Rabbi Chaim Drukman was a venerable spiritual leader of political religious Zionism and a founder of the settler movement who coined the term Gush Emunim and influenced country’s top leaders as a rabbi, educator and political power in Israeli society.
This article is an extract from his book, “La-Zeman Hazeh," a series of essays about Jewish holidays, including both traditional holidays and “new" ones that were established in the last hundred years to celebrate the Jewish people’s return to the Land of Yisrael.
(Adapted and translated by Moshe Goldberg)
Praying for Rain as Individuals
The ninth blessing of the Amidah prayer is Birkat HaShanim, the blessing for the year’s agricultural produce. On the 7th of Marcheshvan, the start of winter in Eretz Yisrael, we add a request for rain to this blessing: vetain tal umatar livracha… (“Grant dew and rain as a blessing..."). At Pesach, the start of spring, we return to the wording that does not mention rain: vetain bracha... (“Grant a blessing...").
Every blessing of the Amidah, whether it deals with the needs of the community or of the individual, must be recited as it is written. A person who wants to add a personal request may do so within the blessing Shomeya Tefillah (“He who hears the prayers").
The request for rain in Birkat HaShanim is only allowed during the season when the Jewish people as a whole need rain. An individual who needs rain at a different time may ask for it in Shomeya Tefillah, as is true for any other personal request.
Nearly two thousand years ago, the Jewish community of Ninveh, outside the Land of Israel, sent a question to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (Taanit 14b). In Ninveh, rain was needed during the month of Tammuz, when it is summer in Eretz Yisrael. The members of the community wanted to ask for rain in their prayers, but they were not sure if they could do so in Birkat HaShanim, since they were a whole community, or whether they were still considered individuals who could only add the request in Shomeya Tefillah. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi answered that for this purpose they were considered individuals. They should therefore ask for rain in Shomeya Tefillah and not in Birkat HaShanim.
This is the earliest record we have of a question of this kind. Later, when our ancestors lived in Europe (Sefarad, Ashkenaz, and the surrounding regions), the question appeared again. We find an echo of it in the Teshuvot HaRosh (Rabbeinu Asher, 4:10):
In the year 5073, the rains were held back, and throughout the winter only a little bit fell. A fast was proclaimed to plead with Hashem to send rain upon the face of the earth.
On the first night of Pesach, after the evening prayer, my father and teacher, the Rosh, was sitting at the entrance of his home, and some of us, his students, were standing around him. He declared:
“Now would be a good time to raise a matter that has always puzzled me: Why do we not mention and ask for rain until Shavuot? ... It is well known that in Ashkenaz the survival of the crops depends mainly on the rains that come between Pesach and Shavuot... It is well known that Ashkenaz, which is a very large country, and France, and all the lands from Ashkenaz to here, and this country as well, all need rain between Pesach and Shavuot. Surely they are a large population and they can ask for rain in Birkat HaShanim, just as the people of Eretz Yisrael do in the winter!"
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi had already ruled that a single city is not considered a community when it comes to asking for rain. But could the law perhaps be different when entire countries with large Jewish populations are involved? Perhaps they should be considered a general community, able to ask for rain at the right time for their own lands in Birkat HaShanim and not only in Shomeya Tefillah?
The Rosh did in fact rule that entire countries are considered a community and may therefore ask for rain in Birkat HaShanim at the time suited to them and not at the time relevant for Eretz Yisrael.
That was the Rosh’s legal opinion, but it was not accepted, as he himself testified: “When I saw that they had turned the hearts of the congregation against accepting from me the words of the living God, I too gave up asking for rain and mentioning it in the synagogue where I pray..."
In the end, the law was decided against the Rosh. Even entire countries are not considered a community for the purpose of asking for rain, as Rabbi Yosef Karo ruled in the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 117:2): “Individuals who need rain during the dry season (the summer) do not ask for it in Birkat HaShanim but in Shomeya Tefillah."
Even people in a great city like Ninveh, or an entire country like all of Sefarad or all of Ashkenaz, are considered as individuals with respect to Shomeya Tefillah.
The Shulchan Aruch mentions both the case of Ninveh and the case of the Rosh for entire countries, and rules that in every case they are considered individuals with respect to asking for rain.
I Am in the West, But My Heart Is in the East
The question grows sharper in the words of the Rambam, as we will see.
When the season for rain arrives but there is no rain, the Jewish people begin a series of fasts whose purpose is to ask for rain. Our Sages set the dates in the year when the fasts begin. In other words, they defined the point at which too much time has passed without rain, and the year begins to be considered a year of drought.
