Emerging  from the High Holy day season ending with Simchat Torah,  we enter the second month of the Jewish year, the month of Cheshvan. While there is no major  holiday or a date of religious / national importance,  it is  nonetheless an important part of  Jewish life. On the  seventh day  of Cheshvan, we begin to pray for rain, for the  badly needed  water in the mostly semi desert state  of  Israel.  Water means  much more  than a quencher of a very thirsty land of Israel. It is in fact a major  part of Jewish practices. It  symbolizes  the Jewish covenant with and trust in G-D as well as the sanctity of life itself. Jewish people  express an appreciation for the  creator  through  religious and spiritual acts involving water.  

During  the second day of creation G-D brought water under the heavens as a crucial part of life’s creation on Earth. The flood story  is about using  water to rebuild, restarting life the way G-D intended it  to be. Some  of the biblical  water  related  stories  are highly symbolic. Abraham  offers  water  to the three  strangers  coming  from the desert  as a way  to  “inject” life into them so they can bless  Sara  with new a  future life with baby Isaac.

The symbol of  water as a source of life repeats in the Bible many times.  Moses brings water from the rock not only to revive   exhausted and thirsty Israelites but also to enhance  their belief  and  trust in G-D, the source of life. Gideon, an army leader, chooses only  a few  hundred  soldiers  to fight  the Midianite army.  He chooses  only the ones that lay down to drink water  from the river  and  not the ones who kneel to drink. Those who lay down to drink are the ones who refuse  to kneel, the act of idol worshippers, exhibiting an absolute  trust  in G-D. The prophets use  water as an allegory to G-D, the source of life.

During this month of Cheshvan, not only do we pray for rain, we also express our appreciation for  water, for life and for abundance. Jews consider life,  a G-D given present  as holy and should be  preserved at all cost. It is said in the Talmud  that anyone  who saves  one  soul is as if he saved  the entire world.   This offer of appreciation for  life  and abundance is expressed through prayers and is a big part of the holiday of Sukkot, the last  holiday of the agricultural year.   

With Thanksgiving approaching, it is said that the Pilgrims, highly appreciative of surviving  the harsh initial time in the new world, used the holiday of  Sukkot as an idea to create the holiday of Thanksgiving. It is therefore  a good time to adapt  the Jewish custom of showing an appreciation of everything  around us. The blessing,  “Baruch Atah Adonai,” "Blessed  are you Adonai,”  is the Jewish way of showing an appreciation for our life by blessing and  thanking  the Creator. The rabbis of the past even declared that one should offer 100 blessings a day as expressed in our prayerbook. 

May we all  blessed with much for which to be grateful! 

Rabbi David

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