Remember Your Praying People

I have always struggled to appreciate rain. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Michigan  with some sort of “freshwater privilege,” but for the 7 years I lived in Israel, I always viewed the rain as a nuisance. But, for the first time maybe ever, I truly prayed my heart out during Tefilat HaGeshem (prayer for rain). 

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It was Shemini Atzeret morning and I was able to read snippets of headlines of the news notifications that were blowing up my phone all night. I woke up my roommate, a close friend who served together with me, and before I could even open my mouth he responded, “I know.” 

Standing in Shul, my head was spinning. I couldn’t bear thinking about my friends, family, the people I served with, getting calls to the reserves, while I stood in a serene shul on the Upper West Side. I felt powerless. I felt guilty. I felt scared. I did the only thing there was to do: pray. 

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When we got to Tefilat HaGeshem I poured out my heart. Since agricultural practices have advanced in Israel since the Tanakh and subsequently the Tanaim and Amoraim, our relationship to rain has now changed. Israel is still dependent on rain, absolutely; but, now rain in nearly any quantity and at nearly any time is helpful. In updating our theology in response to changed material circumstances, many view rain as a symbol for general prosperity for Israel and the Jewish people. And thus, I prayed for the prosperity of the Jewish people like I never have before. 

In Tefilat HaGeshem we recite a poem that invokes our ancestors’ merits for rain. Each stanza starts with the word זכור (remember) and each verse ends with the word מים (water). The poem is filled with biblical allusion and speaks about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron and then ends with a stanza about the Jewish people as whole. The last stanza reads: 

זְכור שְׁנֵים עָשר שְׁבָטִים שֶׁהֶעֱבַרְתָּ בְּגִזְרַת מַיִם

שֶׁהִמְתַּקְתָּ לָמו מְרִירוּת מַיִם

תּולְדותָם נִשְׁפַּךְ דָּמָם עָלֶיךָ כַּמַּיִם

תֵּפֶן כִּי נַפְשֵׁנוּ אָפְפוּ מָיִם.

Remember the twelve tribes, whom You brought through the divided waters;

for whom You sweetened the bitterness of water.

Their descendants, their blood was spilled for Your sake like water.

Turn [to us], for our soul is engulfed [with woes] like water. 

When we got to the last stanza, I started to bawl, as the relevance felt nearly prophetic.

I took inspiration from the poem, as well as from the imagery of rockets falling from the sky instead of Gishmei Bracha (rains of prosperity) and added to the poem a few stanzas of my own that reflect the events of the current war. 

Credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON UNIT

Below is my addition to the poem, a translation, and some explanatory notes. The notes are to add the context on the biblical allusions, but I left out the explanation of how each verse relates to the current war. 

May Hashem bless us with rains of peace, prosperity, and safety, swiftly and in our days. Amen. 

זכור אמא בוכה דמעות מים

נתנה חלב כאשר שאלו מים 

ליבה הצועקת נשפכה כמים 

עלה את שבויינו כבאר המים

זכור גיבור החיִל אדיר מים

לשונו האביון צמא למים 

נפשו הנשבר קראתיך ממעמקי מים 

תשמע קול כנפיו כקול המים 

זכור עם דל וריק כבור שאין בו מים 

תקוותו מטהר כמקווה המים 

ממעייני הישועה ישאב מים 

תרפא המים לעם נמס לבב למים

Remember [the] mother that cries tears of water 

She gave them milk when they asked for water 

Her wailing heart pours out like water 

Raise up our captives like the well of water 

Remember the hero of valor, might of water 

His destitute tongue thirsts for water 

His broken soul calls to you from the depths of water 

Hear the sound of his wings like the sound of water 

Remember the nation, lowly and empty like a pit that has no water 

His hope purifies like the pool of water 

From the springs of salvation he will draw water 

Heal the water of the nation whose heart has melted to water 

Explanatory Notes:

זכור אמא בוכה דמעות מים

Remember [the] mother that cries tears of water 

This is a multifaceted reference. It is first and foremost a reference to the mother of General Sisra, who is mentioned briefly in the song of Deborah (Judges 5:28). The mother of Sisra is used as the archetype of crying, when the Gemara attempts to decipher what the cry of Shofar sounds like and how many blasts are needed (Rosh HaShana 33b). 

It is secondly a reference to Rachel crying over the exiles of the north in Jerimiah 31:14

כה  אמר יהוה קול ברמה נשמע נהי בכי תמרורים רחל מבכה על־בניה מאנה להנחם על־בניה כי איננו 

Thus says the Lord; A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Raḥel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted for her children, because they are not.

נתנה חלב כאשר שאלו מים 

She gave them milk when they asked for water 

This also is a multifaceted reference. In line with keeping with the Song of Deborah, it refers to Yael, who gave General Sisra milk to cause him to be sleepy and then killed him (Judges 4:15; 5:26). 

