Praying for Rain: A Different Kind of Climate Change

One requests rain only immediately preceding the rainy season....Until when does one request rain? Rabbi Yehuda says:Until Passover has passed. Rabbi Meir says: UntilNisan has ended, as it is stated: “And He causes to come down for you the rain, the first rain and the last rain, in the first month” (Joel 2:23)On the third ofMarḥeshvan one starts to request rain. Rabban Gamliel says:on the seventh of Marḥeshvan, which is fifteen days after the festival of Sukkot, so that the last pilgrim of the Jewish peoplecan reach the Euphrates River without being inconvenienced by rain on his journey home.

Rabbi Elazar said: The halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Rabban Gamliel, that one does not begin to request rain until the seventh of Marḥeshvan. It is taught in a baraita that Ḥananya says: And in the Diaspora one does not begin to request rain until sixty days into the season, i.e., sixty days after the autumnal equinox. Rav Huna bar Ḥiyya said that Shmuel said: The halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Ḥananya.

The inhabitants of Nineveh sent a question to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: People such as us, who require rain even during the season of Tammuz,what should we do when there is a drought during the summer? Are we likened to individuals or are we likened to a community? Are we likened to individuals and therefore we pray for rain in the blessing: Who listens to prayer? Or are we likened to a community and we pray for rain in the ninth blessing, the blessing of the years? He sent his answer to them: You are likened to individuals and therefore you pray for rain in the blessing: Who listens to prayer.The Gemara raises an objection from a baraita: Rabbi Yehuda said: When do the halakhot concerning the times during which the prayer for rain is recited apply? When the years, i.e., the climate, are as they ought to be and the Jewish people are living in their land. However, nowadays, when the Jewish people are dispersed around the world, and the climate is not always as it ought to be, all is in accordance with the year, i.e., the local climate, all is in accordance with the place in question, and all is in accordance with the particular time, and therefore one prays for rain in the blessing of the years, as necessary for the local climate. He said to him: You raise a contradiction from a baraita against Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi himself is a tanna, and consequently has the authority to dispute the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda.The Gemara asks: What halakhic conclusion was reached about this matter? Rav Naḥman said: One prays for rain in the blessing of the years, in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda. Rav Sheshet said: One prays in the blessing: Who listens to prayer, as stated by Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. The Gemara concludes: And the halakha is that if rain is required when it is not the rainy season in Eretz Yisrael, one prays for rain in the blessing: Who listens to prayer.

In the other countries [outside the Land of Israel], the request is at a time when rain is good and proper in that place, and that time is considered as if it were the seventh of Marḥeshvan, and if rain is delayed after that time, one should react in regard to the fasts as has been prescribed. For there are countries in which rain begins only in Nisan and countries which have summer in Marḥeshvan; and rain, instead of being good for them, kills and destroys them. How can people in such a place ask for rain in Marḥeshvan? Would that not be both a lie and foolishness? This is true and obvious.

Beginning with the seventh day of Marḥeshvan, one begins to ask for rain in the blessing of the years.... this is the rule for the Land of Israel. But in Shinar, Syria, Egypt, and adjacent territories, as well as in other places like them [in climate], one begins to ask for rain sixty days after the autumnal equinox. In places that require rain in the summer, for instance in the distant sea islands, one begins to ask for rain, whenever it is needed, in "Who listens to prayer."

