Episode Details

 BRING IT BACK TO THE HEART 

The Secret of the Lulav, the Circle, and Hoshana Rabbah 

What would a stranger think walking into synagogue on Sukkot morning? A room full of intelligent, serious people holding palm branches and a strange yellow fruit, moving them in every direction—and then marching in circles around the Torah crying הוֹשַׁע נָא — “Please save us!”
We have performed these rituals since childhood, but perhaps familiarity has
caused us to stop seeing just how extraordinary they really are. 

In this class, we follow the Ben Ish Ḥai and the teachings of the Arizal into the
hidden meaning of these movements: the Or Makif of the sukkah that surrounds us, the shefa we spread outward with the lulav, and the holiness we draw back toward the heart. From the walls of Yericho to the protective circle of a marriage, from thirteen hakafot of אֶחָד and אַהֲבָה to the intimacy of Shemini Atzeret, we discover that Sukkot is teaching us which walls must come down, which walls must remain—and how to gather the scattered pieces of ourselves and bring them back to the heart.