From a short teaching by Rabbi Amichai Cohen for Hoshana Rabbah, recorded for The Live Kabbalah Podcast.

The willow takes the primary focus

The last day of Sukkot is called Hoshana Rabbah, the Great Salvation. In the time of the Temple, they took willow branches, the aravot, and placed them around the Mizbeach, the altar. They surrounded the altar with the willow and sanctified it. And on this day, the willow is the star.

During the days of Sukkot we take the four species. The etrog, which represents both the good deeds and the Torah learning, is really the focal point. The lulav represents the Torah learning, and it is very tall. The hadassim are beautiful and they smell good. And then we take the aravah, the willow, which is compared to someone who has no taste and no smell. Their only virtue is that they are a part of the community. And without the willow, we do not fulfill the mitzvah of taking the four species.

On Hoshana Rabbah, it is the willow that takes the primary focus.

A tree that grows by the water

The willow grows naturally by a stream. A stream of water represents the flow of life, being in the flow. And if you look at a willow tree, all of its branches move together. They are almost in sync, in line with one another.

On the deepest level, that is what the whole holiday of Sukkot is about: achieving a level of coherence, flow and togetherness, with ourselves and with others.

On the first days of Sukkot, the Ushpizin come to us, and each one represents its own dimension. Avraham is Chesed, Yitzchak is Gevurah, Yaakov is Tiferet, and so on. Each has its own direction and its own way of expression. And the seventh day, like the seventh Sefirah, Malchut, carries the energy of holding all of these dimensions together. That is what the willow represents: the ability to hold all of the dimensions, and with its simplicity, to go with the flow.

I and the collective

Sukkot is about awareness of ourselves, and also recognizing that we are part of a greater collective. I want to shine, and yet there is someone else here as well. If I overexert myself, or say something too loudly, I may take away from the other person's expression. Being able to listen, to the other and to the flow of what is coming through in a collective experience, is at the core of life itself.

Each of the species holds this in its own way. The etrog holds the duality of the seasons. The lulav grows one leaf upon another, all connected. The hadassim grow three leaves out of one stem. But the willow is the one that holds the flow without any need for a sense of self. Not "I am doing something." Just doing. Rustling in the wind because that is where the wind is going, growing because of the water flowing beneath it.

The last day of Sukkot is the day of King David, of Malchut, and David says of himself that he is nothing. On the deepest level, Malchut holds all of the opposites of all the people in the kingdom. On Rosh Hashanah we ask G-d to be King over us, and the way we live that is in our relationships, especially with the person who irks us, the one who triggers us. Very often these feelings come up on Sukkot itself, and they are there to bring out a deeper awareness.

The Great Salvation

There is a salvation that we need personally, something we are each working on. The Great Salvation goes into the collective: understanding what G-d really wants in the world, and what He wants of me as a small part of His creation. He wants me to flow together with all of the other branches, as part of the whole collective He has built, from the inanimate to the vegetative, the animal, and the human, which is the hardest of all. That is where we are tested: to love the other as ourselves, not only in thought, but to actually feel the flow that comes from the collective.

It is the sensitivity of feeling what is here for all of us in this moment, in every interaction, with someone I know, someone I do not know, and even someone on the other side of the world. We are all rustling in this wind together. And as much as we think of ourselves as being great at one thing or another, it is G-d who gives us all of our abilities and who guides all of existence every single moment.

That is the awareness of G-d's kingdom in the world, and we bring it into the year on the last day of Sukkot, as we move into Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah and draw the light of the Torah into our hearts, our minds and the year ahead.

May we all be written and sealed for good, and may the great blessing of Hoshana Rabbah reach every part of our lives.

Many blessings,
Rabbi Amichai

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