During the holiday of Sukkot, which we are currently celebrating, we chant a unique set of prayers called hoshanot. The name reflects the words hosha na, “save us,” which are repeated after each phrase in these prayers. If you’ve heard the English word “hosanna,” you’ll recognize that this is its origin.
In the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, there was a procession around the altar in the Temple by cohanim carrying lulav and etrog. Today, in every synagogue, we echo this ancient ritual. A Torah is taken from the ark, held by one of the congregants, while all who have lulav and etrog form a processional, marching around the sanctuary while reciting a hoshana prayer.
(Just a quick note: we don’t march with lulav and erog on Shabbat. In fact, we’re not even allowed to touch a lulav and etrog on Shabbat! The rabbis in their wisdom ruled that if we used lulav and etrog on Shabbat, then people would be tempted to carry them on Shabbat, which is forbidden. Such things whose use is forbidden on Shabbat –pencils, matches, coins, etc.—become muktseh, objects that should not be touched on Shabbat.)
Each day of the holiday comes with a different hoshana, and today I want to focus on one which I find pretty remarkable. It’s called “even shtiah,” “Foundation Stone.” It consists of 22 short phrases, in an alphabetic acrostic, with each phrase describing the Temple, Mt. Zion, or Jerusalem more generally.
It is believed that the poem was written by Eliezer Kalir, the greatest Hebrew poet you’ve never heard of. Writing around the year 600 CE, in the Land of Israel, he crafted poems of extraordinary subtlety and ornate language, often inventing new Hebrew words and making references to biblical verses and midrashim.
“Foundation Stone” is remarkable for many reasons beside its pure elegance. Here is Kalir writing with passion about Jerusalem over 500 years after the destruction of the Temple. . Putting that in perspective, the Temple was as far removed from Kalir as Christopher Columbus is from us! But obviously the yearning for the return and redemption of our people remained a matter of burning passion for Kalir. So, too, should it be for us.
And speaking of us, we should keep Kalir’s poem in mind the next time we hear some nonsense questioning the link of Jews to the Land, or to Jerusalem, or even, believe it or not, questioning the idea that the Temple ever existed. This anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic tripe is very common in certain “progressive” circles, and there is delicious irony in the idea that their pernicious “big lie” is exposed by a for-us-heretofore-obscure Hebrew poet writing 1500 years ago, asking G-d to save us for the sake of Jerusalem. Hoshana, indeed.