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29, 2015 | The Jewish Home TheOCTOBER Week In News Bobker
SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home
BOBKER ON HOSHANA RABA The Adventures of the Aruvah Yid
rue or false? The entire Jewish calendar was rearranged to accommodate one custom dating back to the last of the Hebrew prophets. True. Which one? Willow-bashing. Willow-bashing?! Yes, a rather astounding fact considering that this aravos minhag is nowhere to be found in the Torah. And more: there is no consensus on Hoshana Rabba’s exact origin; however there is absolute rabbinic agreement that this Yom D’arvata, “Day of the Willow,” the most awesome holy day of the entire Sukkos festivities, must always fall on a weekday. Imagine: the rabbis of the Talmud could live with Yom Kippur falling on a Shabbos but wouldn’t allow Shabbos to fall on a Hoshana Rabba. Why not? Let’s go back to the fourth century and find out. With the rabbinic proclamation of chivus aravos, the beating of willow branches, came the halachik prohibition that this was forbidden on Shabbos. But no one listened. The Jews, unwilling to give up this popular custom, persisted
and continued to beat sprigs of willows each morning – even at the risk of being called a mechallel Shabbos! For the Jews of the vibrant Second Temple era, breaking the Shabbos on purpose was no small feat. Yet those Jews wanted to beat, and beat they did. By thrashing and whipping the aravah bundle into submission Hoshana Rabba became the only Jewish festival that seemingly allowed the desecration of an object designated to be used to do a mitzvha! What was it about willow bashing that made it so significant? There is simply no original Torah explanation for it, and, unlike the lulav, there is no need to make a blessing over the aravah because it is rabbinic, not Biblical law, and the rule of thumb is that no blessings are recited over “a custom.” But what exactly is the custom? We get to its essence through rabbinic analogy. Consider: each of the four species was compared to a different kind of Jew. The fragrant esrog possessed taste and an ethereal aroma (a symbol
of the learned G-d-fearing Jew); the straight lulav possessed only taste (a symbol of the learned but non-G-d-fearing Jew); the humble haddas possessed aroma but no taste (symbolizing the G-d-fearing but unlearned Jew); while the poor aravah suffers, having neither taste nor fragrance. The aravah branches were placed vertically around the “base” of the Temple courtyard with their tips directed upwards, not only a metaphorical search for their missing qualities but also a symbol of the Jew out-of-step with the community (i.e.: he didn’t fear G-d), and thus “punished” by being symbolically “beaten” into the ground. Doesn’t this seem rather harsh? And overly acrimonious? Yes, and yes. But the token beating was a reminder of a central pillar of Yiddishkeit, unity, because the imperfect “aravah Yid” was the fragile link that weakened the whole. Jewish mystics then linked the willow top with human “lips,” a recognition that Hoshana Rabba was the conclusion