Berakhot 103
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
RABIN MISHNAH STUDY GROUP
TRACTATE BERAKHOT, CHAPTER FIVE, MISHNAH TWO (recap):
We mention the powers of the rains in "the Resuscitation of the Dead" and we ask for rain during the "blessing of the years". Havdalah [Distinction] is to be made during "Favouring man with Knowledge"; Rabbi Akiva thinks that it is to be said as a fourth blessing in its own right; Rabbi Eli'ezer says [it is to be said] during [the blessing] Thanksgiving.
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
3:
We have noted that the reisha [first section] of our mishnah is concerned with where and how in the Amidah we express our concern with adequate rainfall in Eretz-Israel; we also noted that our mishnah uses two distinct verbs in this connection: "we mention" the powers of the rains and "we ask" for rain. We "mention" the rain in the heart of the second berakhah of the Amidah, whose main topic is the "resuscitation of the dead" [see Berakhot 070], by "mentioning" that God "causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall". We "ask" for rain in Eretz-Israel during the ninth berakhah of the weekday Amidah by saying "Give rain as a blessing for the ground".
4:
The Gemara [Berakhot 33a] gives the reason why the rain is "mentioned" in the second berakhah of the Amidah: because it [i.e. the life-giving power of the rain] is on a par with the resuscitation of the dead (which is the theme of the berakhah). In Berakhot 070 I wrote:
The second berakhah of the first sub-section of the Amidah is termed Gevurot, which might be rendered into English as "Divine Power". In this laudatory berakhah the immense power of the Deity is focused on two topics. These topics are seen by the Rabbinic mind as being intertwined, different aspects of the same phenomenon. Our modern sensibilities, having been nurtured in a different mindset, would probably see these two aspects as being discrete rather than connected. This berakhah describes God's power as being manifested in the weather and in the resurrection of the dead. Perhaps the rabbinic concept will become more apparent if we think of this berakhah as affirming God as the ultimate Arbiter of Life and Death. In the agricultural economy of Eretz-Israel in Biblical and Talmudic times the falling of the rain at the appropriate time (and, of course, its not falling at inappropriate times) were quite literally matters of life and death … We can now understand the comment of a famous sage, reported in the Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Ta'anit 63d] that "the rains falling at the appropriate time are welcome as [being] the resurrection of the dead". Without them there can be no life and death is inevitable. Therefore, in this second berakhah, when we celebrate the Deity as "causing the wind to blow and the rain to fall" this is no childish innocence: this is God as Arbiter of Life and Death, Wielder of the Ultimate and most Supreme Power. It thus becomes apparent that the other element that is intertwined with the weather in this berakhah, the resurrection of the dead, is not really so discrete from it.
5:
The Gemara, in Tractate Ta'anit, explains that logically we should begin mentioning the rains on the first day of Sukkot, but we postpone the mentioning of rain until after we have completed the mitzvah of living in the Sukkah for seven days: it would be folly to ask for the one element that would completely ruin our performance of the mitzvah! Thus it is that we start adding this "mentioning" of the rains at the end of the festival of Sukkot, at the tail end of summer in Eretz-Israel. This day is called "Shemini Atzeret" (which in Israel is also Simĥat Torah, but in the Diaspora it is the day before Simĥat Torah). The mentioning of the rains – by adding to the second berakhah of the Amidah the simple phrase "[God] causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall" – continues without a break in every Amidah (three or four times a day) until the first day of Pesaĥ, when we omit this mentioning for the whole of the period of the summer (in Eretz-Israel). So essential is the life-giving moisture from heaven, that it is the universal custom in the State of Israel to add during these summer months the mention that "[God] causes the dew to descend"; but this custom is mostly not followed in the Diaspora.
To be continued.
DISCUSSION:
In Berakhot 098 we noted that We do not rise to recite the Amidah after a legal judgment [in a Bet Din] or after a discussion on halakhah …". In Berakhot 101 Ed Frankel asked: Would a member of the court abstain from prayer, particularly litigators and judges? It would seem to me that were one jaded to the emotional and psychological aspects of a trade, then would not be constrained by these types of involvements. I would very much be astonished if there are classes of people for whom prayer would only be a rare requirement at best.
Reuven Boxman responds as follows:
Isn't the practical answer to Ed Frankel's question that the "preliminaries" before the Amidah – Ashrei in the case of Minĥah, more lengthy prayers in other cases, serve as the buffer between activities and the Amidah, and thus prevent violation of the prohibition suggested by the Mishnah.
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