Umbrellas? Not necessary!
Tonight I received an email from the Rabbi of our Shul that was titled “Prayer for rain”. The email included an attachment from the office of the chief Rabbinate of Israel requesting that we begin praying for rain as well as reciting the formal prayer for rain in our public and private prayers. We begin adding a special prayer for rain specifically at a time of inadequate rainfall as a wakeup call.
I do not mean any disrespect to the Chief Rabbinate, but do they really believe that our lack of rain is because we don’t say enough prayers? I feel relieved that I was not the only one who noticed that it is almost December and it has not yet rained, and that my concerns were in fact validated by a much higher source. But sadly, even I know that it is not lack of prayer that has the country of Israel once again in a state of drought- it is a lot of bad behavior.
God created us with minds and with hearts and He hoped that we would be able to use those tools to rise above the animalistic and inhumane aspects of our humanness and be holy. The lack of rain is a direct result of our behavior, and we the Jewish people are on a slippery slope. We have gone to war with our fellow Jews on all sides, a war we call holy because we are all in it for what we believe God wants, and we will stop at nothing, even if that means destroying each other. No rain is nothing new, the memo was actually printed several thousand years ago in Deuteronomy when God himself said “If you listen to My commandments, to love God and to serve Him with all of your heart and soul, then I shall provide rain in its proper time.”
So I am waiting for a letter from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel that says-
Dear Jewish People,
We have declared a state of emergency amongst world Jewry. Our nation is in great danger because we are self destructing. We, the leaders, are putting our foot down and will no longer tolerate all of this disgusting behavior from our people. Our sage Rabbi Akiva said that we are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves, but we are all too smug and self righteous to believe that our neighbors, despite their differences on all sides, could even deserve a foothold in our community. So here are the new rules. We will not tolerate criminal activity amongst our Rabbinical and political leaders. We will not throw rocks, dirty diapers, or scream and attack people on the streets because they are not like us. We will not look at people who dress differently or show their Jewishness differently with disgust in our eyes. We will stop making the army the central divide amongst Israeli Jews because there are just as many on the left as there are on the right who do not serve in the IDF or take part in any sort of national service. And lastly, we stop using Gods home every Rosh Chodesh to embarrass ourselves as a people and make God wonder if the next rainfall should end in a flood.
Sincerely,
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel