Originally published in the Jewish Journal · Table for Five
But today we are not fearful. The very opposite!
These are the days of our joy, the season of rejoicing.
These are days when we sense the bounty of
Your world, the richness of harvest, the wealth of resources we have been given.
We shout Hosha-na! out of joy and not out of fear.
-Meditation on Hoshana Rabba prayers.
These Great Pleas for Salvation are our very last chance. We circle with willows, take out all the Torahs, and as Rambam said, “exuberantly dance and sing.” In some traditions, we’re supposed to study and pray all night, read all of Deuteronomy and Psalms. It’s a busy day with a dramatic contradiction in its heart: How can we “beg not with fear but joy”? How do we face the most dreadful doom with an ecstatic soul?
The Hoshanot poetry itself is the answer. Read the longest version you can find – probably Sefardi or Chabad’s. It preserves deep connections to our agrarian roots, to Temple rites, to the mysteries of willow and water. We plead for rain. We invoke our heroes and the many instances of divine beneficence in our history, a long soul-lifting list of G’d’s bounty. Transcendent “geshem” flows through the verses. We acknowledge the singular miracle of Israel’s survival. This poetry, sung together, is designed to unleash maximum joy.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe asked how we can achieve climactic joy and still fulfill the other obligations on this day. “The greatness of one’s joy is not dependent on time…,” he said. “A brief episode can have very intense strength … the greatest possible.” He was showing us how to activate The Maximum Joy Hoshana Rabba app and let it flow into our busy smartphone lives: Be grateful for every moment.
I’m on the floor, gazing into my infant granddaughter’s knowing eyes. Rain patters the window…
