Succah 4:4-5

Succah 4:4

If the first day of Succos fell on Shabbos, everyone would bring their lulavim to the Temple on Friday. The Temple officers would put them on top of the itzt’va (a portico) but the elderly would put theirs in a chamber. The people were instructed to assign their lulavim as a gift to whoever might take it. The next day (Shabbos), the people would come early and the Temple officers would distribute the lulavim. The people used to grab the lulavim and hit one another in an attempt to find their own, so the court ultimately ruled that everyone should simply shake the lulav at home.

Succah 4:5

The aravos ceremony was as follows: Below Jerusalem was a place called Motza. They would gather large willow branches from there and put them on the sides of the altar with the tops bending over the altar. They would sound tekiah, teruah and tekiah on the shofar and every day the people would circle the altar once saying, “Please, Hashem, save us! Please, Hashem, cause us to prosper!” Rabbi Yehuda said that they recited “Ani Vaho, save us!” On the seventh day of Succos, they would circle the altar seven times. When they departed, they would praise the altar’s beauty; Rabbi Eliezer said that they would praise both God and the altar.