Praying for Rain

The earth is the LORD’s and all that it holds, the world and its inhabitants.

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: Until Nisan 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)

When do we begin praying for 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 people can reach the Euphrates River without being inconvenienced by rain on his journey home.

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?

Rav said: You pray for rain in the blessing: Blessed are you, Lord our God, who listens to prayer. 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 has gathered the waters of the sea like a mound, and He has put the deeps in storehouses.” (Ps. 33:7:)Now what is the meaning of “He gathers like a mound?”

When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, He said to the ministering angel of the sea, “Open your mouth and swallow all the waters of creation,” he said [back] to Him, “Master of the world, it is enough for me to continue with what is [already] mine.” Then he began to weep. [So God] kicked him to death, as stated (in Job 26:12), “In His power He stilled the sea, and in His understanding He struck down Rahab.” You find that the ministering angel of the sea was named Rahab. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He subdued [the waters] and trampled them down; and [the sea] accepted them, as stated (in Amos 4:13), “He tramples on the heights of the earth.”

R. Levi asked: it is written, "The earth is God's and the fullness thereof,"(Ps. 24:1) and it is written, "The heavens are God's heavens, but God gave the earth to humankind" (PS. 115:16) There is no contradiction; Humankind is forbidden to enjoy anything without saying a blessing over it...the former verse applies before one pronounces the blessing; the latter verse applies after one pronounces it.

Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa said: Anyone who derives benefit from this world without a blessing, it is as if he stole from God and the community of Israel, as it is stated: “Whoever robs his father and his mother and says: It is no transgression, he is the companion of a destroyer” (Proverbs 28:24).

I loathe, I spurn your festivals, I am not appeased by your solemn assemblies. If you offer Me burnt offering- or your meal offerings- I will not accept them; I will pay no heed to your gifts of fatlings. Spare Me the sound of your hymns, and let Me not hear the music of your lutes. But let justice well up like water, righteousness like an unfailing stream.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught a parable: Men were on a ship. One of them took a drill and started drilling underneath him. The others said to him: What are sitting and doing?! He replied: What do you care. Is this not underneath my area that I am drilling?! They said to him: But the water will rise and flood us all on this ship. This is as Iyob said (Job 19:4): "If indeed I have erred, my error remains with me." But his friends said to him (Job 34:37): "He adds transgression to his sin; he extends it among us."

One day, Honi was walking along the road when he saw a certain man planting a carob tree. Ḥoni said to him: This tree, after how many years will it bear fruit? The man said to him: It will not produce fruit until seventy years have passed. Ḥoni said to him: Is it obvious to you that you will live seventy years, that you expect to benefit from this tree? He said to him: That man himself found a world full of carob trees. Just as my ancestors planted for me, I too am planting for my descendants.