...We sit flush with the world, in a ‘house’ that calls attention to the fact that it gives us no shelter. It is not really a house. It is the interrupted idea of a house, a parody of a house… It is like that architectural feature called the broken pediment, the notch in the roofline of the facade of a house which leaves the mind to complete the line, and thus implants the idea of a line in the mind even more forcefully than an unbroken line would. So it is that the sukkah, with its broken lines, its open roof, its walls that don’t quite surround us, calls the idea of the house to mind more forcefully than a house itself might do.
And it exposes the idea of a house as an illusion. The idea of a house is that it gives us security, shelter, haven from the storm. But no house can really offer us this. No building of wood and stone can ever afford us protection from the disorder that is always lurking all around us. No shell we put between us and the world can ever really keep us secure from it. And we know this. We never really believed this illusion. That’s why we never felt truly secure in it [...]
In the sukkah, a house that is open to the world, a house that freely acknowledges that it cannot be the basis of our security, we let go of this need. The illusion of protection falls away, and suddenly we are flush with our life, feeling our life, following our life, doing its dance, one step after another.
Rabbi Alan Lew, z''l, from This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared
אמר רבי חמא בר' חנינא: גדול יום הגשמים כיום שנבראו שמים וארץ שנאמר (ישעיהו מה, ח) הרעיפו שמים ממעל ושחקים יזלו צדק תפתח ארץ ויפרו ישע וצדקה תצמיח יחד אני בראתיו
Rabbi Chama the son of Chanina said, "The day of rain is as great as the day of the creation of heaven and earth, as it says, 'Heavens, drop down from above, and let the sky pour forth righteousness; let the earth open and flower salvation, and righteousness will grow along with it- I am G-d, I have created it.'
(ג) כי לא המטיר ה' אלהים על הארץ. מזכיר שם מלא, על עולם מלא. אמר רבי חלפאי: כשם שהוא מזכיר שם מלא על עולם מלא, כך הוא מזכיר שם מלא בירידת גשמים. אר"ש בן יוחאי: שלושה דברים שקולין זה כזה, ואלו הן: ארץ; ואדם; ומטר. אמר רבי לוי בר חייא: ושלושתן מג' אותיות, ללמדך שאם אין ארץ אין מטר, ואם אין מטר אין ארץ, ואם אין שניהם אין אדם:
(ד) אמר רבי הושעיא: קשה היא גבורות גשמים, שהיא שקולה כנגד כל מעשה בראשית. מאי טעמא? (איוב ה) עושה גדולות ואין חקר וגו'. במה? (שם) הנותן מטר על פני ארץ ושולח מים על פני חוצות...ואימתי אנו ואתם שמחים? בירידת גשמים. מאי טעמא? (שם) לבשו כרים הצאן ועמקים יעטפו בר יתרועעו אף ישירו מה כתוב אחריו? הריעו לה' כהנים לוים וישראלים אין כתיב, אלא הריעו לה' כל הארץ.
(3) "Because ha-Shem Elohim had not sent rain upon the earth." (Br. 2:5) The full Name [of God] for a full world; as for creation, as for the fall of rain. R. Shimon b. Yohai said: Three things are equal in importance, viz., land, people, and rain. R. Levi b. Hiyya said: And these three each consist of three letters, to teach that without land there would be no rain and without rain the land could not endure; while without either people could not exist.
(4) Said Rabbi Hosh'aiah: Virile rain is potent, as it is equivalent to the act of creation. What is its proof? "Who performs great deeds which cannot be fathomed, wondrous things without number" and "Who gives rain to the earth, and sends water over the outdoors."
...When does all humanity rejoice together? When the rains descend. What is the proof? "The flocks become clothed with karim"; what follows? "Shout unto God, all the earth" (Ps. 66:1): not priests, Levites, or Israelites is written here but, 'All the earth,'
מאי גבורות גשמים א"ר יוחנן מפני שיורדין בגבורה....
אמר ר' יוחנן ג' מפתחות בידו של הקב"ה שלא נמסרו ביד שליח ואלו הן מפתח של גשמים ומפתח של חיה ומפתח של תחיית המתים ... במערבא אמרי אף מפתח של פרנסה דכתיב (תהילים קמה) פותח את ידך וגו' ור' יוחנן מאי טעמא לא קא חשיב להא אמר לך גשמים היינו פרנסה:
B. Talmud Ta'anit 2a-b
Why "the power of rain" [in the winter prayer for rain]? R. Yochanan said: Because [rain] descends by the power [of God]...
R. Yochanan said: Three keys are in the hands of the Holy One, blessed be He, and not entrusted to any messenger, namely: the Key of Rain, the Key of Childbirth [alt: Conception], and the Key of Reviving the Dead...
In the West they say, also the Key of Sustenance, as it is written, You open your hand [and satisfy the desire of every living thing, Ps. 145:16]. Why didn’t R. Yochanan list this [key]? He could answer: [the key of] rain is [the same as the key of] sustenance.
(ב) בארבעה פרקים העולם נידון. בפסח על התבואה. בעצרת על פירות האילן. בראש השנה כל באי העולם עוברין לפניו כבני מרון. שנאמר (תהלים לג, טו) היוצר יחד לבם המבין אל כל מעשיהם. ובחג. נידונין על המים:
(2) At four times the world is judged: On Pesach, for the crops. On Shavuot, for the fruits of the tree. On Rosh Hashnah, all the world passes before Him like sheep, as it says, "He that fashioneth the hearts of them all, that considereth all their doings." (Psalms 33:15) And on Sukkot, they are judged for the water.
