[Avodah] Tonight (Thursday 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 (Thursday evening), December 5,
2019, corresponding to the evening of 8 Kislev, 5780.  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.)

And it's been raining this evening here in Israel, thank God!

Wishing everyone a happy Chanukka,
-Ari Meir Brodsky
---------------------
Ari M. Brodsky
Teaching Fellow
Department of Mathematics
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan 5290002
ISRAEL

ari.brodsky at utoronto.ca
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