Bread on the Water

God will again come to us, and He will have compassion upon us;
He will subdue our iniquities, and will cast all their sins
​into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:19

According to the Jewish calendar, another year is coming to a close, while another is about to begin...

It’s when Jews everywhere begin to celebrate one of their most important holy days, that of Rosh Hashanah, also called the “Feast of Trumpets.” The Jewish New Year. 

It is during this time that many Jews believe God opens the Book of Life where it is recorded therein the words, deeds, and thoughts of every person, and by balancing out the good deeds with the bad, He makes the determination as to who will be allowed to enter the new year, and who may not.

Much of this is tradition, but I do believe some of it is based on the Old Testament, although it has not been interpreted correctly. I do not accept the idea that it is merely a matter of God’s weighing one’s deeds. There’s more to it.

Nevertheless, although I was not very religious when I was growing up in the Bronx, the holiday does have a lot of nostalgia behind it. As a child, during Rosh Hashanah, a friend’s father would take me and several other kids from the neighborhood to a nearby body of water known as the Bronx River. ​

The Bronx River is a small tributary which empties into a much larger body of water known as the Long Island Sound. It actually splits the Bronx almost in half as it runs the distance of the borough, and then into Westchester County where the river becomes shallow, its water pristine. While where I grew up near its mouth, and for upwards of at least a mile, the river was murky, dark and deadly. It was lined with garbage and abandoned cars. I knew it as a scary and dangerous place where on occasion a kid from the neighbor hood would try to swim in it and lose his life. The placid looking river could be as cruel as it was calm.

Yet it was here along Westchester Avenue's overhead bridge where my Jewish friends and I gathered above the river, said our prayers and tossed our pieces of unleavened bread, also known as matzo, into the water. The matzo represented our sins that, once cast into the depths of the river, were never to be remembered any more.

Of course pieces of dry bread tossed into water could never really take away one’s sins. But I do know the One who can. His name is Messiah Jesus. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He will gladly do this for all who place their faith in Him.

D. B.