Can Our Tears Bring The Rain?

Editor's Note: This commentary was written prior to the release of the remaining living hostages. 

For our generation and the next, Simchat Torah will be forever intertwined with the trauma and memories of the October 7th attacks, which happened as so many were waiting to show their love for the Torah during the morning services.

Two years later, we have still not been able to move forward and begin what will be a lifetime of healing. As of writing these words, 48 hostages are still suffering in captivity, the war rages on and tens of thousands of Israelis have no home.

Some of us feel that we cannot return to Simchat Torah as it was. Others believe that showing our love for the Torah through singing and dancing is a way to affirm our love for our ancient and beautiful tradition, like so many did in the generations before us.

I am torn. I cannot yet dance and sing as years before, as it brings back the horror of that morning, but my love for the Jewish people and our traditions rooted in the Torah have given me hope and comfort more than ever.

As we in Israel don’t have two separate days for Sh’mini Atzeret (the final day of the festival of Sukkot) and Simchat Torah, I want to learn from the Jews of the Diaspora, who created the celebration of Simchat Torah to give meaning to the second day of Yom Tov. It is time for us to lean into the themes of Sh’mini Atzeret for now and emphasize the prayer for rain. For in Israel, rain is not just rain; rain is life.

The Prophet Yeshayahu reminds us:

“For as the rain or snow drops from heaven
And returns not there,
But soaks the earth
And makes it bring forth vegetation,
Yielding seed for sowing and bread for eating,
So is the word that issues from My mouth:
It does not come back to Me unfulfilled,
But performs what I purpose,
Achieves what I sent it to do.
Yea, you shall leave in joy and be led home secure.
Before you, mount and hill shall shout aloud,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the brier, a cypress shall rise;
Instead of the nettle, a myrtle shall rise.
These shall stand as a testimony to GOD,
As an everlasting sign that shall not perish.”

Right now, we are thirsty and dry. We are surrounded by pain and suffering, families who have lost so much. Young people and their loved ones will live alongside trauma for years to come. The people of Gaza are suffering. Will we ever be able to build some sort of peace side by side?

On Sh’mini Atzeret, the prayer for rain is not called T’fila, but Tikkun. The world needs to return to balance with the help of rain, and we are part of the process of healing with our kavannah (purpose) and attention to the world, particularly to all who are suffering.

“God of our Ancestors,
Rains of light, light our earth.
Rains of Blessings, bless our earth.
Rains of Joy, bring joy to our earth.
…
Rains of Song, let the earth sing.
Rains of Life, bring life to the earth.”

• Tikkun Hageshem, the Sephardic Nusach

This Simchat Torah, I invite us to show our love for our Torah through our prayers for rain, knowing that a year of rain is one more step in finding healing and growing, reminding us that we are connected to nature and its cycles. Perhaps, if we are closer to nature, we will appreciate life in all its forms.

During the past eight years that I have lived in the Jezreel Valley. My community is rooted in the agricultural tradition of the Kibbutzim and Moshavim. We take rain seriously. We need rain.

Please join me this year in a Tikkun for rain. So that instead of the nettle, a myrtle shall rise.

Listen to a prayer from “Tikkun Hageshem,” sung by the author.