Hoshanna! How Prophets Pray for Rain Today

Hoshana Rabbah is one of the oldest days on the Jewish calendar, likely dating to an earlier religious custom in which the main focus of communal prayer is the need for rain. Today we mark his minor holiday by circling the synagogues with our four species, and with extra bundles of willows as we sing HOSHANA! Please Help! Send Rain! This is as ancient and weird as it gets and was practiced in the Jerusalem Temple for centuries, on this very day. Willows, often associated with water, would grace the altar and the offering would not be blood or flesh - but water. Little is left of those primal prayers that were once the primary reason for the high holidays.

But back then in Jerusalem, during Jeremiah’s days - this was still happening. Imagine the last Sukkot pilgrimage in Jerusalem, the autumn days of 587 BCE. The siege by the Babylonian army is about to begin, in ten months the city will be leveled and the temple gone - spoiler - this is happening in our chapters next week —- but for now — one last time, the pious Judeans and their palm branches and willows, myrtles and citrus fruit circle the altar and beg for rain. Is Jeremiah there? watching? dancing? praying? He often rebuked the religious auto-pilot of the priests and their pious followers, the neglect of kindness and the priority of rote rituals that lost their meaning long ago.

And he was right. The religion will evolve and not forget its core even when the temple will not be there anymore. We still have to evolve and get back to what matters most, willows or not. I am sure his prayers were for peace in all the ways it manifests, then and now. I join his hosannas with hopes.

Who knows? We imagine him there, knowing that the end is coming, rain or not.

So today, along with him and all who shake the willows, we extend the prophet’s prayer for more rain - of grace, of nourishment and kindness, hope and justice, patience and joy.

Thank you for joining me below the bible belt. Stay tuned to next week’s drama.

Shabbat Shalom and happy end of Sukkot - chag sameach.

PS: If you are in NYC and want to join our community on Sunday to roll out the Torah from beginning to end — Please join us in Brooklyn for Unscrolled:

Unscrolled in Brooklyn 2023