Question: Will you please explain why we begin to say the prayer of Tal u’Matar on the evening of December 4 or 5, that is, based on the secular calendar? Also if one traveled to Eretz Yisrael, where they start to say it earlier, what is he to do when he is there, and what about when he returns, if he returns before the time we normally commence to say in the Diaspora?
Zelig Aronson
Via E-mail
Answer: Yours is not the only inquiry in regard to these matters; we have received many such inquiries. In fact my late uncle HaRav Sholom Klass, zt”l, devoted an entire chapter in his book Responsa of Modern Judaism (vol. 3, p.276) to your first question – why in the Diaspora we commence our request for rain on December 4 or 5 – dates in the secular calendar rather than a Hebrew date? For that question, we freely base our discussion on his responsum. We also make note of the disparity between the Diaspora and Eretz Yisrael, where they commence to say this prayer earlier. The following week we will discuss your second timely question.
Rabbi Abraham Rapoport of the London Beth Din issued a pamphlet (No. 11, Nissan 5724) exploring this subject. The late Chief Rabbi of England, Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, zt”l, explains this pamphlet in great detail in his book Jewish Law Faces Modern Problems, published by Yeshiva University.
The Jewish calendar, though based primarily on the phases of the moon, is also dependent on the solar cycle in two quite distinct respects: 1) The various festivals must occur at certain seasons fixed in the Torah (e.g., Passover in the springtime). To ensure this and to align the Jewish lunar years (of 354 days on the average) with the solar years (of 365 days) governing the seasons, seven extra (leap) months are intercalated every 19 years. 2) Two specific dates – for Tal u’Matar annually and for Bircat HaChamah (the “Blessing of the Sun”) every 28 years – are related to the seasons, i.e., the evening of December 4 or 5, and April 8, respectively.
The variances of these two calculations go back to a dispute between two Talmudic sages. The great Babylonian sage Samuel assumed the duration of the solar year to be exactly 365 days and six hours, giving each season 91 days and 7½ hours (Eruvin 56a). But five generations later, R. Adda bar Ahava arrived at the much more precise figure of 365 days, 5 hours, 997 parts (one hour has 1,080 parts), and 48 moments (1 part has 76 moments) for the year, or 91 days, 7 hours, 519 parts, and 31 moments for the season (see the Perush commentary on Rambam, Hilchot Kiddush haChodesh, 10:1, quoting the Baraita – or Tekufa – d’Rav Adda).
R. Adda’s calculations have been accepted for determining the length of the average year in the Jewish calendar in order to calculate the festivals, while Samuel’s figure is being used to this day for fixing the dates of Tal u’Matar and Bircat HaChamah.
Rabbi Jakobovits points out that R. Adda’s figure, though far more accurate than Samuel’s which is identical with the year of 365¼ days in the Julian calendar, corresponds somewhat less to the true astronomical value than the Gregorian calendar introduced in 1582. The deviation of the latter is only one day in 3,600 years, while the present Jewish calendar, based on R. Adda’s figure, loses about 4½ days every thousand years, so that we now celebrate Passover on average about eight days later than in 344 C.E., when Hillel II introduced the fixed calendar. The exact figures are 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, and 25.438 seconds for the astronomical year. On the other hand, the calculation of the Jewish month (i.e., from one molad to the next) is much more precise. It extends the true value by less than a second (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 3½ seconds, against 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.841 seconds), so that we still follow the phases of the moon quite accurately to this day.
The Gemara (Ta’anit 10a) explains that in the Diaspora, we commence to pray for rain 60 days after the start of Tekufat Tishrei – the autumn season (the Autumnal Equinox). The Diaspora referred to in the Talmud refers to Babylonia, where rain before that time would cause damage.
The Rosh (Ta’anit ad loc. 1:4) argues that this rule of following Babylonia in all of the Diaspora does not take into account exceptions such as Provence (in southeastern France) where rain was needed badly, lest the planted seeds be lost. Korban Netanel ad loc. explains that birds and mice would eat the seeds, causing a great loss. The Rosh states that he has seen (or heard, see Tur O.C. 117) that in Provence they ask for rain, “Ve’ten Tal u’Matar,” at the earlier date of the 7th of Marcheshvan (like in Eretz Yisrael), and he finds this to be the correct practice.
The Mechaber (Orach Chayyim 117 ad loc.) does not note any such exceptions. See also the Taz (Orach Chayyim ad loc.), who states that such is not the widely accepted custom, for we do not deviate from the Talmudic ruling recorded in Ta’anit (10a). We ask for rain on the 7th of Marcheshvan in Eretz Yisrael, and 60 days after the Tekufa of Tishrei in Babylonia and throughout the Diaspora as well.
According to this view, the enactment is mainly of a symbolic character, unrelated to the variations of climate and agricultural needs in particular localities. This would then account for the choice of Samuel’s calculation as the simplest expedient for universal adoption in liturgical usage. It enables every Jew throughout the world to know the date for commencing Tal u’Matar without any complicated computations, such as would be required by R. Adda’s calculation. However, considerations of simplicity do not apply to the determination of the Jewish calendar; it is, in any event, subject to complex factors and is in principle the responsibility of the Beth Din, so that R. Adda’s more accurate system could be adopted here without confusing individual Jews.
Realizing that the public prayer for rain is mainly a symbolic token in which all Jews are to join together at only two alternative times (for those inside and outside the Holy Land), we therefore use Samuel’s simpler reckoning of the seasons which corresponds to the count of time in the Julian calendar (and shares the astronomical inaccuracy with it). According to that calendar, the Tekufa of Tishrei (beginning of the fall season) always occurs on September 24 (Avudraham, quoted by Beit Yosef, Tur (Orach Chayyim 117) so that Tal u’Matar commences 60 days later, i.e., on November 21 at Ma’ariv, except in leap years when February has 29 days and the Tekufa falls at night and is thus counted from the following day, i.e., September 25, postponing the date for starting Tal u’Matar to November 22.
These fixed figures were not changed when Pope Gregory XIII introduced his reform and dropped 10 days from the calendar in 1582, declaring October 5 of that year as October 15, and after which every century year not divisible by four was no longer counted as a leap year. Hence, in every such century, the date for Tal u’Matar is removed by one more day (in addition to the 10 omitted in 1582) from the Gregorian reckoning. By 1900, the discrepancy thus amounted to 14 days, so that during the present century Tal u’Matar is begun at Ma’ariv on December 4 or 5 (corresponding to November 21 or 22 on the Julian calendar; meaning, the extra day (Ma’ariv) December 5 on a solar leap year). These dates will remain until 2100, when the omission of another leap year will change them to December 5 or 6. As to when in relation to the solar leap year the 60th day occurs? That is always the standard solar date prior to the solar leap year.
Now of course, some years even in this present century we might first begin Tal u’Matar on the 5 or 6 of December at Maariv. How so? That occurs if the 5 or 6 occurs as Friday night and Motza’ei Shabbat respectively (as will occur in the year 2036 – 5797 following a solar leap year) when we will first begin to say Tal u’Matar the night of December 6, on Motza’ei Shabbat.
(To be continued)
