Gathered Together
Nehemiah (8:1) states, “All the Jews gathered as one in the street that is in front of the gate of water.” This gathering is known to have taken place on Rosh Hashanah.
What were they “gathering together” to do?
To answer this question that we must consider the emphasis and prophetic purpose of the season. The Fall Feasts are all about teshuvah – repentance and being renewed!
During the entire month of Elul, shofars are blown every day to awaken God’s people to his soon coming. The piercing blow is to create an urgency in the hearts of man to be prepared for His Messianic Kingdom, to rouse one to make peace with his fellow man and to have a repentant heart toward God.
Tashlich (casting away) is a Jewish tradition that symbolizes the casting off of sins from the previous year. It is usually performed on the first day of Rosh Hashanah but acceptable to perform any time during the fall feasts.
As we take a closer look at Nehemiah 8:1 again we see where they are gathered.
“All the Jews gathered as one in the street that is in front of the gate of water.”
The Gate of the Water
The Water Gate is one of the ancient gateways that led into the Temple complex in Jerusalem. The remains of what archaeologists believe is the ancient gate can be found at the City of David arceological site, just outside the current Old City. It was located on the east side of the Temple and was the place where the prophet Ezra read the Torah teachings to the Jews after the Babylonian exile.
The Watergate received its name due to its proximity to the Gihon Spring. Water tunnels from the spring carried water straight to the Pool of Siloam. The pool was the source where the customary water libations were brought up to the temple mount during Sukkot each year.
Nehemiah says, “All the Jews gathered as one in the street that is in front of the gate of water.”
One! A collective “echad” (Hebrew for a complex singularity)! The Mishnah records that this happened at Rosh Hashanah in anticipation for the water libation would soon be coming into the city during Sukkot.
Just like the lulav that is waved at sukkot with its four different species bundled together representing the gathering together of all Israel. The Jewish tradition of “gathering” at the fall feast for several water traditions employ the same concept.
Tashlich
The age long custom is for the unified community to gather was to perform “Tashlich”.
Tashlich means “to cast”. The goal has always been to collectively cast personal sins as well as the sins of the collective nation far away from them. After a prayer of repentance, the group would each cast a small piece of bread (representing sin) into the waters and watched as the sins were taken away into the depths of the sea.
Tashlich always takes place beside an earthly body of water. The watery entity epitomizes a Heavenly picture and comes from the Genesis account of the Spirit hovering over the waters.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was barren, with no form of life; it was under a roaring ocean covered with darkness. But the Spirit of God was moving over the water. Gen. 1-2 CEV
Mayim means: “waters,” “people,” “nations,” “languages,” and “tongues”. The mem in its most ancient form bore a resemblance to waves of water. As such, a mem represents the sea of Torah, the ocean of Talmud, vast knowledge, depths of wisdom and the great waters of people. Humanity is often represented by a sea or an ocean teaming with life.
A deeper concept of tashlich, is like Jonah, as one symbolically casts themselves into the ocean, allowing God to cleanse them from all righteousness and being delivered as a new creation born of the Living Water from the depths of darkness.
So why not do this now? Confess your sin and ask Messiah to take it! And exchange, He forgives you and cleanses you, making you a new creature born in the strength of the Spirit.
Just let it go – throw the old leaven in the sea to be taken away – to be buried in a watery grave never to be found again.