In his commentary on the Mishnah (Taanit 1:3), the Rambam explains that all the dates our Sages gave refer only to Eretz Yisrael, since every land has its own rainy season:
“All of this applies to Eretz Yisrael and any place similar to it, and likewise everything that will be said later about the times of the fasts applies only to Eretz Yisrael and any place whose climate is similar. But in other lands, the prayer for rain is made when rain is needed in that place, and that time is treated as if it were the 7th of Marcheshvan (the time of the request for rain). If the rains are delayed beyond that time, in proportion to the intervals stated here, the people fast as described here. For there are lands where the rainy season begins only in Nisan, and there are lands where Marcheshvan is summer, and in that case rain is no blessing but a destroyer and a ruin. How could the people of such a place ask for rain in Marcheshvan? Would that not be a lie?"
We can understand the Rambam’s cry. It does not seem logical that Jews living in lands whose rainy seasons differ from that of Eretz Yisrael should ask for rain according to the calendar of Eretz Yisrael!
And yet, however illogical it seems, in Hilchot Tefillah (2:17) the Rambam rules that the time for asking for rain in prayer is the same everywhere in the world. Where rain is needed at a time different from winter in Eretz Yisrael, people ask for it in Shomeya Tefillah alone, as we see in the Shulchan Aruch:
In places that need rain during the dry season, such as the distant islands of the sea, they ask for rain at the time they need it, in Shomeya Tefillah. That is the law, and the Rambam himself admits it. But his cry still stands: what is the logic in this?
Let us turn to the words of our Sages (Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 3), who explain the prophecy of Yirmiyahu (30:17): “For they have called you an outcast: She is Zion, no one seeks her."
He rebuked the remnant (of Israel) who sank into the lands of their captivity because they do not remember the Beit HaMikdash. And how should they remember it?
...Even those in the East, even those scattered on the islands of the sea, who need rain during the season of Tammuz, ask for rain only at the time when Eretz Yisrael needs it. For if you say they should ask when they themselves need it, even in the dry season, they would come to see themselves as if they were in their own land! Rather, it would be better that they see themselves as if they were guests at an inn, with their hearts directed toward Eretz Yisrael, and make their request in its proper season. So where do they ask for rain when they need it? In Shomeya Tefillah, each person for himself.
Arie Dultzin, who served as chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, said that as a child in Russia, when the cantor stood on Shemini Atzeret to ask for rain while a heavy rain was pouring outside, he asked his father why one should ask for rain now. His father answered him sharply: “This is not our rain!"
Those who live in exile ask for the rain of Eretz Yisrael, so they will remember where they truly belong and that the place where they now sit is only incidental and temporary.
And We Shall Be Satisfied with Its Goodness
Why, indeed, do we not say VeSavanu MiTuvecha (“and we shall be satisfied with Your goodness")? Is there any “goodness" other than Your goodness?!
After eating grain products or fruits of the Seven Species, or after drinking wine, we recite the blessing Me-Ein Shalosh (“Like the Three"). The halachic authorities discussed its wording, as can be seen in the Arba’a Turim (Orach Chaim 208) by Rabbi Yaakov ben HaRosh:
Some say: Venochal mipiryah venisba mituvah (“and may we eat of its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness"), but they should not say this! One must not desire the Land for the sake of its fruit and its goodness, but in order to fulfill the commandments that depend on it...
Rabbi Yaakov objects to the wording “and may we eat of its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness." Do we long for Eretz Yisrael, the Holy Land, merely to fill our bellies with its fruit? Heaven forbid!
Rabbi Yoel Sirkis responds to this (Bayit Chadash, beginning VeKatav Od VeYesh):
How astonishing! Surely the holiness of the Land that flows into it from the Upper Land also flows into its fruit, which draw from the holiness of the Shechinah that dwells within the Land... Therefore it is proper that we include in this blessing: “and may we eat of its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness." For by eating its fruit we are nourished by the holiness of the Shechinah and its purity, and we are satisfied with its goodness.
The fruit of Eretz Yisrael has a holy character that stems from the Shechinah dwelling in the Land, so it is fitting to say “and may we eat of its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness." We are satisfied with the holiness of the Land, which is the true good hidden within its fruit.
Of course we mean VeSavanu MiTuvecha to be satisfied with the goodness of the Holy One, blessed be He. But here the wording seeks to emphasize that special “good of Yours" revealed in the good of the Land: “and be satisfied with its good." We give thanks for the good of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is expressed in the good of the Holy Land.
In Summary
Jews all over the world ask for rain, formally and publicly, in Birkat HaShanim, according to the time when it is needed in Eretz Yisrael. Every time we pray, we emphasize the fact that Eretz Yisrael is our only land, and that being in another place, at whatever stage, is merely a temporary act.