlich with jazz, bagpipes

The JCC of San Francisco, in partnership with several other Jewish organizations, is offering a modern spin on the 600-year-old Rosh Hashanah ritual of tashlich, or symbolically casting one’s sins into the water, often with pieces of bread.

At 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5, “Ctrl-Alt-Del: Tashlique at Ocean Beach” will feature not only the blowing of at least one shofar (and probably more), but also bagpipers and jazz musicians, including the Ministers of Sound from St. John Coltrane church in San Francisco’s Fillmore district.

Musicians at the St. John Coltrane church in San Francisco photo/creative commons-freimut bahlo

The free community event is presented in partnership with Reboot, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, Inter­faithFamily, The Kitchen and Keshet, with support from the Koret Foundation.

Participants are invited to bring stale bread and gather at Ocean Beach between Fulton Street and Lincoln Way. For more information, visit www.bit.ly/1dIXjK7.

Many other tashlichs are scheduled around the Bay Area, including: Temple Isaiah in Lafayette convening at Lafayette Reservoir, Marin’s Gan HaLev at Samuel P. Taylor State Park and Temple Emanu-El in San Jose at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos.