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The Jewish Prayer for Rain

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Jewish prayer reveals its deepest theological principles through unexpected absences and inversions. The rain prayer Tefilat Geshem, composed by Elazar ha-Kalir for Shemini Atzeret, defies traditional rain-making rituals by anchoring its supplications not in natural cycles but in historical memory. Through textual analysis and comparative study, this research uncovers how the prayer's six alphabetic acrostic stanzas, each beginning with "Remember," invoke Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, and the Twelve Tribes through subtle wordplay and allusion. Unlike indigenous rain ceremonies focused on biological rhythms, Tefilat Geshem deliberately omits both geographic markers and Honi, Judaism's famous rain-maker, while featuring biblical figures who lived outside or never entered the Land of Israel. The prayer employs linear rather than circular movements, transforming what might have been a nature-centered ritual into an expression of exile and historical consciousness. This structure creates space for diaspora Jews themselves to become the unmentioned seventh personality, as they faithfully pray for rain in a distant homeland—embodying the very remembrance the prayer celebrates.

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    Published 1984

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  • Publication Credits

    Monford Harris