For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 45
To download, click/tap here: PDF
A new Mishna tells how willow branches were part of the Sukkot rituals. Motza, a town close to Jerusalem, would provide very long willow branches which would stand at the sides of the altar. The branches were tall enough to drape above and over the Altar. With shofar blasts, people would circle the altar once each day and call out, "HaShem, Hoshia Na! HaShem, HaSelicha Na!" (Psalms 110:25) and possibly more.
The Talmud Yerushalmi explains that this was done in remembrance of the victory in Yericho (see Yehoshua chapter 6), when the Jewish people circled the city once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day before the walls of the city collapsed.
We explore this most enigmatic and mysterious of the Succot rituals and how it is expressed in different modern versions of the siddur depending upon how much discomfort there is with anthropomorphism (analogy) and kabbalah (mimesis).