בְּהֵעָצֵ֥ר שָׁמַ֛יִם וְלֹא־יִהְיֶ֥ה מָטָ֖ר כִּ֣י יֶחֶטְאוּ־לָ֑ךְ וְהִֽתְפַּֽלְל֞וּ אֶל־הַמָּק֤וֹם הַזֶּה֙ וְהוֹד֣וּ אֶת־שְׁמֶ֔ךָ וּמֵחַטָּאתָ֥ם יְשׁוּב֖וּן כִּ֥י תַעֲנֵֽם׃
Apabila langit tertutup dan tidak ada hujan karena mereka telah berdosa kepada-Mu, lalu mereka berdoa ke arah tempat ini, mengakui nama-Mu, dan berbalik dari dosa mereka supaya Engkau menjawab mereka,
English Explanation of Mishnah Taanit
For the seventh he says: He who answered David and Shlomo his son in Jerusalem, He shall answer you and hear the voice of your cry on this day. Blessed are You Lord Who has mercy upon the land. God rescued David in a time of famine (II Samuel 21: 1-14). Shlomo prays to God for rain (I Kings 8:35) and to stop a famine (ibid, 37) and God answers him (ibid 9:3). The liturgist mentions David and Shlomo at the end because they were answered in the very type of occasion in which this liturgy was being recited famine or drought. Had the benedictions gone in simple chronological order, David and Shlomo should have been before Elijah and Jonah. The concluding formula, “Who has mercy on the land” is appropriate because Psalm 102 which is part of the benediction includes the verse, “You will surely arise and have mercy on Zion” (v. 14).
Bartenura
יכוין את בלו כנגד בית קדשי הקדשים – as it states (I Kings 8:35), “and then they pray towards this place…”
Rabbeinu Bahya
עין יעקב, “the well of Yaakov.” According to the plain meaning of the text “someone who had emerged from the ‘well’ of Yaakov” (Ibn Ezra). We find a similar expression pertaining to offspring of Yehudah in Isaiah 48,1, where the words וממי יהודה “and have issued forth from the waters of Yehudah,” also mean that the people the prophet refers to are descended from Yaakov through Yehudah.
The words אל ארץ דגן, “to a land of grain,” clearly must be understood as “in a land of grain, etc.” We have a similar use of the word אל in Kings I 8,35 where Solomon describes people praying at the Temple as ויתפללו אל המקום הזה, “and they will pray to this place.” Clearly, he did not mean that their prayers should be directed at the “place,” but, to G’d Who is perceived as being at that place.
If Moses speaks of the inheritance of the land in conjunction with Yaakov (instead of Avraham or Yitzchok), this is to preclude anyone thinking that other descendants of the two senior patriarchs had any claim to that land. This is also why we never find the expression עין אברהם or עין יצחק as it would have included other sons of Avraham, or Esau, a son of Yitzchok. We have pointed out repeatedly that the Jewish people have an exclusive claim to four gifts: prophecy, Torah, the land of Israel, and resurrection of the bodies after an interval.
The exclusivity of these gifts to the Jewish people can be attributed directly to quotes from Moses’ own lips. Concerning the gift of prophecy, he said in Deut. 18,15: “a prophet among you, one of your brethren, someone like me, etc.” He meant: “just as I am a direct descendant of Yaakov, so any future prophet will be a direct descendant of Yaakov.” This verse teaches that prophecy is not to be found except among the Jewish people.
If you were to counter that we do find Bileam as a prophet among the Gentile nations, the fact is that Bileam was not a prophet at all; he had the occasional communication from G’d, a communication described as מקרה, as we know from the Torah itself which described G’d ‘s communication to him as ויקר instead of as ויקרא, i.e. a happening which was of a totally irregular nature. Even on that occasion, G’d communicated with him only for the sake and honour of the Jewish people (compare author’s words on Numbers 23,16 and 24,4). Alternatively, the only reason Bileam was granted prophetic powers was to silence the Gentiles’ argument that if G’d had given them prophets they too would have risen to the same moral and ethical levels as had the Jewish people (Bamidbar Rabbah 20,1).
