When will it finally rain? The weather for the past month in the UK has been gorgeous–sunny and dry, but this is too much of a good thing. Hosepipe bans have been imposed to conserve water, lawns and gardens are turning tan, and flowers are fading. According to the Fire Severity Index, much of England is at a “very high” risk for wildfire. Nearby in France and Spain, more than 300,000 people have been displaced by devastating wildfires and many more weeks of hot and dry weather are expected this summer. As if wars and pandemics were not enough, dry weather has revealed just how vulnerable we truly are. 

Our Torah portion speaks to current events with uncanny relevance. Chapter 11 of Deuteronomy has an extended discussion of the weather as a reflection of human virtue or vice. In contrast to Egypt, which is inundated by the Nile each year even when there is no visible rainfall downstream, the Land of Israel is dependent on rainfall. This can be a blessing for a hilly country–no need to haul water uphill to irrigate the fields and orchards. But the utter dependence on rain leaves the people of Israel vulnerable to cycles of drought and to rains that fall either too early (washing seeds away before they take root) or too late (dampening grain just before the harvest). 

Moses explains that “the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon the land from the beginning until the end of the year” (Deut. 11:12). The following verses are very well known since they are recited as the second paragraph of the Shema prayer that is featured twice daily in our liturgy. Its main point is that when people act responsibly, obeying God’s commandments and creating a just and compassionate society, then God rewards them with good weather and thus prosperity. But when the people grow arrogant, selfish, and disloyal, then God turns away in anger. In consequence (v.17), God will “shut up the skies so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce.” 

The sages questioned the Torah’s premise that God’s eyes are only on the Land of Israel. Doesn’t God govern the entire world? In Midrash Sifre Devarim (40:1) they explain that once God focuses on the Land of Israel, the circle of divine concern expands to encompass the entire world. So it is with us. We first notice our own gardens, watching as they turn brown in the drought. Once we are sensitised in this way, our concern may expand to the gardens of our neighbors, of our country, of neighboring countries too. 

What is to be done with this concern? Our ancestors had many spiritual strategies for confronting drought conditions. They prayed, they fasted, they repented, and in extreme situations they placed ashes on their heads. Ancient Israel intuited what many people today forget–that the weather does reflect human activity. When we act responsibly, curbing our use of energy and water resources, for example, then we are generally blessed with better outcomes. When we act arrogantly and without due care for the gifts of God’s good land, then the land itself teaches us just how vulnerable we remain. 

While we are not officially in the season of asking for rain in our prayers, in a drought we may certainly beseech God for relief, especially for those who are in immediate danger. Meanwhile, we are reminded once more of our responsibility to become faithful stewards of the land so that we may receive the great blessing of the Torah, “then you shall eat, be satisfied, and bless the Lord on the good land that God has given you.”

[This d’var Torah was composed for the Shabbat Shalom NNLS newsletter]