Jewish farmers from non-observant and observant kibbutzim (cooperative agricultural settlements) got together to express their thanks to G-d at Jerusalem’s Western Wall for the recent rain after weeks of dangerously dry weather.
The initiative for the prayer came from a group of farmers from the religious kibbutzim Ein HaNatziv and Sdeh Eliyahu in the northern Jordan Valley. The religious farmers invited members of the nearby Mesilot, Chamadiah, and Ein Harod kibbutzim to join them in thanking the Creator for last week’s rain, and in asking for future precipitation, which is still badly needed.
Recent rains have raised the level of Israel’s largest body of fresh water, Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), by over 50 centimeters (20 inches). Nevertheless, water experts state that the Kinneret is still some 4.6 meters (15 feet) below the optimum level.
The cooperation -- in both work and cultural life -- among various non-observant and observant kibbutzim in the Beit Shean valley is not a new phenomenon. Kibbutz Ein Harod, which once strongly rejected religious practice, has experienced a spiritual awakening among its members in the recent past.
In fact, following a famously controversial speech by the late renowned hareidi-religious leader Rabbi Eliezer Shach, in which he closed the door on political cooperation with the Labor Party by referring to them as 'eaters of pig and rabbits,' two young members of the Kibbutz met with him. The meeting was fateful, in that two young members of the Kibbutz - followed later by the father of one of them - decided to adopt a religious lifestyle as a result.