The Holiest Day of Sukkot Centers on the Plant Nobody Wants

On the morning of Hoshana Rabbah — the seventh and final day of Sukkot — something unusual happens. After the standard prayers, the four species are set aside. The lulav, the etrog, the myrtle — all of them are put down. What remains is a bundle of willow branches. And these are beaten against the floor or a chair five times until the leaves fly off. The ceremony has no clear Talmudic source. It was practiced in the Second Temple period and reinstated in the rabbinic period despite scholarly unease. And according to the midrash, the willow — the plant that brings nothing to the table, no flavor, no fragrance, no obvious value — is the one whose ritual the holiest day of Sukkot is named for.

What Is Hoshana Rabbah?

Hoshana Rabbah, "the Great Hoshana," is the seventh day of Sukkot, falling on the 21st of Tishrei. While not biblically designated as a distinct holiday, it carries enormous weight in the rabbinic calendar. The Talmud in tractate Rosh Hashana (16a, compiled c. 500 CE) states that human fate is sealed definitively on this day — that while the judgment began on Rosh Hashana and was sealed on Yom Kippur, its final execution occurs on Hoshana Rabbah. This creates a window: between Yom Kippur and Hoshana Rabbah, the decree is signed but not yet delivered. A last-minute act of repentance or merit might change its content. The Zohar (Parashat Tzav, 3:31b, c. 1280 CE) describes Hoshana Rabbah as the day when the "note" from heaven is finally delivered — the divine signature made physical in the world. The willow-beating is the last act before that delivery.

What Does the Willow Represent?

The famous midrash in Midrash Rabbah on Leviticus (Vayikra Rabbah 30:12, compiled c. 400-500 CE) assigns each of the four species a human type: the etrog (taste and fragrance) represents those with Torah and good deeds; the lulav (taste, no fragrance) those with Torah but no good deeds; the myrtle (fragrance, no taste) those with good deeds but no Torah; the willow (no taste, no fragrance) those with neither Torah nor good deeds. The midrash's conclusion is the startling part: God says, do not exclude any of them. Bind them together. Let the ones who have merit atone for the ones who have none. The binding of the four species is an act of communal atonement — but on Hoshana Rabbah, the willow stands alone, and the community takes on its identity, acknowledging that they are collectively the ones who have come before God with nothing.

Why Are the Willows Beaten?

The Talmud in tractate Sukkah (44a-b, compiled c. 500 CE) records the willow-beating practice as an ancient custom performed in the Temple, but the sages could not agree on its scriptural basis. Abaye and Rava debate whether it derives from a verse in Leviticus or from prophetic practice recorded elsewhere. The conclusion the Talmud reaches — "it is a law given to Moses at Sinai" (halacha le-Moshe mi-Sinai) — is the Talmud's way of acknowledging that some practices are so ancient and so universal that their origin cannot be traced. They simply are. The beating of the willow is one of perhaps a dozen practices with this status. The Legends of the Jews (Louis Ginzberg, 1909-1938) adds a kabbalistic layer from later sources: the falling leaves represent sins falling away, the final physical catharsis after ten days of verbal and emotional repentance.

What Is Hoshana Rabbah's Connection to Passover?

Hoshana Rabbah shares a structural characteristic with Passover night: both are nights when protection and judgment operate simultaneously. The night of Passover in Egypt was the night of both the angel of death and the angel of protection — dependent on whether the doorpost was marked. Hoshana Rabbah night is, according to Kabbalistic tradition dating to the Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria, Safed, 1534-1572 CE), a night when a person's shadow can reveal their fate for the coming year. Those whose shadow is seen complete will live; those who see their shadow incomplete are told to increase their repentance and charity. The Kabbalah collection at jewishmythology.com contains extensive material on the Ari's Hoshana Rabbah traditions, developed by his student Rabbi Chaim Vital (1542-1620 CE) in the Pri Etz Chaim (published in Koretz, 1782).

Why Seven Circuits on Hoshana Rabbah?

On each of the seven days of Sukkot, the congregation circles the bimah (reading table) once with the four species. On Hoshana Rabbah, they circle seven times — echoing the seven circuits around the walls of Jericho in Joshua 6. The Tanchuma midrash (c. 800-900 CE) reads the seven circuits as seven levels of divine closeness, each circuit breaking down one layer of spiritual distance. By the seventh circuit, the distance has collapsed entirely. The Hoshana prayers recited during each circuit — beginning with Hoshana ("Please save") and listing attribute after attribute of God's saving acts in history — are among the most ancient liturgical texts still in use, some tracing to the Temple period. The final "please save" of the seventh circuit, beaten into the floor with the willow, is the last request of the Jewish year before the calendar rolls over to the next cycle of holidays and seasons. Explore the full tradition of Hoshana Rabbah and the willow ceremony in our collection at jewishmythology.com.