Hoshana Rabbah and Simchas Torah: Proving It

The End of Sukkos

We are coming toward the end of Sukkos now, and as we have been discussing all along, it is really all one. But before we get into how it all connects, Rabbi Adi said, it is important first to talk about what is going to be happening at the end of the holiday. Starting tonight, in a few hours in Israel and a little bit later in chutz la'aretz (outside of Israel), in New York, it is Hoshana Rabbah, and then, following Hoshana Rabbah, we have Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah.

So what exactly is Hoshana Rabbah? One of the things that is known about it is that Hoshana Rabbah is the end of the decree for the year, the end of the gezar din, the final sealing of the year's judgment. Which is obviously very interesting, because we already had Rosh Hashanah, and we already had Yom Kippur. So what exactly are we doing, having once again another end of the judgment period?

Look at some of the customs of the day. There is a custom that people stay up all night long on Hoshana Rabbah and learn. In Rabbi Adi's neighborhood there are a few different events going on tonight, all-night learning or many hours of learning, and the shuls in the neighborhood have competitions and raffles for the kids; each of his kids is going to a different place (he does not think they are staying up all night, but they are staying up a little bit later than usual). Tomorrow the davening is also longer; the morning prayer is very similar to Shabbos. And at the same time, the chazzan puts on a kittel, a white garment, just like people put on a kittel for Yom Kippur, or like the chazzan puts on for Rosh Hashanah. The chazzan putting on a kittel again tomorrow signifies that this is an auspicious, very serious time, a time of din. So again: what is it that makes Hoshana Rabbah so pivotal, once again another end of the judgment?

Hoshanos and the Walls of Yericho

Another thing happens on Hoshana Rabbah, and it echoes the name of the day. It is learned out from the Mishnah in Sukkah (4:5). Every single day of Sukkos, the Jewish people would go down to the riverbank and pick aravos, willow branches. They would bring them and lean them along the sides of the mizbe'ach, the altar. And then the nation would walk around the mizbe'ach and say: Ana Hashem Hoshia Na.

אָנָּא ה׳ הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא

Please, Hashem, save us! (Tehillim 118:25)

Because the people would say Ana Hashem Hoshia Na, that same exact verbiage gave the day its name: the Hoshanos. This is what would happen at the time of the Beis Hamikdash. As the Mishnah describes it:

בְּכָל יוֹם מַקִּיפִין אֶת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ פַּעַם אַחַת... וְאוֹתוֹ הַיּוֹם מַקִּיפִין אֶת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ שֶׁבַע פְּעָמִים

Every day they would encircle the mizbe'ach one time… and on that day they would encircle the mizbe'ach seven times. (Mishnah, Sukkah 4:5)

Now that we do not have a Beis Hamikdash, we do not have a mizbe'ach. So instead, the custom has continued in the beis knesses: the bimah that we put the sefer Torah on is similar to what the mizbe'ach was. We bring out a sefer Torah, and every day, instead of just having the willow branches leaning there, we take the arba minim, the lulav, the esrog, the hadas, and the aravos, all together, and we march around one time every single day. Those are the Hoshanos. And on Hoshana Rabbah, which literally means the great Hoshana, just as in the Beis Hamikdash they would go around seven times on that day, so too in our times we walk around seven times with the arba minim. There are all different types of customs: in some shuls they take out seven sifrei Torah, and every time they walk around, they bring one of the sifrei Torah back in, so the first time around there are seven, and then six. That is one of the interesting minhagim you will see in some of the shuls.

But ultimately, what is the idea of these seven times going around? There are many, many answers. One is simply like the days of the week: you have six days, and the seventh day is a combination of everything. As they teach in the very, very basics of Kabbalah, seven represents completion, the completion of this world. And that is what we are doing by the Hoshanos: ultimately, we are completing the world. We will come back to this idea.

Another basic idea given for the seven Hoshanos is that they correspond to the story in Sefer Yehoshua, the sixth perek. The Jewish people are entering Israel. They are all ready, all excited to come in. The reins were handed over from Moshe to Yehoshua, and now they have crossed over the Yarden, and the nation is ready to conquer Israel. They knew that it was not going to be easy; they were definitely going to have to wage war. Hashem also promised them that they were going to be successful. And the first major city they get to, as it is time to bring all the preparations to fruition, is Yericho. Yericho is a very fortified city: it has walls, and it is hard to get in. They were trying to figure out what they were going to do, and Hashem said, in effect: let this start off as a spiritual war. What they were told to do was to make circles around Yericho: every day, they were going to go around one time. The navi says the army would go around with the Aron, which had the Luchos inside, representing the entire Torah; the Kohanim were marching with the shofaros that they would blow; and following them was the rest of the nation. Day one, they marched around one time. Then came day two, and they marched around again. And they did this every day until they got to the seventh day. On the seventh day, they were ordered to march around seven times, the same way they had done it each of the days. And on the last time around, the walls fell down, and Yericho was then easily, easily destroyed.

