The days of Sukkot were celebrated with extraordinary joy in the Bet haMiqdash. Beyond the biblical commandment of taking the four species (ארבעת המינים), two other Mitsvot were kept in the Temple. One was nisukh hamayim, the water libation, the ceremony of pouring water on the altar. The other was mitsvat ‘araba, the commandment of the willow branches. Both were about water.
NISUKH HAMAYIM
The rabbis describe the joy of the water libation:
“He who has not seen the celebration of the water libation has never experienced true joy. Big golden lamps were hoisted, with four cups of gold on top of each lamp. Four young apprentice priests rose to the top, carrying large oil jugs to fill the lamps. Once lit, there was no courtyard in Jerusalem that did not shine with the light coming from the Temple. Special balconies were built so the women of Israel could see the Sages of the Sanhedrin as they danced. People sang, and the righteous and pious men danced before them while juggling lighted torches. The Levites stood on the fifteen steps leading down from the court of Israel to the court of the women, playing lyres, harps, trumpets and many other instruments. Two priests stood at the top of the stairs, on each side of the entrance to the great door of the court, and sounded the silver trumpets. They did all this to honor the commandment of the water libation. At dawn, the people came down singing to the spring of Shiloach, at the foot of the walls of Jerusalem. One of the Cohanim carried a special jug of gold and filled it with water from the spring. Then the congregation walked back up to the Temple, led by the Cohen bearing the water. At the Temple, the Cohen brought the vessel to the altar and poured the water into a silver basin at one of its corners” (Mishna Sukka, chapter 5).
The ceremony was known as Simchat Bet haSho’eba. It opened the prayers for rain, and it was accompanied by Tefilot and psalms of praise, trusting that HaShem would bless the land and its produce with rain in the season ahead.
MITSVAT ‘ARABA
The second ceremony was separate from the two willow branches tied to the lulab. Outside Jerusalem there was a place called Motsa, which still exists under the same name, on the banks of the Soreq river. Every day of Sukkot people went down to Motsa and cut large willow branches, about twenty feet high. They stood the branches around the foot of the altar with their tops bent over it. The altar was sixteen feet high, so the branches rose a few feet above it on all four sides.
Every day of Sukkot the Cohanim, and according to other opinions the elders of the city, circled the altar once with their lulabim in hand, praying “Anna HaShem hoshi’a na, Anna HaShem hatslicha na.” Please, God, save us. Please, God, grant us success. On the seventh and last day, Hosha’na Rabba, they circled the altar seven times.
Today we circle the bima, the platform where the Sefer Torah is placed, with our lulabim and etrogim, in memory of the mitsvat ‘araba of the Bet haMiqdash. We do it every day of Sukkot except Shabbat. This year the first day of Sukkot falls on Shabbat, September 26, so the hakafot begin on Sunday the 27th. Hosha’na Rabba falls on Friday, October 2, and that morning we circle the bima seven times.
CHABATAT ‘ARABA
One more ritual belongs to the mitsva of the ‘araba, a tradition established by the last prophets of Israel, Chaggai, Malakhi and Zekharia, after the destruction of the first Temple. At the end of the Tefila of Hosha’na Rabba we take a few willow branches, the custom is five, and they cannot be the ones used with the lulab, and without any blessing we strike them against the ground. The practice is called chabatat (or chibut) ‘araba.
WHY THE ‘ARABA
Why this much attention to the willow?
Our rabbis explain that by the end of Sukkot the Heavenly Court issues the verdict on the rain that will fall in the coming year (bachag niddonim al hamayim). That is why, following a custom of the Kabbala, many stay awake through the night of Hosha’na Rabba studying Torah. This year that is Thursday night, October 1. Anyone planning to stay up should have everything ready for Shabbat beforehand, since Shemini Atseret begins the next evening.
Rain is the one element our sustenance cannot do without. The ‘araba is the plant that needs the most water and the first of the four species to dry out. It stands for our vulnerability. And striking the branches against the ground, watching them lose their leaves with every stroke, is a way of absorbing how fragile we are, and how completely we depend on God, not only for prosperity but for survival.
The next morning is Shemini Atseret, Shabbat, October 3. In the Musaf Amida we stop saying morid hatal and begin saying mashib haruach umorid hageshem. Everything the Temple did with water for seven days, the golden jug, the spring, the dancing, the willow branches around the altar, we now carry in a single sentence of the Amida.
