Parshat Bechukotai: The Blessing of Rain
Original author - Rabbi Yonatan Neril, edited by the GrowTorah Summer Inchworms 2021
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Tefillah for rain is a key part of the spiritual life of a Jew. For almost half of the year, our daily prayers include praise of Hashem as the One “Who makes the wind blow and the rain descend” and a request that Hashem will “give dew and rain for a blessing.”[1] A special blessing for rain appears in the liturgy on Shemini Atzeret, at the beginning of Israel’s rainy season. We pray that Hashem brings beneficial rain, which falls at the right time, to nourish our crops and fill our reservoirs. As the Talmud says, “The day when rain falls is as great as the day on which heaven and earth were created.”[2]
The Torah teaches that our actions impact the rain as well. At the beginning of this week’s parsha, Parshat Bechukotai, we read that rainfall is a function of our doing Hashem’s will. If we keep the Torah, Hashem says, “I will give your rains in their time, the land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field will give forth its fruit… you will eat your food to satiety, and you will live in security in your land, and I will grant peace in the land.”[3] This promise of abundant rains and prosperity is followed by a warning that, should Israel ignore the Torah, Hashem will “make your skies like iron,” the Midrash defining this as ceasing all rains and bringing drought. [4] Conversely, the fact that we specifically ask that the rain be “for a blessing,” acknowledges that too much rain is just as dangerous as not having enough. In a number of instances in the Tanach, Hashem sent rain that was a curse, not a blessing. The Mabul came to punish the generation for transgressing Hashem’s will. Rashi explains that the rains of blessing only became a destructive flood when the people refused to do teshuva.[5] In the time of Shmuel Hanavi, Hashem brought thunder and rain to chastise the people.[6]
For centuries, it has been a core principle of Jewish faith that the natural world was a domain within the spiritual world, not an entity outside its purview. With a modern scientific understanding that human actions affect the quality and quantity of rain, the warning of Bechukotai warrants our attention. We must reawaken the awareness that our actions impact the entire planet.
The effect of industrialized society on rain through pollutants has been well-known for decades—we’ve all heard of acid rain. In the 21st century, our impact on the rain is becoming even more pronounced. A consensus of scientists states that human-caused climate change is increasing storm intensity and raising the seas. By burning fossil fuels in our cars, homes, factories, and planes, we are increasing the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere.
We not only affect how rain descends but also how that rain impacts the land when it does fall. With increasing urbanization in the world, land that once soaked up rainwater is being covered in pavement, which prevents the rainwater from replenishing underground aquifers (also referred to as “groundwater” or “the water table”). Aquifers directly provide more than one-third of drinking water in America, and contribute, in some part, to all drinking water sources.[7] In some places, like Florida, aquifers provide 100% of the drinking water as well as the majority of clean water for industrial and agricultural use.[8] When rainwater is prevented from replenishing the water table, one of our most necessary resources—clean drinking water—is compromised.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the amount of U.S. land covered by sprawling urban development increased by 50% during the 1980s and 1990s.[9] Increased building covers the land with impervious paving, which prevents the land from absorbing rains back into the water table. Unabsorbed rainwater becomes runoff, flowing through drainage systems (or causing floods when drains and sewers are overburdened), picking up pollutants along the way, which are then dumped into lakes, streams and oceans. Atlanta, which was struck by a major drought in 2007, leads American cities in lost rainwater, with up to 132.8 billion gallons lost per year.[10] The volume of water lost in the United States each year would provide tens of millions of people with their annual water needs.
Today we have an unbelievably complex understanding of how the earth’s systems work, and how we impact them. In viewing the connection between humans and the environment through scientific analysis and statistics, we must be careful not to forget the true lesson of Bechukotai—Hashem has created the world in such a way that when we contradict Hashem’s will by living out of balance, our lives are thrown out of balance in response. Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi Ashlag (Ba’al Hasulam), a leading kabbalist of the twentieth century, wrote that Hashem established the laws of nature in the world, and a person or society that transgresses one of these laws will be punished by means of nature.[13] We see from this that we cannot ignore the connection between our actions, both those of the general mitzvot and of caring for Hashem’s earth and the physical conditions that surround us.[14] Scientific explanations of storm patterns, aquifer absorption and rain toxicity should not obscure the influence of the HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Rather, they reveal to us the true greatness of Divine wisdom and confirm that we really are obligated to live in balance with and be stewards of Hashem's Creation, as the Torah requires.
Praying for beneficial rain and then ignoring the problems of climate change and unchecked urban development is like praying for good health and then continuing to eat poorly and avoid exercise. We are acting against our own expressed interests when we excessively burn fossil fuels and contribute to unchecked urban expansion.
Our prayers for beneficial rain are extremely important, and our actions should be consistent with the emphasis of our tefillot. We must live as earnestly as we pray. By doing so, we can give our children the gift of a world that is blessed, as Hashem promises, with rains of abundance, prosperity and peace.
Suggested Action Items:
When Hashem provides us with water, we can try to use it wisely: [15]
Use products and services from companies that promote low greenhouse gas emissions, water conservation, and conscientious waste management.
Consider switching to a low-flow toilet, which alone can annually save several thousand gallons of water per household.
Look into low-low shower heads, and think about taking shorter showers.
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Notes:
[1] Translation adapted from Artscroll Siddur
[2] Talmud Bavli, Mesechet Ta’anit 8b, Artscroll translation.
[3] Vayikra 26:4-6. All translations of verses from the Torah are from Judaica Press,
[4] Torath Kohanim 26:28, as cited by Rashi to Vayikra 26:19. Ramban on Vayikra 24:4 discusses how beneficial rain improves human health and increases produce. He calls this blessing of the rains “the greatest of all blessings.”
[5] Based on the Midrash Hane’elam and the Zohar Chadash 28a. Translation by Artscroll Rashi Chumash
[6] I Shmuel 12:17-18
[7] “Paving our way to water shortages: How sprawl aggravates drought.”
[8] See the report on Florida’s aquifers
[9] According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Inventory. (see footnote 8)
[10] Co-operative study
[11] See, for example, a series on Toronto’s urban sprawl.
[12] See “Open Space in Israel,” Israel Environment Bulletin, vol. 29, Sept. 2005
[13] From “The Need for Caution in the Laws of Nature, ” (in Hebrew) in Matan Torah, publisher Da’at Ohr HaGanuz, year unknown, p. 96-99. In Gematria (a mystical numbering system), the letters of the word ‘hateva’ (the nature), add up to the same amount (86) as Hashem’s name that connotes judgment—Elokim. Rabbi Ashlag teaches that this implies that the laws of Hashem can be called by the name ‘commandments of nature.’ He does not write about transgressing the ‘laws of nature’ in the context of ecological issues, but in the context of an individual isolating themselves from society. The application of Rabbi Ashlag’s teachings here to ecology, a discipline that developed after Rabbi Ashlag lived, is by the author of this dvar Torah and not by Rabbi Ashlag himself. I would like to thank Rabbi Adam Perlman for pointing me to this source and teaching the linkage to environmental issues.
[14] In this vein, the emphasis of Bechukotai on the linkage between keeping the Torah and beneficial rains is different than Rav Ashlag’s understanding of a connection between proper action and ‘the laws of nature.’ Nevertheless, a similarity does exist in both the Torah portion’s and Rav Ashlag’s emphasis on the relation between human action and what happens in the natural world around us.
[15] The following suggestions are taken from Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz, “Water Conservation and Halacha: An Unorthodox Approach.” Compendium of Sources on Halakha and the Environment. Canfei Nesharim, 2005.
