What Mamdani Gets Wrong
5 min read
When will it stop? It’s been raining all week. Rain, just go away! Come again some other day.
This might be the common attitude to rain; Jews, however, are taught to think otherwise, especially those in Israel. Israelis appreciate the rain. The phrase “Mashiv ha’ruach u’morid ha’geshem—He causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall” offers praise to God for the blessing of rain. In fact, it’s recited three times a day by Jews worldwide, from the end of Sukkot until the beginning of Passover—Israel’s rainy season.
But why pray for rain? Doesn’t the rain come naturally on its own? We can just check the forecast to find out when. Let’s look a little deeper; there’s always more beneath the surface.
Rain is mentioned twice in this week’s Torah portion. First the Torah tell us: “From the rain of Heaven you will drink water.” In the second paragraph of the prayer Shema, which is found in Parashas Eikev, rain is mentioned again. “If you listen to My commandments that I command you today—to love God, your God, and serve Him with all of your heart and with all your soul—then I shall provide rain for your land in its proper time, the early and the late rains.”
The message is clear. Rainfall is not a random occurrence. It’s a blessing that comes directly from God. Rainfall is the result of human prayer, as a verse in Genesis brings out. “And no plant of the field was yet on Earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprouted, for God had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to work the soil.”
Rashi explains that until the creation of the first man, there had been no one to appreciate the benefits of rain. Adam understood the significance of rain and prayed for it to fall. As a result of his prayer, rain fell and then trees and plants emerged. This explanation emphasizes how great a blessing rain truly is. This paragraph in the Shema connects rainfall in the Land of Israel to both our prayers and our actions. We are to love God and “listen to [His] commandments that [He] commands [us] today.” These words signify that each one of us should relate to God’s commandments as if they’re actually being given today. They are as relevant now as they were when first written. “Today” suggests that the commandments should always seem to us as new—as though we had just heard them on this very day. The Shema speaks to us in the here and now.
Judaism regards some things as being too important to put off until tomorrow. The Talmud explains this as follows: “Rabbi Eliezer said ‘Return [to God] one day before your death.’ His disciples asked, ‘Does a man know on which day he will die?’ He said to them, ‘All the more so, he should return to God today.’” The message is: Act now! The concept of “today” is a recurrent theme in Jewish teachings. Always relevant to the here and now, the Torah relates uniquely to every generation.
Humanity and the planet cannot survive without water. Likewise, the Jewish People can’t survive without Torah. There are many instances of water symbolizing Torah, but perhaps none are more direct than this: “There is no water other than Torah.” Perhaps this implies that the Jewish People draw down upon themselves the spiritual blessings of the Torah by fulfilling God’s mitzvot. Then, they are worthy of receiving the physical and spiritual blessings of rain. Unlike other places, the rainfall in Israel is dependent on the observance of the Torah, as stated in the Shema.
Just as there must be a balance between rainfall and sunshine for crops to thrive, there must be a balance between a person’s spiritual and mate- rial pursuits. We can tangibly integrate spirituality into our lives. Most mitzvot involve physical actions for that very reason. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, always concluded his personal correspondence with a blessing for both material well-being
and spiritual attainment. The Rebbe taught us that physicality and spirituality are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are meant to work in conjunction with each other. If our basic physical needs are not being met, we can become preoccupied by what we lack, to the detriment of our spiritual pursuits. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah says: “If there is no flour, there is no Torah.”
The Talmud states: “The day when rain falls is as great as the day on which Heaven and Earth were created.” Perhaps the Torah is likened to rain because it nurtures us to reach our full potentials and become the people we were meant to be. Just as the rain causes the plants to grow and flourish, the Torah provides for our spiritual growth.
It’s another rainy day, but I look at it differently now. I’m mindful of how each small drop of effort after another brings about a positive change. The weather forecast predicts scattered showers tomorrow, but now I look forward to appreciating that rain for what it truly is: a blessing.
