Twenty-five students from the Kiryat Arba High School Yeshiva prayed for rain at the Temple Mount Monday together with their rabbi, Rabbi Micha Perl. They recited the Ve'anenu Borei Olam prayer, which is a text that Ashkenazi Jews add to the Shmoneh Esreh standing prayer when rains fail to fall, and the Chief Rabbinate instructed Tuesday that the prayer be added everywhere.
The continued dry, hot weather during the period which should be well into the rainy season has farmers worried and rabbis conducting special prayers for rain with congregants and yeshiva students.
Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, asked people to do more acts of loving kindness and pray with special fervor to convince the Almighty that Israel deserves the much needed rainfall. His words were a reference to the chapter in Deuternomy, said as part of the Shema prayer three times daily, which states that as opposed to other countries, Israel's rainfall depends on the Jewish people's deeds.
The students also prayed for the release of Jonathan Pollard and kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