The exclusivity of the gift of the Torah to the Jewish people is proved by the verse (Deut. 33,4) “Moses has commanded the Torah to us, an hereditary gift for the community of Yaakov.”
The exclusivity of the gift of Eretz Yisrael to direct descendants of Yaakov is proved by our verse mentioning עין יעקב אל ארץ דגן ותירוש. History has proved that during the many centuries of the Jewish people being exiled from that land no other nation ever succeeded in making it a land flowing with milk and honey. This is why it was never settled successfully by another nation for any period of time.
The resurrection of the dead being something reserved for the Jewish people is attested to by the words in our verse אף שמיו יערפו טל, “even its heavens drip with dew.” The word שמיו, “its heavens,” refers to the expression עין יעקב at the beginning of the same verse, meaning that the dew which in the future will be the mechanism awakening the dead to rebirth comes from the part of heaven ערבות, in which the descendants of Yaakov ride in the interval. In other words, the Yeshurun described in verse 26 are the souls of the Jewish people after death awaiting the call to be resurrected. This part of heaven contains the dew which will reunite these souls with their bodies. Other nations do not share this privilege; their souls will not be reunited with their bodies. This is what Daniel 12,2 referred to when he spoke about many awakening from their slumber, the “many” being Jews. The word רבים, chosen by Daniel as the ones who will be resurrected is a word which has been used to describe Jews on other occasions in the Bible, such as in Esther 8,17 ורבים מעמי הארץ מתיהדים, which, according to Sifri Haazinu 306 (end of Deut. 32,2), refers to Jews becoming proper Jews again. According to Rabbi Simai there, Moses calls the heaven the domain of the soul, whereas he refers to the earth as the domain of the body. He calls on the dew to reunite the two. People who studied and practiced Torah on earth are as if “heavenly,” and the curse that they will die (permanently) as described by David in Psalms 82,7 does not apply to them. Obviously, the people he speaks of can only be the Jewish people.
We also find that Isaiah prophesied about the future of the Gentile nations saying that מתים בל יחיו, רפאים בל יקומו, “they are dead, they can never live; shades, they can never rise” (Isaiah 26,14), whereas in verse 19 of the same chapter he writes: ”your dead will live, let corpses arise! Awake and shout for joy, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is like the dew on fresh growth, you make the land of shades come to life.” The meaning of the two verses is that a revival of the dead will occur only for the Jewish people. You should know that all of the Jewish people will be resurrected physically, however they will then experience a judgment which will determine their future. This is why Daniel 12,2 describes that some “will remain alive indefinitely whereas others will be consigned to everlasting abhorrence.” This is also what the psalmist Assaph referred to in (Psalms 73,20) בעיר צלמות תבזה, “when awake you despise death.” The word בעיר in that verse has its root in ער, awake, and is to be understood as בהעיר, “when in a state of wakefulness.” We encounter similar constructions, such as in Isaiah 23,11 where the word לשמיד is to be understood as if the prophet had written להשמיד, “to destroy.” Targum Yonathan renders the verse in Psalms 73,20 as “like the dream of a person who is awakened from a dream to face a day of judgment when I awaken them from their graves in anger to announce their permanent death.” We have also been taught in a Baraitha (Rosh Hashanah 16) that when the day of judgment arrives there will be three groups of people. One group comprises the totally righteous, one the totally wicked, irredeemable, and one group consists of the ones who fall in between the other two categories. The first group will be immediately inscribed and sealed in the Book of the righteous and their fate will be sealed so that they can immediately proceed to the hereafter. The second group will be consigned to hell immediately, in accordance with the verse from Daniel which we already quoted. This proves to you that even the totally wicked (Jews) will first be awakened before being consigned to their eventual destination. For the wicked this resurrection of their bodies will actually be a punishment rather than a reward seeing that they will be judged in Gehinom both body and soul in one of the seven levels of that domain.
