Hoshanah Rabbah: One More Chance for a Brighter Year

Hoshanah Rabbah is the night that determines the fate of your entire year! It is a night with tremendous spiritual potential for every area of life: parnassah, marriage, health, emunah, bitachon, and personal salvation. Everything depends on this night! If we know how to utilize this night properly, it can change the course of our entire year for the better. No matter what a person has done or gone through since Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, or during Sukkot, on this night everything can turn around for the good, and this depends on us. The righteous already merited on Rosh Hashanah to be sealed for life and salvation, and the intermediate ones on Yom Kippur. Ordinary people like us, and those who are more distant, need Hoshanah Rabbah. It is a tremendous opportunity for salvation for everyone.

The Zohar explains that on Hoshanah Rabbah the “notes” of judgment are handed over to the angels appointed to carry them out. Yet if a person returns to Hashem and corrects his ways on the night of Hoshanah Rabbah, those decrees can still be taken back and the judgments annulled. This is why the night is such a powerful time for prayer, Tehillim, Sefer Devarim, and heartfelt requests to Hashem. Heaven is waiting for our tefillot and for us to use these final precious hours. On this night, everything B”H will turn around for the good!!

Rabbi Moshe ben Machir, one of the great students of the Arizal, writes in Seder HaYom that Hoshanah Rabbah is an awe-inspiring day on which the books are all signed and sealed and judgments are entrusted for execution. For that reason, a person should increase in tzedakah, prayer, and supplication, awakening Divine mercy and asking to be signed and sealed in the Book of Life, redemption, and salvation.

The message of Hoshanah Rabbah is one of tremendous hope: this is a final opportunity to cry out to Hashem, ask for mercy, and pray for a year filled with yeshuot, both for ourselves and for all of Am Yisrael.

On Hoshanah Rabbah, the amount of rain for the coming year is finalized, making it an especially important day of prayer for both personal salvation and blessing for the entire world.

During the prayers, the Torah scrolls are brought to the bimah, and we circle it seven times while holding the lulav and etrog and reciting the Hoshanot, prayers asking Hashem to “please bring us salvation.” These prayers are referred to as Hoshanot, and we say to Hashem, Hoshana, a combination of the words hosha (“bring us salvation”) and na (“please”). At the end, we take the aravot, willow branches, which represent neither Torah learning nor good deeds, and strike them on the ground, symbolically removing any remaining sins.

On this special night, many people stay up late learning Torah, and some remain awake studying the entire night!

The Unique Energy of Hoshanah Rabbah

As the sun sets, a very special day begins. Take advantage of these precious hours to learn, pray, speak to Hashem through hitbodedut, read Sefer Devarim, read Tehillim, and pour out your heart to Him. Ask Hashem for your own personal salvation, for all that you need, and for the general geulah of Am Yisrael.

This is an especially important day of prayer, with the power to sweeten the judgment that was given on Yom Kippur. Ask Hashem for a freebie. Ask Him for an even better year than what was already granted. The gates of mercy are open even for those who may not have the merits. There is tremendous power in prayer on this day to sweeten the judgments of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and to receive even more than what may be fitting for us.

Tonight, we have the power to cry out to Hashem and tell Him that we are relying only on Him. We can ask Him to bless us with an amazing year ahead, to help us grow, improve, and become everything we want to be, B”H.

Help me, Hashem. Help me with a home of my own, my career, my yeud, zikuy harabim, health, marriage, happiness, children, good middot, patience, kindness, confidence, emuna, bitachon, shalom bayit, keeping Your Torah, a good memory, and all of my projects. Help me become better in every area of my life and fulfill everything You created me to accomplish.

And bless me, my family, and all of Am Yisrael with abundant blessings, all the desires of my heart l’tovah, and only goodness, simcha, bracha, and yeshuot throughout the year ahead, B”H!

So how can we make the most of this precious night and grab every bit of blessing we can? Keep reading for the special prayers, customs, and segulot of Hoshanah Rabbah, and let’s make every moment count, B”H!

The Night of Hoshanah Rabbah

A: A special study session is held on the night of Hoshanah Rabbah. Some have the custom to study in the sukkah. Those studying in the synagogue should take care not to fall asleep during the learning.
B: After dawn, hands are washed three alternating times without a blessing.
C: During Shacharit, the bimah is circled seven times, and after the prayer service, the aravot are beaten.
D: According to the custom of the Ashkenazi community, a mourner within 30 days for other relatives, and within twelve months for a father or mother, does not circle the bimah during the recitation of the Hoshanot. The Yemenite and Sephardic custom is that they do circle like everyone else.
E: On Erev Simchat Torah, one must read Parashat “Vezot Haberachah” twice in the Hebrew and once in translation, and one must complete the entire year’s cycle of shnayim mikra ve’echad targum.
F: One is obligated to eat in the sukkah until the beginning of the holiday of Simchat Torah! 

Segulot for Hoshanah Rabbah

1. Light a candle in the merit of King David, the Ushpiz of the night, and recite a few chapters of Tehillim.

2. The Kabbalist Rabbi Chaim Palagi writes that it is very important that each person gives 91 Shekels to charity on this night. 91 comes out in the gematria of sukkah (the word Amen - אמן, as well as the two names of Hashem). This is what is said regarding those that give charity on this day “Because of the charity given on Hoshanah Rabbah, it removes all the negativity and transgressions and arouses grace & kindness.”

3. It’s very important especially for men (women can, but do not have to) to say the whole book of Devarim, Deuteronomy, on the night of Hoshanah Rabbah, all 34 chapters. Split it if you can’t finish it.

4. It’s a huge Segulah to finish the book of Tehilim (psalms) and at the end of your reading, read the special passage for Hoshanah Rabbah which can be found at the end of the book.

5. Read the letters corresponding to your name and the name of the mother from chapter 119 of Tehillim. Followed by the letters פ.י.ת.ק.א. ט.ב.א which means a good note in Aramaic.

6. Read Nishmat Kol Chai. The segulah of reciting “Nishmat Kol Chai” on Hoshanah Rabbah is to give thanks for the past year and to accept upon oneself, bli neder (without making a vow), to recite it again on Hoshanah Rabbah the following year, as a segulah to be sealed for a good life and to be protected from all harsh judgment. It is a segulah for protection throughout the year, so recite Nishmat Kol Chai, and take upon yourself today to read Nishmat Kol Chai again on Hoshanah Rabbah next year. Say this commitment verbally to Hashem, and write it in your calendar so you remember, and B”H, you will merit to reach this special day again next year!

7. It was brought in the name of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu zt"l that one who is delayed in finding his match should pray on the night of Hoshanah Rabbah with concentration and ask for his match, and with Hashem's help his prayer will be accepted.

This article is based on teachings from the Judaism With Love booklet, Rabbi Raphael Avitan, and additional Torah learning, shiurim, and sources, with full credit and appreciation to them.