No more wallowing in willowhood – Part Two

Linking Yom Kippur and Hoshana Raba

In last week’s essay, I discussed the Hoshana Raba custom of beating a bundle of five aravot, willow branches, on the ground five times. I advanced the novel idea that it may be a symbolic act designed to beat out of our psyches the willow, the tasteless, aroma-less twigs held together with three more well-endowed species during Succot, twigs that symbolise lack of Torah and mitsva acquisition – and fuel a determination to accrue more tasteful Torah and fragrant mitsvot as symbolised in various ways by the lulav, the hadas, and, quintessentially, the etrog.

In this brief addendum, I aim to show how and why Hoshana Raba and Yom Kippur are linked, as indeed they are in our rabbinic sources. Yom Kippur marks the sealing of our judgement that had been written up in Heaven on Rosh haShana, while Hoshana Raba marks the day when the sealed ‘notes’ are placed in ‘envelopes’ and ‘dispatched’. (Today we might more meaningfully allegorise that on Rosh haShana the celestial email is written, on Yom Kippur it’s saved as a supernal PDF and on Hoshana Raba the Divine ‘send’ button is clicked!)

It will be noted that our observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, accords us, as its name suggests, a clean spiritual slate. Clean, that is, of transgressions committed during the past year for which we have atoned.

Thus when our Sages compare the arba’a minim to four types of Jew, every category of Jew is deemed, post-Yom Kippur, to be without spiritual blemish.  The etrog Jew is suffused with Torah and mitsvot.  The lulav Jew is a ben Torah. The hadas Jew is a baal chesed. The arava Jew is lacking in both of these areas but is clean of aveirot (sins). There is no flaw in any Jew that has undergone the cleansing of Yom Kippur, just as each of the arba’a minim must be without blemish.

However, achieving a clean, blank slate is but the first stage of the two-stage process of annual self-appraisal

King David advances a failsafe recipe for life.  Sur mei-ra ve-asei tov.  “Turn from evil and do good!” First abandon evil actions. Then accrue positive ones (Radak).   First eschew the negative. Then pursue the positive

The emphasis on Yom Kippur is on sur mei-ra,  abandoning sin, eschewing the negative.  This is the overarching theme of the viduim.  We confess to all the bad things we have done.. But thus far and not further..                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              There is no al cheit, no confession regarding not having pursued mitsvot sufficiently or failing to grow in our learning of Torah.

That waits until Hoshana Raba.  Now the arava is thrust into a leading role. Its thrashings represent dissatisfaction with merely being sin-free, and a fervent desire to uptick in learning and mitsvot. This is the asei tov.  This is the pursuit of the positive, a desire to be more like the fragrant myrtle, the edible date-palm, best of all the elegant etrog.

Thus the predominant ritual of Hoshana Raba encapsulates the completion of the process of self-betterment.  Yom Kippur is the sur mei-ra; it cleanses us from sin through the vehicle of the vidui.  Hoshana Raba is the asei tov; its transformative arava-flailings urge us to transcend our willow-limitations and grow exponentially in Torah and in good deeds,

 A gut kvittel!