In the year 5073 from the creation of the world [1313-14], the rains were withheld and only a bit of precipitation fell all winter. A fast was called, to beg God to give rain upon the soil. On the first night of Passover, after the evening prayers, my master and father, R. Asher, sat at the door to his home, and we, some of his confidantes, stood over him to the right and left. He said: “Now is a good time to raise something about which I have always wondered. Why not invoke and petition for rain until Shavuot?” Some of the confidantes responded: “It would be good to notify the elders to do so.” It was right in their eyes, and they sent word to the synagogue cantor to invoke rain the next day. So they did. The thirteen attributes were invoked in the large synagogue, and there was a great cry during the invocations. And some of the sages protested that this was done without their counsel, and they spread a rumor saying that it should not have been done, for it portends curse. My father and master, R. Asher, held back and said nothing on that day, until the night of ḥol ha-mo’ed. Then he wrote a treatise to support his words, and this is its content: Since I have heard that some are astonished at my words, I have come to explain what I have said—that currently it is not proper to cease invoking and petitioning for rain on the first day of Passover. It was not from when it happened; rather, already many years ago in Germany I protested two things that I saw practiced in those days. The first is that they do not petition for rain properly.... Babylon sits on a great deal of water, and they did not require rain until the sixtieth day of the season. Alternatively, the planting season was later in Babylon. But in Germany, where the planting season begins in the middle of Tishrei, it is well known that if the rains do not fall immediately after the seeds are planted, they will be ruined, as the birds and rats will eat them all. So why should we not practice in accordance with the people of the Land of Israel, who petition for rain in Marḥeshvan, like Rabban Gamliel? .... The second practice is that they customarily stop invoking and petitioning for rain on the first day of Passover, whereas it is well known that in Germany the sustenance of the produce is primarily from the rains that fall between Passover and Shavuot.... [In Ta'anit 14b] we see that Rabbi only disagrees regarding the residents of a single city. However, regarding the land of Germany, which is very broad, Rabbi would agree that that they continue petitioning as long as they need rain, and since they petition out of need, they certainly invoke, for invoking also serves the petition....

When I left Germany and passed through Provence, I heard that in Provence they would invoke the rains on the seventh of Marḥeshvan, and I deemed this to be quite correct. I said to the sages of Montpelier: “You have answered one of my questions; what do you do with regard to stopping [to invoke and petition for rain]?” They said that they practice in accordance with the Mishnah: they stop on the first day of Passover. I said to them: “Is it possible that you do not require rain between Passover and Shavuot?” They told me that they require much rain, and that the produce cannot survive without rain. So I presented my words to them, as they are written above, and they found it to be quite correct, but they said: “That we petition from the seventh of Marḥeshvan is because this was the practice instituted by the early sages. But with regard to stopping, we cannot do anything to change the practice unless we gather all the sages of the land.” I left there without knowing what they agreed to do.

And when I came here [to Spain], I saw that we need rain between Passover and Shavuot even more than other places. Several times I told my colleagues that it would be proper not to stop invoking and petitioning until Shavuot. For now I know that in all the lands with which I am familiar, the main rains are between Passover and Shavuot, and certainly much of them. Yet I did not dare to speak these words to change the practice. But now that I see that, because of our sins, the rains have stopped, and the plantings have been ruined, and we are fasting for rains, and even on Sabbaths and holidays, when we do not fast, we invoke the thirteen attributes and recite verses pertaining to rain, my heart has said to me: the time has now come to institute what I have wanted to do for many years, for they will certainly heed me during such a time of distress; and if this is prescribed for them during the present year, they will find it sweet, and they will not relent from it. They would certainly do so, but they tilted their hearts and changed back their minds.

... One who scrutinized [Rambam's] words will find them precise. In his commentary on the Mishna he wrote “lands”—since there is a difference between the Land of Israel and Babylon with regard to invoking and petitioning for rain, we can derive that they are not considered as a public, but are one land, and they recite it during the season that they need to petition for rain, in the blessing of the years. But in his composition [Mishneh Torah] he wrote: “Places that require rain during the sunny season, such as distant islands.” These are not considered separate lands. Thus, they are considered individuals, and they recite it in "who listens to prayer." It has thus been demonstrated and it is well known that in Germany, which is a large land, and France, and all the lands between Germany and this land, including this land, all require rain between Passover and Shavuot. And they are certainly a public and may petition for rain in the blessing of the years and invoke rains in the winter like residents of the Land of Israel. But when I saw that they had swayed the heart of the community to not accept the words of the living God from me, I too retracted from petitioning and invoking rain in the synagogue I attend, even though I could have petitioned, and even though I am an individual, since it is a public need. Nevertheless, I did not want to create multiple factions.