Akko children pray for rain
Akko children pray for rainIsrael news photo

Schoolchildren from the Noam Herzog in Akko (Acre) held a special ceremony early this week in which they prayed for rain. The ceremony was held on the seventh day of the Jewish month of Cheshvan, the day on which Jews in Israel begin praying for rain.

Akko's chief rabbi, Rabbi Yosef Yashar, attended the event and sang along with the children. He later termed the occasion “particularly moving.”

Principal Binyamin Buskila explained that the prayer ceremony was the culmination of weeks of learning regarding rain, water, and the significance of rain in Jewish tradition. Students have been studying rain in science class as well as learning what Jewish sages had to say on the subject of rain, he related.

The school's main objective is to teach children about prayer, Buskila said. “Israel's water crisis will not be solved solely by saving water, or by using water treatment or other important new technologies,” he stated. “Rather, we must pray, the entire Jewish people must cry out for rain.”

The students will bring what they have learned to the general public in Akko by distributing stickers calling for everyone to join the prayers for rain, Buskila said. “And we hope that in the near future, our city will be blessed by an abundance of rain,” he concluded.