Many compare Yael to Rachel Edri, an elderly woman from Ofakim who was being held in captivity, who cooked a full meal for her captors, which allowed Israeli forces to neutralize them. 

 ליבה הצועקת נשפכה כמים

Her wailing heart pours out like water 

Lamentations 2:19:  שפכי כמים ליבך  — Pour out your heart like water

עלה את שבויינו כבאר המים

Raise up our captives like the well of water 

In Numbers 21:17-18 we are told that G-d gave the Jewish people a well and they would sing a song where they would say: עלי באר — Rise up, well

This song, known now as the Song of the Well, and the well it is about, is associated with Miriam in the Midrash (Midrash Rabbah Ḥukat 29) and fits with the general theme of the stanza, focusing on women and the role they play in the war efforts and Jewish history. 

The triconsonantal lexical root of ע.ל.ה is also the lexical root for the word Aliya, invoking images of returning to Israel. 

זכור גיבור החיִל אדיר מים

Remember the hero of valor, might of water

Psalm 93:4: מקולות מים רבים אדירים משברי ים — [More mighty than] The mighty sounds of many waters, breakers of sea 

Exodus 15:10: צללו כעופרת במים אדירים  — They [the Egyptians] sank like lead in mighty waters 

לשונו האביון צמא למים 

His destitute tongue thirsts for water 

Isaiah 41:17:

העניים והאביונים מבקשים מים ואין לשונם בצמא נשתה אני יהוה אענם אלהי ישראל לא אעזבם

The poor and the destitute seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched for thirst; I the Lord will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

נפשו הנשבר קראתיך ממעמקי מים 

His broken soul calls to you from the depths of water

Ezekiel 27:34: עת נשברת מימים במעמקי־מים מערבך וכל־קהלך בתוכך נפלו — In the time that you [Tyre] were broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, your merchandise and all your company fell in your midst

Psalm 130:1 שיר המעלות ממעמקים קראתיך יהוה — A Ma῾alot Poem. Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord. 

תשמע קול כנפיו כקול המים

Hear the sound of his wings like the sound of water 

Ezekiel 1:24:

ואשמע את־קול כנפיהם כקול מים רבים כקול־שדי בלכתם קול המלה כקול מחנה בעמדם תרפינה כנפיהן

And when they [the Ofanim] moved, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, the noise of a tumult, like the noise of a host: when they stood still, they let down their wings.

זכור עם דל וריק כבור שאין בו מים

Remember the nation, lowly and empty like a pit that has no water

The reference of lowly and empty דל וריק is to the Yom Kippur liturgy:

לְמַעַנְךָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ עֲשֵׂה וְלֹא לָֽנוּ. רְאֵה עֲמִידָתֵֽנוּ דַּלִּים וְרֵקִים

Do it for Your sake, our God, not for ours; look at our position— [we stand before You] lowly and empty handed.

It is also reference to when Joseph is thrown in the pit, Genesis 37:2:

ויקחהו וישלכו אתו הברה והבור רק אין בו מים

And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty; there was no water in it. (See Rashi and Shabbat 21a for commentary)

תקוותו מטהר כמקווה המים 

His hope purifies like the pool of water 

Reference to Hatikva: עוד לא אבדה תקוותינו — For we have not yet lost hope 

It is also a play on words, as Tikva and Mikva share the same triconsonantal lexical root of ק.ו.ה

ממעייני הישועה ישאב מים 

From the springs of salvation he will draw water 

Isaiah 12:3: ושאבתם מים בששון ממעיני הישועה — Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation

תרפא המים לעם נמס לבב למים 

Heal the water of the nation whose heart has melted to water 

Ezekiel 47:8:

ויאמר אלי המים האלה יוצאים אל הגלילה הקדמונה וירדו על־הערבה ובאו הימה אל־הימה המוצאים ונרפאו המים

Then he said to me, These waters issue out towards the eastern region, and go down into the ῾Arava; and on their entering the sea, the sea of issuing waters, the waters shall be healed.

Joshua 7:5:

ויכו מהם אנשי העי כשלשים וששה איש וירדפום לפני השער עד־השברים ויכום במורד וימס לבב־העם ויהי למים

And the men of ῾Ay smote of them about thirty six men: for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shevarim, and smote them at the descent: and the hearts of the people melted, and became like water.

It also matches the syntax and morphology of some refrains that are found in the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur liturgy, for example,  a refrain that is  said at the end of the Vidui is: תעבור על פשע לעם שבי פשע  — Forbear the transgression of a people who repent [their] transgression. Both in this refrain and our verse we see a structure of:  Imperative verb> noun 1> “to the nation who”> repeat noun 1