Special prayers are recited and fast days may even be decreed by the leaders of a Jewish community, in the event of a serious drought. It is particularly important to encourage people who are not so observant  of Jewish religious practices to participate in these services, in the hope that they will be moved by the vulnerable position of the community and possibly become more religious. Indeed, the Talmud states that “Any fast day that does not include the sinners is not a fast” (Kerisus 6b)

It once happened that the sun shined bright and the heat touched everyone. It had not rained for a very long time and so water was scarce. In one village, the rabbi proclaimed a fast day. The rabbi tried to urge a non-observant person to join in the community in prayer that the life giving rains should come, but the “modern” Jewish person refused, saying: “You certainly do not think that the prayers of someone like myself will make any difference to G-d.”

The rabbi tried to impress upon him that the prayers of every person are important, and when someone who has wandered away from religious observance turns to G-d, his prayer is very dear to the Holy One, blessed be He.

“I take it from this,” the man answered the rabbi, “that you are suggesting that it is my sinfulness that has aroused the anger of Heaven and caused the drought. How can I be part of a community that accuses me of this! You and your kind are so steeped in superstition that you will never know what the real world is like. This is why I don’t believe in your traditions and mythology!””

The rabbi thought for a moment, stroked his beard and answered the young man: “I’m sorry you feel that way, I could not possibly think that you caused the drought. In fact, we know for a fact that it was people like you who once caused it to rain for forty days and forty nights consecutively.”

The young man laughed and responded: “ How can mouthing a bunch of words and torturing yourself with no food or water make any real changes to the world?”

The rabbi listened and explained: “Fasting and prayer make great changes to everything around us as we are taught, ‘Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break  every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood’ (Isaiah 58:6-7) It is through our old traditions that we change the world to a better place physically and spiritually.”

May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)

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