Jewish Cemetery, Samuel Hirszenberg, Lodz 1892. Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, Wikimedia
Hoshana Rabbah: Delivering Judgment and Night of the Dead
On Rosh Hashanah, our judgment is written; on Yom Kippur, it is sealed; and on Hoshana Rabbah, it is sent out to be fulfilled. It is said that on the night of Hoshana Rabbah, those judged to die that year will lose their shadows. Sefer Chasidim relates that, in a final plea for forgiveness, even the spirits of the dead rise from their graves to pray for the living.
Published: October 23, 2024
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Last Updated: October 28, 2026
The Mishnah reads:
משנה ראש השנה א:ב בְּאַרְבָּעָה פְרָקִים הָעוֹלָם נִדּוֹן, בְּפֶסַח עַל הַתְּבוּאָה, בַּעֲצֶרֶת עַל פֵּרוֹת הָאִילָן, בְּרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה כָּל בָּאֵי הָעוֹלָם עוֹבְרִין לְפָנָיו כִּבְנֵי מָרוֹן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: הַיּוֹצֵר יַחַד לִבָּם הַמֵּבִין אֶל כָּל מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם (תהלים לג:טו). וּבֶחָג נִדּוֹנִין עַל הַמָּיִם.
m. Rosh Hashanah 1:2 At four times the world is judged: On Pesach, for the crops. On Shavuot, for the fruits of the tree. On Rosh Hashanah, all the world passes before Him like sheep, as it says, “He that fashions the hearts of them all, that considers all their doings.” (Ps 33:15) And on Sukkot, they are judged for the water.” (Koren Steinsaltz with adjustments [Sefaria])
Editor’s note: For more on this, see Aaron Demsky, “The Essence of the Hebrew Calendar,” TheTorah (2016).
Editor’s note: For a discussion of how the pouring water ritual fits with this theme, see Zev Farber, “ניסוך המים a Sukkot Rain Making Ritual,” TheTorah (2015).
The Mishnah states:
משנה סוכות ד:ה מִצְוַת עֲרָבָה כֵּיצַד, מָקוֹם הָיָה לְמַטָּה מִירוּשָׁלַיִם, וְנִקְרָא מוֹצָא. יוֹרְדִין לְשָׁם וּמְלַקְּטִין מִשָּׁם מֻרְבִּיּוֹת שֶׁל עֲרָבָה, וּבָאִין וְזוֹקְפִין אוֹתָן בְּצִדֵּי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, וְרָאשֵׁיהֶן כְּפוּפִין עַל גַּבֵּי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ. תָּקְעוּ וְהֵרִיעוּ וְתָקָעוּ. בְּכָל יוֹם מַקִּיפִין אֶת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ פַּעַם אַחַת, וְאוֹמְרִים, אָנָּא ה' הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא, אָנָּא ה' הַצְלִיחָה נָּא.
m. Sukkot 4:5 How is the mitzvah of the willow [branches] done? There was a place below Jerusalem, and it is called Motzah. They would descend to there and gather from there large willow branches, and they would come and stand them upright on the sides of the altar, with their tips inclining over the alter. They would blow a tekiyah [a steady blast], and a teruah [a broken blast], and a tekiyah. Every day they would circle the altar one time and say, "We beseech you Hashem, redeem us, please; we beseech you Hashem, bring prosperity, please."” (Koren Steinsaltz [Sefaria])
For more on these rituals and prayers, see Zev Farber, “The Mystical Ritual of Hoshana Rabbah: Summoning God,” TheTorah (2013). On the day after Hoshana Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret, is a prayer for rain, after which the request for rain is inserted in the daily prayers.
For the books of names, see b. Rosh Hashanah 16b.
This work takes the form of a series of exempla: moralistic tales that were commonly used in the medieval period as teaching tools by both Jewish and Christian authors. Though the book as a whole is generally attributed to R. Judah the Pious of Regensburg (d. 1217), parts may have been written by his father R. Samuel ben Kalonymus of Speyer, as well as by his student Eleazar of Worms (“the Rokeach,” d. 1238).
Hebrew text follows the Jehuda Wistentzki edition (Berlin, 1891), which is the only printed edition to follow the larger Parma manuscript (codex De Rossi #1133). Translations are from Susan Weissman, Final Judgement and the Dead in Medieval Jewish Thought (Liverpool University Press, 2020), 116, with adjustments.
Within the world of Sefer Chasidim, the souls of the dead were understood to exist within afterlife comprised of Gan Eden (Paradise) and Gehinnom (Hell), though the boundaries are porous and the punishments and rewards not always eternal. The reference to the dead praying specifically for the dead is unusual in Sefer Chasidim: Weissman notes that it is the exception to the general rule of Judah the Pious that help should come from the living and not the dead. Weissman, Final Judgment, 312 n. 21.
Cited and translated in Weissman, Final Judgement, 116
The story is cited and translated in Weissman, Final Judgement, 115.
Burial in a matting of reeds rather than fabric shrouds would represent a family that did not have the means to bury the dead according to custom. In Part V of A.P. Bender, “Beliefs, Rites, and Customs of the Jews, Connected with Death, Burial, and Mourning,” (Jewish Quarterly Review 7.2 [Jan. 1895], 264) the author notes with respect to this passage that “interment in a simple reed-mat, מחצלת של קנים, was considered as a token of disrespect to the dead, and suggested in the eyes of the people that the departed had been placed under ban, and could not be united with the bands of spirits pervading the world.”
Nachmanides’ interpretation is also quoted in the commentary of R. Menahem Recanati (1223–1290), and in the Sukkot section of the Sefer Abudarham.
In his notes on the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim §664, R. Moses Isserles (1525-1572) cites the practice as something done by “the Rishonim,” concluding that “it is better to be pious and not to investigate the future.”
Editor’s note: For more on this prayer, see Jeff Hoffman, “U’Netaneh Tokef: Repentance, Prayer and Charity Cancel the Decree?” TheTorah (2014); Reuven Kimelman, “U’Netaneh Tokef: A Commentary,” TheTorah (2023).
