Weird and Wacky Rituals: Wacking Willows on Hoshana Rabba

There is a night when the souls come out of their graves, like on the eve of Hoshana Rabba, when they come out and pray. And two people already went and hid themselves in the graveyard and heard that one was calling to her friend: Let us go and pray together! All of the souls came out and prayed and asked for mercy so that death would not be decreed upon the living, and those who will die that they return from their evil ways, and that they die through minor illness, and about every matter of the living and the dead; and about themselves, to quickly remove judgement from upon them and from upon others - and they told their congregation. The next year on the eve of Hoshana Rabba, two others went and only one virgin didn't come out of the grave, who had died last week. They said: Come out! She said: I cannot, because my father was rich and lost his possessions and buried me without clothing. And they heard that some of the souls said we will not gather together because two have already revealed us to many. Rather, each one of us will pray in the grave, so that the living will not hear and tell the nation. And they became angry at the father and took clothing and clothed that virgin. And when a shroud decays it does not hold back the soul for behold despite body's decay the soul rests in the bones although it departs from dead body as is known that (sorcerers) who raise a spirit bring it by means of dust that absorbed from the dead. It happened that one man didn't see his head's shadow on Hoshana Rabbah's night, so he and his loving ones fasted numerous fasts and gave a lot to tzedakah and lived many years after that as is said "Tzedakah saves from death".

On the night of Hoshana Rabba judgment is sealed, and it is therefore referred to as the end of the year; and on Shmini Atzeret judgment for the rains of the year is sealed, about how much a person's fields would produce, and this is why after the blessing of healing is the blessing for the year which contains within it a prayer for financial sustenance, as the Psalm says, "To save their souls from death, and to sustain them from famine.

(2) At four times the world is judged: On Pesach, for the crops. On Shavuot, for the fruits of the tree. On Rosh Hashanah, all the world passes before Him like sheep...And on Sukkot, they are judged for the water.

The mitzvah of the willow branches: how is it performed?

There was a place below Jerusalem called Moza. They went down there and gathered large amounts of willow branches, and then they came and stood them up at the sides of the altar, and their tops were bent over the altar. They then sounded a teki’ah [long blast], a teru’ah [staccato blast] and again a teki’ah.

Every day they went round the altar once, saying, “Ana A-donai Hoshiah Na; Ana A-donai Hatzlichah Na. O Lord, save us, O Lord, make us prosper” Rabbi Yehudah said: “Ani Vaho, Hoshiah Na.”

On that day [i.e. the 7th day, Hoshanah Rabbah] they went round the altar seven times. When they departed, what did they say? “O altar, beauty is to you! O altar, beauty is to you!” Rabbi Eliezer said: “To the Lord and to you, O altar; to the Lord and to you, O altar.”

There is a custom to take out a Sefer Torah onto the Bimah, and to circle the bimah one time each day, and on the seventh day they circle it seven times as a remembrance of the Temple:

Rama: And some take out seven Torahs on the seventh day, and in some places they take out all the Torahs from the ark.

And they circle the bimah seven times, like the seven levels of the firmament:

And there are those who say that these seven times correspond to the seven circles around Jericho.

(1) Now Jericho was shut up tight because of the Israelites; no one could leave or enter.(2) The LORD said to Joshua, “See, I will deliver Jericho and her king [and her] warriors into your hands.(3) Let all your troops march around the city and complete one circuit of the city. Do this six days,(4) with seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns preceding the Ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the horns.(5) And when a long blast is sounded on the horn—as soon as you hear that sound of the horn—all the people shall give a mighty shout. Thereupon the city wall will collapse, and the people shall advance, every man straight ahead.”

Rabbi Avin says, the situation on Sukkot can be allegorized to two parties who come before a judge, and they do not yet know who has won. The one who exists holding their weapon we know to be the victor. At the conclusion of Rosh Hashana, we do not know how God has judged our case, but when Israel emerges with their lulavim and etrogim in their hands, we know that Israel has emerged victorious.

There are those who say that you should not hold the willows with the four species at the time when you're bentching lulav until after the blessing and the waving, and if you don't follow this you are violating "bal tosif", the prohibition against adding mitzvot.

After fulfilling the mitzvah of the four species, a person should hold onto the willow by itself, to demonstrate that this too is an obligation, and at the time of whacking it should be held by itself to fulfill the obligation.

Rama: The common custom is to hold the willows with the four species while waving the four species, but it's better to hold them up separately, each for its own action. These willows should be held during the requests for rain, and they should be shaken, and then afterwards they should be beaten.

It was stated that there is a dispute between Rabbi Yoḥanan and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. One said that the mitzva of the willow branch is an ordinance of the prophets, as Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi instituted it in the Temple as obligatory. And one said that the mitzva of the willow branch is an ancient custom practiced by the prophets and adopted by others as well. It was not instituted as a binding ordinance. The Gemara suggests: Conclude that it was Rabbi Yoḥanan who said that it is an ordinance of the prophets, as Rabbi Abbahu said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The mitzva of the willow branch is an ordinance of the prophets. The Gemara concurs: Indeed, conclude that it is so.

Rabbi Zeira said to Rabbi Abbahu: Did Rabbi Yoḥanan actually say that? Didn’t Rabbi Yoḥanan say in the name of Rabbi Neḥunya of the valley of Beit Ḥortan: The halakha of the ten saplings, the mitzva of the willow branch in the Temple, and the mitzva of the water libation on the altar during the festival of Sukkot are each a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai? How then could he attribute the origin of the mitzva of the willow branch to the prophets? “He was astonished for a while” (Daniel 4:16), and after considering the apparent contradiction he said that indeed Rabbi Yoḥanan maintains that the mitzva of the willow branch is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai. However, over the course of time during the Babylonian exile they forgot some halakhot, including the mitzva of the willow branch, and then the prophets reinstituted them.

§ The Gemara relates that Aivu, father of the amora Rav, said: I was standing before Rabbi Elazar bar Tzadok, and a certain man brought a willow branch before him to fulfill the mitzva. He took it and waved it; he waved it and did not recite a blessing. This indicates that he holds that the mitzva of the willow branch is a custom of the prophets and is therefore performed without a blessing. Similarly, the Gemara relates that Aivu and Ḥizkiya, sons of the daughter of Rav, brought a willow branch before Rav to fulfill the mitzva. He waved it; he waved it and did not recite a blessing. This indicates that he, too, holds that it is a custom of the prophets.

On the seventh day, which is Hoshana Rabba, there is a custom to say more Psalms, like on a Yom Tov.

Rama: ...The early rabbis wrote that there is a sign to be found in the shadow of the moon on Hoshana Rabba of what will befall you or your family this year. Others say you shouldn't look for this, as it appears like astrology, and because most people don't understand how to interpret signs, and so it's better to just be proper and not seek out signs for the future.

People also put out a number of lights, like during Yom Kippur because on Sukkot we are judged for the water, and so on the final day of the festival we have a custom of unbinding the four species and circling seven times around the bimah, and extending and expanding our prayers and requests for water.

Rama: And those who are precise in their performance of the commandments go to the mikvah before the sun rises in the morning, like on Erev Yom Kippur, and there are those who wear a kittel like on Yom Kippur