Today we will share a message for Hoshana Raba. We've been talking a lot about humility. The Rambam, in Yesod HaTorah Perek ב says, “When a person looks into creation and sees how awesome God's deeds are, he realizes his humility and his true lowliness, vis-a-vis the Creator.”
But this is only when a person recognizes Hashem’s greatness. The closer we are to Hashem, the more we recognize His greatness and the humbler we become. The sefer Yismach Yisrael explains that on Hoshana Raba, after we’ve walked around the Torah for seven days (which the Yerushalmi says is like the seven days they walked around Yericho, and on the seventh day, seven times before the walls came down- referring to the walls that separate us from Hashem), we finally reach that closeness to Hashem; we realize our true level.
And with this, he gives two very interesting explanations for the fact that Hoshana Raba is called Yom Arava/ The Day of the Arava.
1-We know the Arava is the most lowly of the four species. Each one has either a smell or a taste, but the Arava has neither.
He says that Yom Arava means is the day that we realize that we are the Arava. Until then, we walk around thinking, “I'm probably the Etrog. Maybe I'm the Lulav… ok, at least the
Hadassim?”
No. Realize you're the Arava. That is the goal of Hoshana Raba- to say, “I don't really have anything going for me. I realize that I'm the Arava.”
That is our salvation. We realize Hashem’s greatness, and we realize our humility.
2- He brings down a beautiful Seforno about the pasuk in Tehilim 119 that says,
עֲרֹ֣ב עַבְדְּךָ֣ לְט֑וֹב
Arov Avdecha L’Tov
While the word Arov is usually defined as co-signer, to mean “Guarantee me for good,” the Seforno says Arov comes from the verb “to mix,” so it means, “Mix me with the Sadikim (of the generation) and then I'll be good.”
And he says, that's what it means here as well. Yom Arava is the day that we realize that I can't make it on my own, I need to be mixed with the rest of the Jewish people because on my own, I won't make it.
Those thoughts of humility are what saves us on Hoshana Raba.
He also quotes a pasuk in Tehilim (76) that talks about judgment. First, about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as it says,
מִ֭שָּׁמַיִם הִשְׁמַ֣עְתָּ דִּ֑ין אֶ֖רֶץ יָֽרְאָ֣ה וְשָׁקָֽטָה׃
“Your judgment was heard from the heavens, the earth was in fear and then became tranquil.” Then it talks about a second judgment, בְּקוּם־לַמִּשְׁפָּ֥ט אֱלֹהִ֑ים
when God gets up for judgment,
לְהוֹשִׁ֖יעַ כׇּל־עַנְוֵי־אֶ֣רֶץ סֶֽלָה
to save all the humble people of the earth.”
And that, he says, refers to Hoshana Raba, when we are saved due to our humility.
Finally, as we’ve mentioned many times in the past, Rav Chaim Pilaggi quotes from the Geomim that the reason we bang the Aravot on the ground on Hoshana Raba is because the Aravot are the lips. There's a pasuk in Eicha that says, “put dirt in your mouth, maybe there'll be hope.” He explains that “Put dirt in your mouth,” means that if someone insults you, don't respond.
That's humility.
So what are we supposed to do on Hoshana Raba? What's the last thing to do? Put dirt in your mouth. So we take the Aroavot, which is our mouth, and we bang it in the dirt to say, “I'm going to be humble.”
That humility of Hoshana Raba is our saving grace. So, as we go through the holiday of Succot, and seven days in the Succah, the goal is to reach Yom Arava, is to realize that I am the Arava, and in the merit of that realization, we will get our final Yeshua and a judgment for the good, as the final, final judgment is on Hoshana Raba.
Have a wonderful day.