[Avodah] Tonight (Tuesday evening) begin Prayer for Rain

[Ari Meir Brodsky]

Dear Friends,

It's that time of year again, when I know many of you are expecting my
annual friendly reminder....

Jews outside of Israel should include the request for rain in daily
prayers, beginning with Maariv tonight (Tuesday evening), December 4, 2018,
corresponding to the evening of 27 Kislev, 5779, the third night of
Chanukka.  The phrase *ותן טל ומטר לברכה* "Veten tal umatar livracha" -
"Give us dew and rain for a blessing" is inserted into the 9th blessing of
the weekday shemone esrei, from now until Pesach.  [Sephardim replace the
entire blessing of ברכנו with the alternate text beginning ברך עלינו -
thanks to Prof. Lasker for the reminder.]  I encourage everyone to remind
friends and family members of this event, especially those who may not be
in shul at that time.

Diaspora Jews begin requesting rain on the 60th day of the fall season, as
approximated by Shmuel in the Talmud (Taanit 10a, Eiruvin 56a). For more
information about this calculation, follow the link below, to a fascinating
article giving a (very brief) introduction to the Jewish calendar, followed
by a discussion on why we begin praying for rain when we do:
https://www.lookstein.org/professional-dev/veten-tal-u-matar/
(Thanks to Russell Levy for suggesting the article.)

In unrelated news, here's what keeps me busy:
http://u.math.biu.ac.il/~brodska/

Wishing everyone a happy Chanukka,
-Ari Meir Brodsky

---------------------
Ari M. Brodsky
Post-doctoral Fellow
Department of Mathematics
Ariel University
Ariel 4070000, ISRAEL

ari.brodsky at utoronto.ca
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