Concerning the people who fall between the two extremes of being totally righteous and totally wicked, the Talmud Rosh Hashanah 17 says that they will express their pains during the punishments endured but, if their merits exceed their demerits, they will rise from the pain inflicted upon them and join their brethren in the hereafter reserved for the righteous. The ones whose demerits exceed their accumulated merits, however, will descend into Gehinom for a period of 12 months. At the end of that period their bodies will cease to exist and their souls will be burned, the remains being scattered beneath the soles of the feet of the righteous inhabiting these celestial regions. The fact that the Talmud describes their bodies as “ceasing,” proves that they had descended to Gehinom first both as bodies and souls.
In order to hint that the resurrection of the bodies is something reserved exclusively for the Jewish people, Moses mentioned “dew,” and immediately afterwards: “hail to you Israel.” Our sages in the Sifri 340, commenting on the words in 34,3 where the Torah describes the extent of the vision granted to Moses, עד הים האחרון, “as far as the western sea” in 34,3, add: that instead of reading these words as עד הים האחרון, we should read them as עד היום האחרון, “until the final day.”
The words אל ארץ דגן, “to a land of grain,” clearly must be understood as “in a land of grain, etc.” We have a similar use of the word אל in Kings I 8,35 where Solomon describes people praying at the Temple as ויתפללו אל המקום הזה, “and they will pray to this place.” Clearly, he did not mean that their prayers should be directed at the “place,” but, to G’d Who is perceived as being at that place.
If Moses speaks of the inheritance of the land in conjunction with Yaakov (instead of Avraham or Yitzchok), this is to preclude anyone thinking that other descendants of the two senior patriarchs had any claim to that land. This is also why we never find the expression עין אברהם or עין יצחק as it would have included other sons of Avraham, or Esau, a son of Yitzchok. We have pointed out repeatedly that the Jewish people have an exclusive claim to four gifts: prophecy, Torah, the land of Israel, and resurrection of the bodies after an interval.
The exclusivity of these gifts to the Jewish people can be attributed directly to quotes from Moses’ own lips. Concerning the gift of prophecy, he said in Deut. 18,15: “a prophet among you, one of your brethren, someone like me, etc.” He meant: “just as I am a direct descendant of Yaakov, so any future prophet will be a direct descendant of Yaakov.” This verse teaches that prophecy is not to be found except among the Jewish people.
If you were to counter that we do find Bileam as a prophet among the Gentile nations, the fact is that Bileam was not a prophet at all; he had the occasional communication from G’d, a communication described as מקרה, as we know from the Torah itself which described G’d ‘s communication to him as ויקר instead of as ויקרא, i.e. a happening which was of a totally irregular nature. Even on that occasion, G’d communicated with him only for the sake and honour of the Jewish people (compare author’s words on Numbers 23,16 and 24,4). Alternatively, the only reason Bileam was granted prophetic powers was to silence the Gentiles’ argument that if G’d had given them prophets they too would have risen to the same moral and ethical levels as had the Jewish people (Bamidbar Rabbah 20,1).
The exclusivity of the gift of the Torah to the Jewish people is proved by the verse (Deut. 33,4) “Moses has commanded the Torah to us, an hereditary gift for the community of Yaakov.”
The exclusivity of the gift of Eretz Yisrael to direct descendants of Yaakov is proved by our verse mentioning עין יעקב אל ארץ דגן ותירוש. History has proved that during the many centuries of the Jewish people being exiled from that land no other nation ever succeeded in making it a land flowing with milk and honey. This is why it was never settled successfully by another nation for any period of time.
