Sukkot and Hoshana Rabba

The Sukkot festival is one where we have to separate fact from fiction. What is practiced in Synagogues today, whether Orthodox, Conservative or reform are follow-ons from manufactured traditions. The structure of the festival had been tampered with by the Rabbis, Talmudic and post talmudic.

First of all, the Hoshana Rabba concept is nowhere to found in the TeNach, and is a rabbinical creation, as far as I know.

Next, there is another ritual that is nowhere in the Torah, that was created by the rabbis also. This is the Water Libation. The Talmud records a false prophecy (which was never uttered in any of the Prophetic books) , which alleges God to have said “Pour water before me so that your yearly rain be blessed” (T.B. Taanit 2a)

The Torah specifies what the sacrificial offering are in Numbers 29:12 – 39. There is no mention of any Water libation here, or anywhere else in the TNK. The fact that Pharisees invented this (possibly a Greek or Babylonian pagan ritual). Judith Hauptman suggests that this innovation was similar to the dispute over the Omer (barley) offering between the Sadducees and Pharisees. The rivalry (as in competitor religions, supermarkets, etc.) involves the innovator producing a product differentiation, so as to take a different position in the market from competitors. As has already been seen, this led to a violent dispute between the Sadducee leaning King Janneus, and the Pharisees, which culminated in the Pharisees siding with Demetrius, which is typical of their treacherous nature.

But there is an additional feature of the new festivals of the rabbis, and that is the special mystical nature of Hoshana Rabba. In the Torah, this is the 7^th day of the Sukkot festival, and is not a day where work is forbidden. For the post-talmudic rabbis, it acquired a new meaning – it became a second Yom Kippur. That is not for fasting, but an second opportunity to have one's sins forgiven! Ordinarily I would criticise anything which is an addition to the Torah, and thus I must also criticise this one. However, the idea behind it, is not altogether wrong, or stemming from a bad place. This is because Teshuva/repentance is not limited only to Yom HaKippurim.

Thus, repentance can be done on any day of the year.

One additional point. Although I am highly critical of Phariseeic religion, that is not the same as Orthodox people of today. In general, they are hospitable and ethical people, although in some extremist circles that may not be the case. If the rabbis had ordained that people dress like Disney characters on Sukkot, then that is what Orthodox people would generally do. So it is a case of them being faithful to their sages, rather than knowingly violate the Torah.