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We recited ????????? ?????????, the Prayer for Rain, the day after Sukkot, on Shmini Atzeret. The same day, we began adding the phrase ???????? ??????? ????????? ?????????, “He causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall”, in every Amidah (which we will continue to do until Pesach). However, this phrase is not a request for rain; it is, rather, recognition that G-d provides us with the wind and the rain which are necessary for our survival. In Israel, we begin requesting rain from G-d today, on the 7th of Marcheshvan. In the ninth Brachah of the Amidah of the Evening Service Monday night, as the 7th of Marcheshvan begins, we pray for the first time this year: “Bless this year and all its produce for the good for us, O Hashem our G-d, and grant dew and rain as a blessing on the face of the earth…” And we will recite this prayer three times a day until Pesach. This follows the Mishnah: “On the 3rd of Marcheshvan we pray for rain; Rabban Gamliel says, on the 7th thereon, fifteen days after the Festival [Sukkot] ends, so that the last Jew can reach the River Euphrates” (Ta’anit 1:3). The Talmud specifies that in this dispute, “the halachah follows Rabban Gamliel” (Ta’anit 10a). Even though the rainy season in Israel should ideally begin immediately after Sukkot, we delay praying for rain to give time for the last Jewish pilgrim who had come to Israel for Sukkot to reach the River Euphrates, so that their journey home should not be made unduly uncomfortable or dangerous by muddy roads and swollen rivers (following Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartinura’s Commentary to the Mishnah ad. loc.). The Tosafot Yom Tov (commentary to the Mishnah by Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann ben Natan ha-Levi Heller, central and eastern Europe, 1578-1654) adds: “Because sometimes they would tarry a little in Jerusalem, until the entire Festival had finished”. And then the Talmud notes the exception: “However, in the exile, [we pray for rain] sixty days after the Autumn equinox” (Ta’anit 10a). Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartinura concurs (Commentary to Mishnah Ta’anit 1:3): “All this applies in the Land of Israel; however in the exile, they only begin praying for rain sixty days after the Autumn equinox”. And indeed, this is the halachah in practice (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 117:1; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 19:5). The Talmud (Ta’anit 10a) explains that they would start praying for rain sixty days after the Autumn equinox because that was the time when Babylon needed its rainy season to begin. And about other countries whose rainy season does not begin at the same time of the year? – Rashi (commentary to Ta’anit 10a, s.v. ???? ?? ??? ???), the Ritv”a (Chidushai ha-Ritv”a to Ta’anit 10a, s.v. ???? ????? ????), and other commentators explain that the entire exile follows Babylonian practice. The Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Yechi’el, Germany and Spain, c.1250-1328) tried to change this practice, such that Jews wherever they may be would pray for rain in the season that their host countries would need it. However, great though the Rosh indisputably was, the opposition was so determined that he did not succeed in persuading Jewry to change the ancient practice. And so until today, Jews outside of Israel continue to pray for rain according to the needs of Iraq. In the southern hemisphere (South Africa and Australia, for example), Jews begin to pray for rain in the middle of summer, because that is when the rainy season begins in Iraq. And we find another peculiarity: the Autumn equinox varies between September 22nd and 23rd, so sixty days later falls on November 21st or 22nd. Why, then, do Jews throughout the exile begin saying ????? ??? ??????? ????????? (“and grant rain and dew as a blessing”) on the evening of the 4th of December (or the 5th of December in the year preceding a civil leap year)? – Well, this goes back to the Talmudic sage Shmuel, a first-generation Amora, one of the greatest of the Babylonian Amora’im, often called Mar Shmuel. Shmuel determined the solar year at precisely 365? days (called the Tekufat Shmuel). In honour of his calibration of the calendar, Shmuel was awarde