I’ve written in the past on the joyous celebration of Succos in our Shuls. Our Shul does however have one ongoing problem on Succos, and that is the Hoshanos Conundrum.
As you know there is a custom to circle around the Shul bimah on the days of Succos, except for Shabbos. During the circle a different Hoshana prayer is read with the congregation repeating after the Baal Tefillah. It is preferred that a full circle is made. Our problem is that because of the number of people in Shul on the Yom Tov days, we’ve run out of prayer, before we have completed the circle.
These are some of the solutions we have tried:
-Coaching people on the need to keep walking.
-Making two concentric circles.
-Splitting the Shul into two groups, each taking a turn.
Although Shul logistic problems are usually solvable, none of the solutions have worked very well. In truth it’s a relatively harmless problem and it gives us a safe place to direct our kibbutizing energy. So although I’ll follow the Gabbai’s new instructions this year, it won’t be so bad if we don’t solve the Hoshanos Conundrum this year.