This was the story of how Hashem showed the nation that they were ready to go into Israel and that He was going to help them out, and that ultimately, Hashem is the One who fights the wars for us. So now, when we say Ana Hashem Hoshia Na, when we are asking Hashem to save us and to rescue us and to bring us salvation, this is the story that we want to be remembering: the story of Yericho, the story of how Hashem took care of the Jewish people. That, some suggest, is the significance of the Hoshanos: marching around seven times.

A Story From Last Night

On Sukkos in the Beis Hamikdash there was a constant celebration, the simchas beis hashoeva, that Jews from all around would come to. The Mishnah says that there has never been a greater sense of happiness than the happiness that existed at the simchas beis hashoeva:

מִי שֶׁלֹּא רָאָה שִׂמְחַת בֵּית הַשּׁוֹאֵבָה, לֹא רָאָה שִׂמְחָה מִיָּמָיו

Whoever has not seen the simchas beis hashoeva has never seen simchah in his days. (Mishnah, Sukkah 5:1)

We will come back, to wrap everything together, to why that was the ultimate happiness, what made it happier than everything else. Nowadays, people have gatherings at their houses or in public places, parties corresponding to what they used to have in the Beis Hamikdash, and they celebrate with music and singing. Last night Rabbi Adi went to two of them. At one, he was simply asked to come with his boys to somebody who was having a dinner and dessert, to sing a little bit; they know him from the neighborhood. It was not a big crowd, around twenty people. And the family there was hosting Matan Angrest and his parents, Hagai and Anat.

A little bit about Matan. On October 7th, he was in a tank by Nahal Oz, trying to help out, and ultimately the tank was shot. The captain who was in his tank was Daniel Perez, Rabbi Doron Perez's son, a very, very sad story: for a long time they could not find him, and they did not know if he was alive or not, until ultimately they realized they had found enough blood to declare that he was no longer alive. His body was later returned, and he was brought to burial. Matan was hurt when the tank was shot, and Hamas came and took him hostage. He was a hostage for 738 days, and he was released last year, on October 13th. He was released on Hoshana Rabbah; it will be a year tomorrow. So as they were singing with the boys last night, Matan said: this is obviously a very important day, and tomorrow is going to be a very important day, marking the year since I was released.

And then Hagai, Matan's father, said: I want to share a story that I really have not told many people. In the second year that Matan was in captivity, the family started taking on a few more mitzvos and doing a few different things. They started keeping Shabbos; they started going to a class; he started going to shul. And Hagai had a meal with a friend and his family, and the friend's father told him that Hoshana Rabbah is a very, very special time for ultimate salvation, to be saved. So when Hagai was in beis knesses on Hoshana Rabbah, all of a sudden, as he was saying Ana Hashem Hoshia Na, he basically fainted. He had to sit down in his seat because he completely lost a lot of his energy. And he said that for some reason, right then, he thought that everything was going to work out. As soon as he got home from beis knesses, he and his wife received a call, within two minutes, saying that they have amazing news: Matan is going to be released, along with other people. So, Hagai said, Hoshana Rabbah was a very, very, very special time for them, a real sense of salvation.

Simchas Torah

The next day is Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. In Israel, Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah are all one day; it is considered a separate holiday from the rest of Sukkos, with a completely different meaning. In chutz la'aretz they are separate days: Shemini Atzeres is one day, and Simchas Torah is a different day. What happens on Simchas Torah? We take out all of the sifrei Torah, and we dance. We dance around the bimah, the same bimah we were just talking about, the one we would bring the aravos to and do the Hoshanos around. Now that bimah is the center, and we are dancing with the Torah around it.

We also have the reading of the Torah, and it is a very special reading. First of all, every single person in the beis knesses gets called up to the Torah that day. We want everyone to have a personal relationship with the Torah, and therefore everyone has an aliyah. And there are a few special aliyos. There is the one who finishes the sefer Torah, who is called the Chasan Torah. There is the person called up for the first aliyah of the entire Torah, who is called the Chasan Bereishis. And there is Kol HaNe'arim, right before Chasan Torah, where all the little kids come in and participate in one big brachah: a few people hold up a tallis, and everybody comes underneath, like at a wedding, and then they give a lot of candies to all the kids. Here in Israel, and probably all over the world, this is a dentist's favorite holiday, because all the kids end up with hundreds and hundreds of candies. It is something the kids all very much look forward to.

