This ready-to-use text, which includes commentary and kavanot, has been excerpted from Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom.

Download the B'rakhot on the Lulav & Etrog

This ready-to-use text, which includes commentary and kavanot, has been excerpted from Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom.

Download Hallel

The sukkah is a temporary structure which shelters us -- but rabbinic texts describe it as more than that. This sourcesheet for discussion or individual study looks at the concept of sukkah as shelter and how our spending time in a sukkah may have an impact on us that lasts longer than the length of the holiday.

Download the sourcesheet

This ready-to-use text, which includes commentary and kavanot, has been excerpted from Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom. The excerpt also includes rabbinic legends on each of the guests.

Download the Ushpizin Excerpt

This ready-to-use text, which includes the Hoshanot for Hol Hamoed, Shabbat, and Hoshanah Rabbah, has been excerpted from Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom. 

• Download the Hoshanot (Hol Hamoed, Shabbat, and Hoshanah Rabbah)
• Download the Hoshanot (Hoshanah Rabbah only)

By Bradley Shavit Artson, Ziegler School

This CJ Journal article originally appeared in Vol. 48, No. 4, Summer, 1996, pp. 26–34. The introduction follows below:

One of Judaism's oddest rituals is that of beating the aravot (willow fronds) during the services for Hoshanah Rabbah, the final Hol ha-Mo’ed day of Sukkot.