Why Is the Prayer for Rain Based on the Civil Calendar?

Question:

My siddur tells me to start saying the prayer for rain in the Amidah on the night preceding December 5th or 6th. Why does it use a secular date rather than a Jewish one?

Answer:

Good question! As a rule of thumb, Jewish holidays and customs always follow the Jewish calendar, which is linked to the phases of the moon. One exception to this rule is the special prayer requesting rain, which Jews in the Diaspora begin saying on the night preceding December 5th (or 6th).

To understand why, let’s take a look at the history and significance of this small but important prayer.

Praying for Rain

Jews have been praying for rain for millennia. In the ancient land of Israel, rain was a life-and-death concern. A good rainy season meant a good harvest and ample drinking water, while a drought could be fatal to livestock and cripple the economy.

So when the Men of the Great Assembly set out to codify the prayers, they made sure to add a prayer for rain to the daily Amidah (silent prayer).

In fact, rain appears twice in the Amidah:

It is first mentioned in the second blessing, as one of a string of natural and supernatural wonders that G‑d performs. Not least among them is that, “He causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall.”

In this case, we are praising G‑d, who brings rain, but we are not actually asking for rain. It is only later, in the blessing requesting a bountiful year, that we ask G‑d to “bestow dew and rain for blessing upon the face of the earth...”

In both instances, the rain-related phrase is only said during the winter (Israel’s rainy season). However the two prayers follow slightly different schedules. We begin to say “He causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall” on Shemini Atzeret. But, as you point out, we only start saying the second prayer, the actual request for rain, in the beginning of December.

Why the differing start dates? It’s an interesting story...

In Israel

The Jews of ancient Israel made three pilgrimages to Jerusalem each year for the holidays of Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot. Now the official rainy season begins on Shemini Atzeret, 1 when the Jews were about to start their journey back home after the festival of Sukkot. As much as they wanted the rain, they chose to delay their supplications in the interests of a safer and easier trip.

That is how the practice of delaying the prayer for rain began. In Israel, the prayer was begun only 15 days after Shemini Atzeret (the 7th of Cheshvan), allowing enough time for even the Jews living near the Euphrates to return home.2 This custom is followed by Jews living in Israel until today.

Outside of Israel, however, a more complicated calculation became necessary.

In the Diaspora

For much of our history, the primary Jewish community in the Diaspora was in Babylonia (modern-day Iraq), where the climate is much hotter than Israel’s, and the autumn rains do not begin until much later. Therefore the sages instituted that Jews living in the Diaspora should start praying for rain only 60 days after the start of the halachik autumn, which is known as tekufat Tishrei. (This should not be confused with the autumn equinox, which is usually September 22 or 23)3 I will explain soon when exactly that is.

Nowadays, very few Jews live in Babylonia, and the Jews of North America need rain at a different time than the Jews in Singapore. Nevertheless, we all start asking for rain on the day established for the Jews in Babylonia, regardless of when rains are actually needed in our respective locales.4

The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, explains that even Jews living in the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are reversed, should follow the schedule established for the Jews of Babylonia, because we pray for the needs of the Jewish people as a whole, most of whom reside in the Northern Hemisphere.5

Obviously this does not preclude us from praying for rain at other times. An individual or community that needs rain at a different time may add a personal prayer into the sixteenth blessing of the Amidah, “Shomeiah Tefilah,” where we add our unique requests.6

Now Some Math

We now know that the custom of Jews in the Diaspora is to start praying for rain 60 days after the onset tekufat Tishrei. But when exactly is that?

In the third century, the Talmudic sage Shmuel calculated the length of the solar year as 365 days and 6 hours. Since the year is subdivided into four seasons, or tekufot in Hebrew, it follows that each tekufah is 91 days and 7 ½ hours (365.25 ÷ 4 = 91.3125).7

This calculation happens to correspond with the Julian calendar, which was what was widely used from the year 45 BCE, until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582.

Based on this, Tekufat Tishrei always began on September 24 on the Julian calendar8, and 60 days into tekufat Tishrei was November 22.9

Calendar Issues

In the era of Gregory XIII, it became clear that the solar year is actually 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than previously calculated, and that the calendar was slowly but surely drifting ahead. So in the year 1582, the spring (vernal) equinox--which had been on March 25th at the introduction of the Julian calendar--actually took place on the 11^th of March. This was about 10 days earlier than March 21st, which is the day that was “fixed” as the vernal equinox in a previous, one-time correction to the civil calendar in the year 325.

To remedy this, Gregory made two changes:

He shifted the calendar back by removing 10 days in October, making October 5 of the year 1582 into October 15. This restored the spring equinox to March 21.

To insure that the calendar would not shift again, Gregory implemented that every 128 years, (or three times every 400 years), one day would be removed from the calendar. (This is because the 11 minute, 14 second discrepancy accumulates into a whole extra day every 128 years).

The extra day normally appended to the month of February every four years (causing a leap-year)10 would not be added to all centaury years, except for those years which are multiples of 400. (Thus it was not added in the years 1800, 1900, 2100. However, it was added to the years 1600 and 2000.)

If you’re still following me, it should be clear that the old calendars (Jewish and Julian) drift away from the new (Gregorian) calendar at a rate of three days every 400 years.

It’s important to note that the Jewish sages were well aware that this calculation was not completely accurate. In fact, for most purposes, the Jewish calendar follows the more accurate calculations of Rabbi Adda bar Ahavah, who gives the length of the solar year as 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes and 25.4 seconds. However the sages of the Talmud chose to calculate the length of a solar year as 365.25 days for the prayer for rain and the Birchat Hachamah (blessing of the sun), because it made the calcuations much simpler for the average person to perform.11

What to Do?

We know that the prayer for rain should be said 60 days after the beginning of the halachic autumn. Since this date is based on the calculation of Shmuel (and the Julian calendar), and not the Gregorian calendar, we now have to translate this date into our Gregorian calendars.

Here’s our final calculation: As mentioned earlier, in the Julian calendar, the sixtieth day after the tekufah is November 22. Now, keeping in mind that the Gregorian calendar chopped off 10 days from the Julian calendar, we have to add them back. Thus, the sixtieth day would be--in the year 1582--on December 2^nd.

Additionally, every centurion year (except for the years divisible by 400) the Gregorian calendar loses one day not dropped from the older calendar. Thus, from the year 1700 and onward, the sixtieth day of the tekufah moved one day every 100 years. In 1700 it was on December 3^rd, in 1800 it moved to December 4^th, and in 1900 to December 5^th..However, since the year 2000 is divisible by 400, and the Gregorian calendar did not drop the leap day, and the day that is considered the sixtieth day of the tekufah did not move, and remains December 5^th until the year 2100, in which it will move to December 6^th.

The reason that we begin saying the prayer on December 6th in the year before a leap year is that, although the Gregorian calendar adds a day to the month of February every four years for a leap year, the extra day has essentially really been accumulated at the start of the winter season. Therefore, every December preceding a leap year, the sixtieth day is adjusted to December 6^th.

Also bear in mind that since the halachik day starts on the preceding night, we start reciting the prayer for rain during the Maariv Amidah on the night preceding the dates given above.

So, after all that, what you really need to know is that until the year 2100, in a regular year we start saying the prayer for rain on the night of December 4^th and the year before a leap year, on the night of December 5^th.12

As we begin to recite the prayers for rain this winter, let us have in mind that we are joining Jews all over the world--especially those in our Holy Land, where every drop of water is precious--united in our request for bounty and blessing for all of humanity.