The lowly willow and humility

בענין הערבה שהי' [במקדש] הלכה למשה מסיני ובגבולין מנהג נביאים.

Concerning the aravah (willow): in the Bais Hamikdash it was a halacha l'Moshe miSinai (a law given to Moshe at Sinai), and in the outlying provinces it is a custom of the Nevi'im (Prophets).

The Sefas Emes opens with the dual status of the willow-rite of Hoshana Rabbah: a Sinaitic law within the Mikdash, but elsewhere only a prophetic minhag — a difference he will now use to teach about the generations.

דאיתא במד' ע"פ פנה אל תפלת הערער על דורות הללו שאין לנו רק תפלה זו בלבד.

For it is brought in the Midrash on the pasuk "He turns to the prayer of the destitute" (Tehillim 102:18) — referring to these generations, who have nothing left but this tefillah alone.

The Midrash links the willow to the lowliest, "stripped-bare" generations who have no merits to lean on, only the power of prayer.

כי הד' מינים כוללים אותן שיש בהם תורה ומצות או אחד מהם וערבה שאין לו לא טעם וריח ע"ש במד'.

For the four minim (species) include those who have both Torah and mitzvos, or one of them, while the aravah has neither taste nor smell — see there in the Midrash.

The well-known Midrash reads the four species as four types of Jew: the esrog has taste and smell (Torah and good deeds), and so on down to the willow, which has neither — representing the Jew seemingly empty of both Torah and mitzvos.

אבל ערבה שבפ"ע רומז לדורות שכולם ערבה.

But the aravah taken on its own alludes to the later generations, who are entirely "willow."

The separate willow-rite of Hoshana Rabbah points to the impoverished generations as a whole, who feel they have nothing of the "higher" species in them at all.

אך גם כל הדורות הם בנין אחד.

Yet all the generations together form a single edifice.

Despite their differences, every generation is one part of a single unified structure spanning all of Jewish history.

וגם בזמן המקדש הי' מכינים הארות גם לדורות השפלים כמו שכלל הד' מינים להיות מסייעין אלו לאלו כמ"ש במד'.

And already in the time of the Bais Hamikdash they would prepare illuminations even for the lowly generations — just as the four species are bound together to assist one another, as the Midrash states.

The greater generations of the Mikdash era drew down spiritual "lights" in advance for the weaker generations to come, exactly as the four species are taken together so that the higher support the lower.

וזה ולקחתם לכם כל אחד ימסור כחו לצבור.

This is the meaning of "and you shall take for yourselves" — each one surrenders his strength to the community.

The mitzvah of taking the species "for yourselves," in the plural, teaches that each individual hands over his own spiritual power into the collective whole of Klal Yisrael.

כמו ומקבלין דין מן דין שכל א' מקבל ממי שלמעלה ממנו ומשפיע למי שלמטה ממנו.

Like "and they receive one from another" — each one receives from the one above him and bestows upon the one below him.

Echoing the angels who pass holiness from one to the next, the generations form a chain of shefa (downward flow): each takes from those above and transmits to those below.

וזה שרמז במד' ולא בזה את תפלתם לשון רבים על דורות הראשונים שבקשו בעבורינו.

This is what the Midrash hinted with "and He did not despise their prayer" — in the plural — referring to the earlier generations who pleaded on our behalf.

The plural "their prayer" includes the tefillos of the earlier generations, who davened in advance for the sake of those who would come after them.

והגם דהוא מיירי במנשה שהתעללו עליו אבותיו כמו כן זה הענין בדורות בכלל.

And although it speaks of Menashe, on whose behalf his forefathers interceded, the same matter applies to the generations in general.

Just as the merit and prayers of Menashe's righteous ancestors availed him despite his failings, so the earlier generations' tefillos carry the later, weaker generations.

והנה מ"ש במד' דערבה אותן שאין להם לא תורה ולא מצות וכמ"ש בדורות הללו.

Now, that which the Midrash says — that the aravah represents those who have neither Torah nor mitzvos — as said regarding these generations.

He now turns to address the difficulty in that Midrash: how can it describe Jews as having neither Torah nor mitzvos?

וח"ו לומר שאין בבנ"י תורה ומצות הלא מלאים מצות כרמון.

Chas v'shalom (Heaven forbid) to say that Bnei Yisrael have no Torah and mitzvos — for they are full of mitzvos like a pomegranate!

It cannot literally mean a Jew is empty, since even the seemingly empty among Yisrael are packed with mitzvos like the seeds of a pomegranate.

רק הפי' שעושין הכל מצות אנשים מלומדה ואין מרגישין להתדבק בפנימיות תורה ומצות.

Rather, the meaning is that they do everything as "a commandment of men learned by rote," and do not feel a connection to the penimiyus (inner dimension) of Torah and mitzvos.

The "willow" Jew does keep Torah and mitzvos, but only by habit and rote, without feeling or clinging to the inner soul of what he does — that is the lack the Midrash describes.

וזה שערבה מנהג כמו מנהג אבותינו בידינו.

And this is why the aravah is a "minhag" — like "the custom of our fathers is in our hands."

The willow being only a custom hints at this very avodah done by inherited habit; yet "the minhag of our fathers" is itself a precious inheritance.

ומ"מ מסייע זה לזכות להפנימיות.

Nevertheless, this itself helps one merit the penimiyus.

Even mitzvos done out of inherited habit are not worthless — they become the very means by which a person can eventually reach the inner dimension.

כמ"ש הבוחר ועושה כמעשיהם פי' שרוצה להתדמות להם ואז מסייע זכות אבות.

As it is said, "who chooses and acts as they did" — meaning that one wishes to resemble them (the Avos), and then the merit of the forefathers comes to his aid.

By performing the deeds of the Avos out of a desire to be like them, a person draws upon zechus avos (the merit of the fathers), which assists him toward the penimiyus.

אך ערבה צריך להיות יודע שאין בו כלום ולהתבטל אל שאר המינים.

However, the aravah must know that it has nothing in itself, and must nullify itself to the other species.

The one condition is humility: the "willow" Jew must recognize his own emptiness and submit himself in bittul (self-nullification) to those greater than he.

לכן צפצפה שבהרים פסול שסובר שהוא על ההר.

Therefore the tzaftzafah (mountain willow) is invalid, for it imagines that it stands upon the mountain.

The pasul "mountain willow" symbolizes the person who fancies himself elevated and important — a self-image that disqualifies him.

אבל צריך לידע שהיא ערבי נחל שגדל במים במקום נמוך.

But one must know that it is a "willow of the brook," which grows by the water in a low place.

The kosher willow grows low, beside the stream — the image of the humble person who knows his lowly place and stays near the life-giving waters.

ומכיר את מקומו זוכה לישועה:

And one who recognizes his place merits salvation.

It is precisely the Jew who acknowledges his lowliness and need who is worthy of yeshuah (deliverance).

Summary: The willow of Hoshana Rabbah represents the impoverished later generations and the seemingly "empty" Jew who serves Hashem by rote, without grasping the penimiyus. Yet all generations form one edifice in which the higher prepare illuminations for the lower and pass merit down the chain. Such a Jew is far from empty — full of mitzvos like a pomegranate — and his inherited, habitual avodah, joined with humble bittul to those greater than he, becomes the very path to the inner dimension. Like the lowly willow of the brook that grows beside the water, one who recognizes his true place merits salvation.