The resurrection of the dead being something reserved for the Jewish people is attested to by the words in our verse אף שמיו יערפו טל, “even its heavens drip with dew.” The word שמיו, “its heavens,” refers to the expression עין יעקב at the beginning of the same verse, meaning that the dew which in the future will be the mechanism awakening the dead to rebirth comes from the part of heaven ערבות, in which the descendants of Yaakov ride in the interval. In other words, the Yeshurun described in verse 26 are the souls of the Jewish people after death awaiting the call to be resurrected. This part of heaven contains the dew which will reunite these souls with their bodies. Other nations do not share this privilege; their souls will not be reunited with their bodies. This is what Daniel 12,2 referred to when he spoke about many awakening from their slumber, the “many” being Jews. The word רבים, chosen by Daniel as the ones who will be resurrected is a word which has been used to describe Jews on other occasions in the Bible, such as in Esther 8,17 ורבים מעמי הארץ מתיהדים, which, according to Sifri Haazinu 306 (end of Deut. 32,2), refers to Jews becoming proper Jews again. According to Rabbi Simai there, Moses calls the heaven the domain of the soul, whereas he refers to the earth as the domain of the body. He calls on the dew to reunite the two. People who studied and practiced Torah on earth are as if “heavenly,” and the curse that they will die (permanently) as described by David in Psalms 82,7 does not apply to them. Obviously, the people he speaks of can only be the Jewish people.
We also find that Isaiah prophesied about the future of the Gentile nations saying that מתים בל יחיו, רפאים בל יקומו, “they are dead, they can never live; shades, they can never rise” (Isaiah 26,14), whereas in verse 19 of the same chapter he writes: ”your dead will live, let corpses arise! Awake and shout for joy, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is like the dew on fresh growth, you make the land of shades come to life.” The meaning of the two verses is that a revival of the dead will occur only for the Jewish people. You should know that all of the Jewish people will be resurrected physically, however they will then experience a judgment which will determine their future. This is why Daniel 12,2 describes that some “will remain alive indefinitely whereas others will be consigned to everlasting abhorrence.” This is also what the psalmist Assaph referred to in (Psalms 73,20) בעיר צלמות תבזה, “when awake you despise death.” The word בעיר in that verse has its root in ער, awake, and is to be understood as בהעיר, “when in a state of wakefulness.” We encounter similar constructions, such as in Isaiah 23,11 where the word לשמיד is to be understood as if the prophet had written להשמיד, “to destroy.” Targum Yonathan renders the verse in Psalms 73,20 as “like the dream of a person who is awakened from a dream to face a day of judgment when I awaken them from their graves in anger to announce their permanent death.” We have also been taught in a Baraitha (Rosh Hashanah 16) that when the day of judgment arrives there will be three groups of people. One group comprises the totally righteous, one the totally wicked, irredeemable, and one group consists of the ones who fall in between the other two categories. The first group will be immediately inscribed and sealed in the Book of the righteous and their fate will be sealed so that they can immediately proceed to the hereafter. The second group will be consigned to hell immediately, in accordance with the verse from Daniel which we already quoted. This proves to you that even the totally wicked (Jews) will first be awakened before being consigned to their eventual destination. For the wicked this resurrection of their bodies will actually be a punishment rather than a reward seeing that they will be judged in Gehinom both body and soul in one of the seven levels of that domain.
Concerning the people who fall between the two extremes of being totally righteous and totally wicked, the Talmud Rosh Hashanah 17 says that they will express their pains during the punishments endured but, if their merits exceed their demerits, they will rise from the pain inflicted upon them and join their brethren in the hereafter reserved for the righteous. The ones whose demerits exceed their accumulated merits, however, will descend into Gehinom for a period of 12 months. At the end of that period their bodies will cease to exist and their souls will be burned, the remains being scattered beneath the soles of the feet of the righteous inhabiting these celestial regions. The fact that the Talmud describes their bodies as “ceasing,” proves that they had descended to Gehinom first both as bodies and souls.
In order to hint that the resurrection of the bodies is something reserved exclusively for the Jewish people, Moses mentioned “dew,” and immediately afterwards: “hail to you Israel.” Our sages in the Sifri 340, commenting on the words in 34,3 where the Torah describes the extent of the vision granted to Moses, עד הים האחרון, “as far as the western sea” in 34,3, add: that instead of reading these words as עד הים האחרון, we should read them as עד היום האחרון, “until the final day.”