Rabbi’s Update 12/5/2025

Dear Friends:

If you said Ma’ariv (the evening prayer) last night, you should have noticed that starting last night and through Pesach we make a slight change in the ninth blessing of the Amidah, Birkat Ha-Shanim (the blessing of the years). Starting the evening of December 4, or December 5 in a Hebrew year divisible by 4, instead of asking God to grant b’racha (blessing), we ask God to send tal u’matar livracha (dew and rain for blessing).

As some of our congregants notice every year, while we have a number of changes in our prayers that vary depending on the season, this liturgical change is unique in that it is based on the civil rather than Jewish calendar. How did this come about and how did we settle on December 4 or 5 for this date?

The date change for tal u’matar is one of the instances where practice in Israel and in the Diaspora diverge. In Israel, the change is made on the 7th of the month of Cheshvan, fifteen days after the end of Sukkot -- the reasoning being that people who came to Jerusalem for Sukkot might take that long to get home and we did not want to ask God to make it rain until then so that everyone could get home safe and dry.

But in Babylonia they decided to start saying this prayer somewhat later. It’s not clear precisely why but one plausible suggestion is that they wanted to wait until the end of the date harvest. (When I lived on a kibbutz in Israel I spent some time working in the date orchard and I learned that the dried dates you buy are actually dried while still on the tree, so rain during the date harvest would be very problematic.) So they set the change for the 60th day after the autumnal equinox -- which falls on the same day every year according to the civil (solar) calendar but not according to the Hebrew calendar which is lunar.

This still leaves a couple of questions:

1. Why are Jews in North America following a liturgical calendar based on the date harvest in Babylonia (today’s Iraq)?

2. Why do we make the change in the beginning of December when it is supposed to be on the 60th day after the autumnal equinox? Doesn’t the autumnal equinox occur on September 22 or 23?

The answers:

1. Once the Talmud was codified in the 5th or 6th century CE, Jewish practice was standardized into basically two different sets of observances: those of the Land of Israel and those of Babylonia. For these purposes everywhere but Israel is considered “Babylonia” and so we follow those practices.

2. The autumnal equinox did indeed fall this year on September 22 and thus November 21 was the 60th day after the autumnal equinox. But when the original calculations were made, the civil calendar was the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian, and for whatever reason the rabbinic authorities who determined the calendar did not switch to the Gregorian calendar when the changeover was made. Today, there is a gap of 13 days between the Julian and Gregorian calendars and 13 days from November 21 is indeed December 4.

So basically, we switch from asking God for “blessing” to asking God for “rain and dew for a blessing” at the end of the date harvest in Iraq according to the Julian calendar, which hasn’t been used in this country since the 1700s.

Why? As Tevye said in “Fiddler on the Roof”: it’s a tradition.

While the Federal government has reopened, if you or someone you know is in need because of having been laid off, or has lost benefits of some type and needs immediate help, please let me know. I can access limited funds through the Jewish Federation almost immediately. For longer-term help, the Jewish Free Loan Society will loan up to $18,000 interest-free and the Jewish Federation has set up a hotline to access assistance at 703-JCARING.

As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the shul. For my drop-in hours, you do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building. 

As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment; if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by. 

Additionally, if you know of a Kehilat Shalom congregant or another member of our Jewish community who could use a phone call, please let me know.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Charles L. Arian