Ta’anit 2

Ta’anit means a fast. Most of the Jewish and non-Jewish world knows that Jews fast for Yom Kippur, but there are, in fact, many fast days in Judaism. There are those we know because the bible describes them (like Yom Kippur, and the fast of Ester, and when in mourning) an those that the rabbis describe for us, like Tisha B’av when we mourn the destruction fo the two Temples as well as many other calamities that have befallen our people throughout the millennia.

But the most common cause for public fasting was draught.

That’s why the book on fasts, Ta’anit, begins with the question of: When, meaning what date, do we start to pray for rain as an aspect of our Amidah, our daily prayers that we recite 3 times a day?

We had previously learned (as reiterated on today’s daf): As it teaches (Berakhot 33a): One mentions the might of the rains and recites: He makes the wind blow and the rain fall in the second blessing of the Amida prayer, the blessing of the resurrection of the dead.

The association with rain and the resurrection of the dead is so apt. Plants, streams, the very ground begins to desiccate and die when there is no rain. When the rain finally comes, it brings the earth back to life – a resurrection.

And, as we just learned in Rosh Hashanah: And on the festival of Sukkot all creatures are judged for water.

Water is a blessing, the source of life. But too much, too quickly or out of season can be a problem. Rabbi Yehoshua said to him in response: But rain during the festival of Sukkot is nothing other than a sign of a curse.

Our earth is experiencing rain that can be considered a curse. In 2021, Europe has experienced unprecedented flooding. At least 242 people have died in the floods, including 196 in Germany, 42 in Belgium, 2 in Romania, 1 in Italy and 1 in Austria. Stateside, Hurricane Ida’s flooding killed at least 43 people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

2 days ago the headlines read that in India, over 11,000 Displaced by Tamil Nadu Floods, in Sri Lanka, 20 died after days of severe weather,  in Indonesia flash floods in Batu City left at least 6 Dead, while in Bosnia there are currently mass evacuations.

Over 920 people died because of flooding just in July.

And drought? check out this website for some sad statistics: https://www.drought.gov/current-conditions. And world wide? Madagascar is on the verge of famine, Brazil is experiencing one of the worst draughts ever recorded (think about the land and human devastation when you see your coffee prices rise), and the Middle East is drying up. The water table exhausted, minimal rain for the past 20 years, resulting in land devastation, less farming, and migration.

Okay, well, that’s depressing. this is why climate change, as unsexy as it is to talk about, is the basis for so many other human rights issues.

Our rabbis knew that. They knew that we had to believe in something more powerful than the self. That we were not above the weather, but subject to it. That the right amount of rain means life.

Mashiv haRuach U’Morid haGashem.