The Scent of the Willow

Though often overlooked, one of the culminating moments of the Tishrei holidays is the beating of the willow branch against the floor. More than anything - Israel now at war - there is something firm and true within the very natural scent of the leaves hitting the ground. 

God's hand is often hidden in nature, the world we live in. On Yom Kippur, when we are hopefully inscribed and sealed for life, we ask for God to reveal himself in the inner workings of the world. Perhaps nothing is more telling than the recital of God's name, a name recited only once a year, the bonafide name heard audibly by the masses leading throngs of congregants on Temple Mount to bow in awe - and praise. 

Sukkot though is a very different holiday, one when leave the comfort of our homes, entering the elements, their world, wind, rain, the nippy cold, or suffusing heat; we see God in nature, and then, when on Hoshanah Rabba, we beat the five solitary branches on the floor we feel that smell, natural, robust, powerful, knowing that God's hand will sometimes be raw, seemingly unfeeling, jagged to the touch, discordantly abrasive, hard to grasp, yet always there, and attentive. 

Today was a painful day for so many Jews worldwide; even now, I saw a well-known, mainstream religious Israeli journalist who averred that because we failed to be unified, Hashem sought to bring us together. I am not here to play God. I remember being enraged, incensed with Itamar Ben Gvir, the Israeli Interior Minister who mocked the previous government shortly after a terrorist attack - he said, it was because of their weakness that it had happened. Whoever has spent a week in this country knew full well that under Ben Gvir's tenure there would be similar attacks. 

If only we would be less fractured, more unified, though who's to know how that raw scent of the willow will pervade our lives, what mettle we will need, what energies will be required of us. It is a sad reality, but one that all of humanity shares, but all the more the nation vested with the immense responsibility of bringing God's light to this world, rekindling God's faith in humanity which at times seems so vague, and blurred. Today was a hard day - typically hundreds of thousands of people join together this evening for the second day of Hakafot so that the Jews of Israel and those in the Diaspora will celebrate the completion of the Torah on the same night. Tonight there will be only a smattering of groups rejoicing; the Jerusalem Municipality informed that all such public gatherings will not be allowed to take place tonight. May we remember that God's justice is sometimes inscrutable and unclear, the forces of nature unleashed in ways not always readily available, or understandable. 

May Hashem protect our soldiers, and bring lasting victory to our people in this time of horrible sorrow, and suffering.