There is a deluge of references to water in the Jewish Bible: water purifies; water is punishment; water is salvation; Divine wisdom will cover the earth like water. Total immersion in a properly prepared pool of water, a mikvah, is part of the conversion process. Some Jewish men immerse in a mikvah every day, some women once a month.
Every year on the evening of December 4th (December 5th on the year before a leap year), we Jews start praying for water. The winter of the solar year has begun and rain is needed. Not that Canada has any shortage, but this prayer has a more international aspect. It reminds us of those who need rain to live or who are in danger from too much rain. As we pray on Sukkot (Tabernacles), the festival at the beginning of the rainy season, may the rain be “for life and not for death.” Praying for rain also has a spiritual aspect that I would like to share.
In Deuteronomy 11:10-12, as the Jews prepare to enter the Promised Land, they are told that this land is superior to the land of Egypt, where they had been slaves. In Egypt there is abundant river water at the level of the fields and life is easy. The Promised Land, on the other hand, is praised as a place of hills and streams where one is completely dependent on rain.
At first glance, this seems like a good argument to return to Egypt. There they can farm in the secure knowledge that there will be no drought. In the land of Canaan, they will never be secure. Why would this dependence on rain be presented as an advantage?
The answer is in the continuation, where we see that God constantly scrutinizes the Promised Land. The dependence on rain connects the land to God. More specifically, it connects the people of the land to God. God sends rain dependent on the people’s merits. The sense of dependency on God felt in times of impending drought brings the people to improve themselves morally and seek to reconnect to their Creator.
In Egypt, the feeling of complete security leads the people to forget their Creator who gives them all they have. There is nothing stopping them from descending into immorality. With nothing existential to pray for, the people of the land are unlikely to grow spiritually.
Praying for rain, even though we are in Canada, reminds us that we all depend on God for all we have. It reminds us to seek to grow morally and spiritually. It reminds us that hard times in our lives can be an opportunity to reconnect to our Creator.
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Radix article, originally published in January 2005 by Rabbi Sammy Jackman
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