Praying for rain in Australia

Sadly since Shmini Atzeret two years ago – commonly referred to as October 7 – our rejoicing on this date is, to say the least, muted. And so it will remain until all the hostages are released, while even afterwards – may it be soon – the memory as well as the horrific implications for so many individuals, families and Am Yisrael will for ever remain with us. Nevertheless this is far from the first time in our history including two millennia of exile, that events with opposite connotations to our days of joy have overtaken Jewish life – yet while the stains remain we have always bounced back to days of celebration appropriately observed. And so even now we need to explore and observe these coming days  with all their significance and implications. Not to do so would hand to our enemies the additional “victory” of destruction of our national soul in addition to the immediate physical havoc those attacks brought about.

So returning to the essence of Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah. What are their key themes? From a Torah perspective, Shmini Atzeret is simply the final day of chag – a festive day to celebrate our union with God without any specific observances. Hence the name “Atzeret” – which fundamentally implies a day of refraining from work.

But over the millennia, two themes have come to fill the apparent vacuum. On Shmini Atzeret, the Musaf service takes on a serious tone as the chazan dons a white kittel reminiscent of the high holy day season and following on from the serious themes of Hoshana Rabba, the previous day, intones Tefillat Geshem – the prayer for rain. (The Hoshanot prayers of Hoshana Rabba that precedes Shmini Atzeret also refer to water and other  agricultural needs). And on Simchat Torah, we have the ultimate celebration of Torah.

Why the prayer for rain? The Mishnaic sages told us that the world is judged in four seasons; on Succot, which precedes the rainy season in Israel, we are judged for water. However, as we do not want rain while we sit in the succah, the actual prayer is left until Shmini Atzeret when Succot is over. And why the emphasis on Torah? Because as per the now universal custom to finish the annual Torah cycle on this day, we immediately start from the beginning again; at the conclusion of the festive season we celebrate the interconnected concepts of one ending and another beginning.
However, there is also an intrinsic connection between those two themes, water and Torah. Water is the lifeblood of the physical world; Torah is the lifeblood of Jewish existence.

And neither are static or to be taken for granted. Just as rain is constantly needed to water and refresh the earth, so too for millennia so much more has been written to add to our knowledge and understanding of Torah. Of particular significance in the development of its halachic aspects has been the genre of literature known as “She’eilot u’teshuvot”. Literally meaning “questions and answers”, this responsa literature encompasses recorded questions reflecting halachic issues that arose over the ages. By keeping the basic principles of halachic practice relevant as very different situations arose, responsa constantly injected renewed life into our religious practices thousands of years after Sinai.

And interestingly, it is in our very own country of Australia that a connection between rain and responsa literature dates back to the beginnings of its Jewish life.

At the outset of Jewish settlement in this continent (as had been the case centuries earlier in Brazil), the earliest communities were faced with a halachic dilemma. In the upside-down world of the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are reversed. And so in June 1848, just three months after the consecration of Melbourne’s first synagogue, a series of halachic questions were sent to Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler, then chief rabbi of Britain – and, by extension, the British Empire. The second of those questions read: “At the appropriate seasons, should we read the prayers appointed for rain or dew, the seasons in this hemisphere, as you are aware, being opposite to those of our native country?

The same question refers to the time of saying “tal u’mattar” (the blessing seeking rain and dew).

Although the answer was not extant, two years earlier the chief rabbi had advised the Hobart community that the regular seasonal prayers – Geshem (rain) on Shmini Atzeret and Tal (dew) on Pesach – could be dispensed with. In fact, for many decades such was the practice in our established synagogues. Subsequently, however, all congregations adopted the worldwide practice of praying in accordance with the needs of our Holy Land – although in very recent years some Sephardic communities that follow rulings of the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel.

However, even as the normative practice is the Northern hemisphere pattern as it affects Israel, that does not detract from the appropriateness of praying for the needs of the country in which we live. Jews in the Diaspora have always been enjoined to pray for the welfare of their host country and rain is clearly a vital need. As the world focuses on climate change, Jews must adopt the two-pronged approach we have always taken to world issues. There is the practical approach – in this case the need to do all we can to conserve water, both here and in Israel. And as always, we should not hesitate to fall back on prayer – the traditional Jewish mode of addressing issues.

Accordingly, it may indeed be appropriate for our local rabbinate to encourage recital of locally oriented prayers for rain, in addition to those we will continue to recite for our Holy Land, where the water crisis is currently grave indeed to the extent that desalinated water is now being added to the Kinneret whose stocks are otherwise depleted.
And, as per the conclusion of tefillat Geshem, may this year indeed be one of plentiful rain and blessings to all – with the key blessing being peace as the war ends.

Shabbat shalom v’chag sameach,

Yossi