Rav Schwab on the Parsha

Rav Schwab on the Parsha 

R' Yaakov de Wolff (London) 

"Avrohom rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey; he took his two servants with him, and Yitzchok his son. He split the wood for the offering, and rose to go to the place that Hashem had told him [to go to]” (Bereishis 22:3). The Ramo says (in Shulchan Oruch Ourach Chayim 583:2) that on Roush Hashono it is customary to go to a river to say Tashlich. One of the reasons provided (in his Darchei Moushe there in the name of the Maharil) is based on a Midrash (see Tanchuma Vayeiro 22:12) in which we learn that during the journey with Yitzchok, Avrohom was waylaid by Soton who created a wide river. Avrohom, determined to follow Hashem’s instructions, waded through the river. At one point the water reached his neck, and he cried out to Hashem: 

 Tehillim 69:2 "Rescue me Hashem because the water has reached my neck.”

"הֹושִׁיעֵנִׁי אֱֹלקִׁים כִׁי בָאּו מַיִׁם עַד־נָפֶש" 

It is not clear how precisely how this Midrash connects with the throwing of our transgressions in the water during Tashlich. HoRav Schwab זצ״ל explains that Chazal use water as a symbol for kindness and fire for strict justice (see Gemoro Pesochim 118a, where Gavriel is described as being appointed over fire and Michoel over water). When Soton created a mighty body of water, he was trying to evoke in Avrohom an overwhelming feeling of love and kindness to the point that he would refuse to bring him as a korban. Avrohom realised that without Hashem’s support, these feelings would gain full control over him. When we perform the ritual of Tashlich, when we symbolically throw our transgressions into the water, we ask that they are swallowed up entirely by Hashem’s love for us, until the point that “the transgressions of Beis Yisroel will be thrown to a place where they will not be remembered, will not be counted, and will not be considered for eternity”