Now let us go back to the original questions. We said that Hoshana Rabbah is known as the final din, the final judgment of the judgment period, and we asked: what about Rosh Hashanah, and what about Yom Kippur? Why do we have to have another time of judgment? And another big question: what is this transition from Sukkos to Simchas Torah? How are they connected? Why do we have to have Simchas Torah right now, if it is a separate holiday from the rest of Sukkos? Because if you think about what Simchas Torah is, completing the entire Torah, in theory it could be considered a little arbitrary. Historically, it was not always the case that we finished reading the Torah every single year; it used to be that it was finished only every third year, and then a calendar was set up to finish it every year. It is not really a biblical obligation for us to read the parshios hashavua the way they are done; it is a rabbinic obligation, instituted, as the Gemara discusses, to make sure that people do not go three days, or too long, without learning Torah. So why was it instituted that we finish the Torah at the end of Sukkos? There must be a greater understanding.

Proving It

To answer this, Rabbi Adi continued with the same perspective from the previous weeks, from Rav Hutner and from Rav Berkowitz, his rebbe, now carried further into Hoshana Rabbah and Simchas Torah. What is the greatest happiness in life? The greatest happiness in life is when you figure out who you are, like we said on Rosh Hashanah; you come up with a plan; and then, all of a sudden, you put it into action. That is what Sukkos is all about, as we said: after you had the plan, after you had Yom Kippur, now you are actually putting your plan into action. You become one with nature, as we said last week. Just like nature does not have a yetzer hara, it knows exactly what its purpose in life is and does it, whatever the circumstances: a little more rain, a little less rain, a little more wind, a little more sun, it acts the way it is supposed to act. So too us: we want to know ourselves so well that we will be the best version of ourselves no matter what. No matter if we had a bad day at work, no matter if we had a challenging thing with one of our children, we will be able to be the best versions of ourselves.

And that is what they were singing at the simchas beis hashoeva. A lot of times, if you want to figure out what kind of simcha you are at, you can just listen to the music that is being played. If you are at a wedding, you are hearing songs about the chassan and the kallah; you are hearing all the different versions of Asher Bara. Walk in with your eyes closed, and you will know you are at a wedding. Walk into a room with your eyes closed and hear songs about a baby boy, and you know you are at a shalom zachor. You can usually predict what the celebration is all about from the song. And the Gemara tells us the song that they would sing at the simchas beis hashoeva (Sukkah 53a):

אַשְׁרֵי מִי שֶׁלֹּא חָטָא, וּמִי שֶׁחָטָא יָשׁוּב וְיִמָּחֵל לוֹ

Praiseworthy is one who has not sinned; and one who has sinned, let him return, and he will be forgiven. (Sukkah 53a)

This is the great song being sung at the simchas beis hashoeva. What is this all about? Why is this song being sung, and why is this ultimately the greatest simcha? Praiseworthy is the person who has not sinned. What does it mean, who has not sinned? That he has done what he is supposed to be doing. If a person is living his life in the most ideal way, then he is the happiest person. And even if he made an error in his life, that is also OK: he will figure out how to fix it and move forward. That is exactly the song that was being sung at the simchas beis hashoeva: at this time, we now know exactly who we are, and we are approaching things properly. And even when we do not approach things properly, we do not let it ruin our day; we do not let it ruin our week. Rather, we see what happened, we fix things, and we move on with our life.

And this is why the last day of Sukkos, Hoshana Rabbah, is considered the end of the gezar din. Because if we have started to put our plan into action, post Rosh Hashanah, post Yom Kippur, now we are acting the way that we want to act. We are showing Hashem: it is not that we just had a good pitch for You. It is not that we pulled Your leg, Hashem, and told You we are going to do something, and then did not do it. We are showing Hashem: look, we have actually been living this past week of our life in the same way that we told You we want to live. We are proving it to You. And when you prove it, when you put into action what you say you are going to do, that is the ultimate din. That is the biggest excitement, and that is the ultimate din. That is why Hoshana Rabbah is such an amazing and important day: it is the completion of everything.

Nothing but the Torah

And once we prove to Hashem that we are doing everything, once you have all of Sukkos, then comes Simchas Torah. Simchas Torah is the last part. On Simchas Torah we are saying: Hashem, You do not need any vehicles to prove to You anymore that we are who we are, and that we are going to be the best versions of ourselves. We do not need to move out into a sukkah. We do not need the arba minim. We do not need anything to be happy. We do not need anything to show that we are a pivotal part of society. All we need is just to show up in shul, to have a sefer Torah there, and just to dance. And that is why Simchas Torah has to come at the end of Sukkos: after we have shown Hashem that we live the way we said we are going to live, at this point in time we can also get rid of everything else: get rid of what the sukkah represents, get rid of the arba minim, those two things that represent that we are one with nature, and we can just go back to regular life. And the first step of regular life is making sure that we have the whole community all together, dancing around the bimah where the Torah is, with each other, holding the Torah.

So, im yirtzeh Hashem, this should be the desired end for all of us: that we should have a happy and healthy year, that we should all be happy and enjoy the tafkidim, the roles, that we have in this world, and that we should fulfill them in the best possible way this upcoming year.