On Shmini Atzeres (say the
eighth day of Succos) Jews start mentioning in their daily prayers that the
holy One, blessed be He, brings back the wind and brings down the rain (משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם). In the land of Israel on the seventh of
Heshvan, we add a specific prayer for rain, “Give [us] dew and rain for a
blessing (תן טל ומטר לברכה) on the face of the
earth. Both become a regular insertion in the Shmone-Esre (sequence of 18
benedictions) and if one completely forgets to say it, the entire unit must be
repeated.

The Gemara (Taanis 19b) tells
a story about a great tsadik, Nakdimon ben Gurion that in a year of
sparse rain, the pilgrims to Jerusalem had no water to drink. To help them
Nakdimon ben Gurion borrowed 12 cisterns of water from a Roman magnate,
pledging him twelve large bars of silver if he did not return them in full by a
specific date. The day arrived and there still had not been rain, consequently
the Roman demanded the money. Nakdimon replied that the day was still not over.
The Roman mocked him and thought there’s been no rain this year so it’s not
going to rain today and left in a happy mood. Nakdimon then went to the Temple
and profusely prayed to G-d for rain. In the afternoon clouds covered the sky
and copious rain fell filling the twelve empty cisterns. When he returned the
water, the Roman claimed that because it was dark a new day had begun therefore
the contract was not properly fulfilled and demanded the collateral. With that
the clouds cleared revealing the sun shining above absolving Nakdimon of any
further responsibility.
The Mishna (Taanis
3:8) tells a similar story. It was a year of drought so the people asked the
great tsadik, Honi Hamagel, to pray for rain. He then instructed the people to
bring in anything that may be damaged in a storm then prayed for rain. When
nothing happened he drew a circle, stood in it, and swore an oath to G-d that
he would not leave the circle until proper rain had fallen. With that generous
rains of blessing descended. The giant of the generation, Shimon ben Shetach,
then commented if anybody else behaved like that, he would have excommunicated
him. However, he cannot do anything about Honi, because when Honi pesters the
Almighty, he is doing His will, like a child who pesters his father bit but is in
fact doing what he wants. Concerning him it is written, “He will make his
father and mother happy and gladden the one who bore him, (Proverbs 23:25).
The Chumash states
that plants and trees did not initially sprout because it had not rained and
that man had not yet been created. Rashi explains that the reason was because
there was nobody to recognize the good that comes from rain. When Adam the
first man arrived he knew that the world needs rain, prayed for it, and it
came. From this the Gemara (Chulin 60b) concludes that HaKadosh Baruch Hu
desires the prayers of the righteous. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov comments that it
is very good if a person is able pour out his thoughts before Hashem yisbarach
with pleading and feeling like a child who is pestering his father. He
continues, has not Hashem yisbarach already called us children as it says,
“children you are to Hashem your G-d”, (Devarim 11:1).
It comes out that
praying for rain is one of the places where we begin to develop a personal
relationship with the Almighty. The insertions are very simple, but are times
when we forget them in the course of our dovening. At that point we must go
through the bother of repeating the Amida in part or entirely. There has not
been a drought in many decades so bad that people could not find water to
drink. However it is not rare for the level of water in the Sea of Galilee to
be low enough to cause concern. It’s at these times we recognize that rain
really is important and cannot be taken for granted.
More generally there
are times when we must contemplate our situation in view of what is really
G-d’s will. It is better if the first time a person does some real soul
searching that it is not in a time of personal crisis. In addition one who is
skilled at this type of contemplation will become a wiser and better person.
לע"נ, הדוד ,שמואל בן נח ז"ל נלב"ע
ט"ו אב תשס"ט,
Acknowledgements to websites:
תורת אמת, וויקיטקסט, http://dictionary.reference.com/,
http://hebrewbooks.org/,
וגם בדואר אלקטרוני
ניתן באתר http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il
Blogger English
http://dyschreiber.blogspot.com/2014/11/pray-for-rain.html
Blogger Hebrew http://dyschreiber.blogspot.com/2014/11/97.html
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