Like Water, Like Torah
Words of Torah are compared to water: “Everyone that thirsts come to the water” (Isaiah. 55:1). As water reaches from one end of the world to the other, so Torah reaches from one end of the world to the other. As water gives life to the world, so Torah gives life to the world. As water is given without cost to the world, so is Torah given without cost to the world. As water is given from heaven, so Torah is given from heaven. As water is given with thunder, so was Torah given to the accompaniment of thunder (at Sinai). As water restores a person's spirit, so Torah restores a person’s spirit. As water cleanses a person from uncleanness, so Torah cleanses an unclean person from their uncleanness. As water comes down in many drops and becomes a mighty river, so Torah; today a person learns two laws, tomorrow two more, and so on, until they become like a bubbling brook. As water leaves a high place and flows to a low place, so Torah leaves them whose opinion of themselves are high and cleaves to them whose spirit is lowly. As water is not kept in vessels of silver or gold, but only in the cheapest of vessels, so Torah abides only in one who regards themselves as lowly as an earthenware vessel. As when thirsty, a grown person is not ashamed to say to a child, "Let me have a drink of water," so in studying Torah a grown person who is unlearned should not be ashamed to say to a child, "Teach me a chapter or a verse or a word," or even "Teach me a single letter." As with water, if one does not know how to swim in it, they will end by drowning, so with words of Torah: if one does not know how to swim in them and teach them, he will drown in the end.
BT. Eruvin 54a
מה היה תחילתו של רבי עקיבא?
אמרו, בן ארבעים שנה היה ולא שנה כלום. פעם אחת היה עומד על פי הבאר. אמר: מי חקק אבן זו? אמרו לו: המים שתדיר נופלים עליה בכל יום. אמרו לו: עקיבא אי אתה קורא "אבנים שחקו מים"? מיד היה רבי עקיבא דן קל וחומר בעצמו: מה רך פסל את הקשה, דברי תורה שקשה כברזל על אחת כמה וכמה שיחקקו את לבי שהוא בשר ודם. מיד חזר ללמוד תורה.
הלך הוא ובנו וישבו אצל מלמדי תינוקות. אמר לו: רבי למדני תורה. אחז רבי עקיבא בראש הלוח, ובנו בראש הלוח. כתב לו אלף בית ולמדה. אלף תיו ולמדה, תורת כהנים ולמדה. היה לומד והולך עד שלמד כל התורה כולה. הלך וישב לפני רבי אליעזר ולפני ר' יהושע. אמר להם: רבותי, פתחו לי טעם משנה. כיון שאמר לו הלכה אחת, הלך וישב לו בינו לבין עצמו. אמר: אלף זו למה נכתבה? בית זו למה נכתבה? דבר זה למה נאמר? חזר ושאלן והעמידן בדברים.
רבי שמעון בן אלעזר אומר: אמשול לך משל למה הדבר דומה: לסתת שהיה מסתת בהרים. פעם אחת נטל קרדומו בידו, והלך וישב על ההר, והיה מכה ממנו צרורות דקות. ובאו בני אדם ואמרו לו: מה אתה עושה? אמר להם: הרי אני עוקר ומטילו בתוך הירדן. אמרו לו: אי אתה יכול לעקור את כל ההר! היה מסתת והולך, עד שהגיע אצל סלע גדול. נכנס תחתיו, סתרו ועקרו והטילו אל הירדן. ואמר לו: אין זה מקומך אלא מקום זה. כך עשה להם רבי עקיבא לרבי אליעזר ורבי יהושע. אמר לו רבי טרפון: עקיבא, עליך הכתוב אומר (איוב כח) "מבכי נהרות חבש ותעלומה יוציא אור". דברים המסותרים מבני אדם הוציאם רבי עקיבא לאורה.
Akiva and the Dripping Water
Avot de Rabbi Natan
(Version A, Chapter 6)
What were the beginnings of Rabbi Akiva? It is said: When he was forty years of age, he had not yet studied anything. One day he stood at the mouth of the well. “Who hollowed out this stone?” he wondered. They said to him: “The water that falls on it every day.” They said to him: “Akiva, have you not read, Stones, worn away by water (Job 14:19)? Immediately, Rabbi Akiva drew an inference [kal v’chomer] with regard to himself: if what is soft carves out the hard, all the more shall the words of Torah, which are as hard as iron, hollow out my heart, which is flesh and blood. Immediately, he returned to study Torah.
He went with his son and they sat before a teacher of young children. Rabbi Akiva said to him, “Master, teach me Torah.” Rabbi Akiva took hold of one end of the tablet and his son took the other end of the tablet. The teacher wrote down aleph-bet for him and he learned it; aleph-tav, and he learned it; the Book of Leviticus, and he learned it. He went on studying until he learned the whole of Torah.
Then he went and appeared before Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua. “My masters,” he said to them, ”give me a sense of the Mishna." When they told him one halachah, he went off to be by himself. “This aleph he wondered, why was it written? That bet, why was it written? This word, why was it said?” He came back and asked them - and reduced them to silence.
Rabbi Simeon ben Menasseh says: I will tell you a parable; to what may it be compared? To a stonecutter who was sitting on a mountainside. (Some men came by and) they said to him, “What are you doing?” He answered, “I am trying to uproot it [the mountain].” They said to him, “Can you?” He answered, “Yes."
He began to chip away little stones and throw them into the Jordan. He saw a large stone, and worked an iron pick underneath the stone, and then threw it into the Jordan. He saw another, larger than the first, and worked an iron pick underneath it, and then threw it into the Jordan. He said, “Let your place be the Jordan; this is not your place,” as Scripture says, Man puts his hand to the flinty rock, and overturns mountains by the roots (Job 28:9).