Waiting for Rain: Reflections at the Turning of the Year

Chapter Ten Through Fire and Rain

Chapter Ten
Through Fire and Rain
In the Bible, Sukkot is a time of celebration, a harvest festival when the people are instructed to rejoice before the Lord. When the word hag—festival—is used without further qualifiers, it refers specifically to Sukkot and not to the other holidays. The Rabbis, however, transformed Sukkot into a day of judgment. There are four periods during which the world is judged. On Pesach regarding grain; on Shavuot regarding the fruit of the trees; on Rosh Hashanah all of mankind passes before Him like a flock . . . u’ba-hag—and on the festival (Sukkot) the world is judged regarding water. (M. RH 1:2) As Sukkot draws to a close, we approach the seventh day, Hoshana Rabbah, as one last opportunity for impassioned pleas for salvation and the Eighth Day of Solemn Assembly, Shemini Atzeret, as the day we pray for rain. The divine judgment to which the Mishnah alludes is said to reach its climax on that day. It is a day for us to contemplate the needs of the coming year, and to recognize that God’s gift of rain will either be granted or withheld relative to our worthiness. 197 This is a time of sober realization that the tally of our past actions is about to be translated into the divine allocation of life-giving water for the coming year. If we are found wanting, the threat of drought, suffering, and death hangs over our heads. The chief annual prayer for rain is found in the liturgy for Shemini Atzeret, which is characterized in talmudic law by a single practice: the insertion into our prayers of the declaration, Mashiv ha-ruah u-morid ha-geshem—“He causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall.” Several weeks (or outside of Israel, several months) before we petition God for rain through the prayer, “and give us dew and rain with blessing,” we unequivocally assert that it is God, Who performs great deeds which cannot be fathomed, Wondrous things without number; Who gives rain to the earth, And sends water over the fields. (Job 5:9–10) God’s great works in nature are independent of our petty merits or requests. Have we then no role to play in the divine economy of the universe ? The sages have consoled us that despite our unworthiness and many failings, God takes careful note of each act of righteousness that we perform in determining when He opens the windows of heaven and pours down His limitless blessings. The following vignette is a poignant example of this notion. Rav arrived at a certain place and called a public fast, but no rain came. A man began to pray for the community and as he said, “He makes the wind blow”—the wind blew. “He makes the rain fall”—and the rain fell. Rav approached him and asked, “What do you do?” He replied, “I am a teacher of young children. I teach Bible to the children of the poor along with the children of the rich. Whoever is unable to pay studies free of charge. I also have a fishpond and any delinquent child I 198
Waiting for Rain encourage and calm by letting him play at the fishpond until he is able to regain composure and study.” (B. Ta’an. 24a) Rav, the first and greatest of the Amoraim, calls a fast in the wake of a drought—and absolutely nothing happens. It is only when a local parishioner says the words “mashiv ha-ruah u-morid ha-geshem” that the winds begin to blow and the rains begin to fall. Rav assumes that the shaliah tzibbur must be a man of great stature to have brought the rain, but when Rav inquires, he discovers that the shaliah tzibbur is a simple schoolteacher. The man describes his work by focusing on his devotion to his students. His nondiscriminating educational philosophy allowed for the poor to study along with the rich, and his patience and creativity enabled him to reach children who were educationally challenged and socially incorrigible. It is this melamed (schoolteacher) with his fishpond who was able to open the storehouses of heaven and bring forth God’s bounty, through acts of justice, lovingkindness, and humility. The Bible is replete with descriptions of drought and the farreaching effects it has on man and nature. The prophet Joel, for example , vividly...