the Dry Season (Spring & Summer)

This is an archive of prayers, prayer-poems, and songs for the Dry season (i.e., Spring & Summer) in which the condensation moisture in the form of dew provides one of the four key ingredients for the perpetuation of most life as we know it on our Earth (sun, soil, water, and air). Heavy precipitation (rain and hail) are considered dangerous at this time as it may damage and interrupt the vital and vulnerable agricultural harvests.

Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and/or translation of a historic prayer or song in any language, familiar or obscure, for the Dry season.

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Spring, a hymn on “Immortality of the Soul” by Penina Moïse (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1842)

“Spring (Holy and everlasting one!)” by Penina Moïse, published in 1842, appears under the subject “Immortality of the Soul” as Hymn 50 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), p. 53. . . .

Categories: the Dry Season (Spring & Summer)

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., ABAB rhyming scheme, English vernacular prayer, hymns, South Carolina

Contributor(s): Ḳahal Ḳadosh Beth Elohim (Charleston, South Carolina), Penina Moïse and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Tal, a prayer for dew in the onset of spring by Lise Tarlau (1907)

“Tal” by Lise Tarlau can be found in Rabbi Max Grunwald’s anthology of Jewish women’s prayer, Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen (1907), pages 315-317. . . .

Categories: the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., German vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, paraliturgical tefilat tal, Prayers for Precipitation, Spring

Contributor(s): Lise Tarlau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

[Prayer for] Rebirth, by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (ca. 1950s)

A prayer anticipating the spring as a metaphor for liberation, mental wellness, and spiritual rebirth. . . .

Categories: the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Well-being, health, and caregiving

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., depression, English vernacular prayer, liberation from mitsrayim, Y'mei Bein haMitsrim

Contributor(s): Avraham Samuel Soltes and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

A Prayer for Dew, by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

Geshem and tal: rain and dew. We pray for each in its season, geshem all winter and tal as summer approaches…not everywhere, necessarily, but in the land of Israel where our prayers have their roots. In a desert climate, water is clearly a gift from God. It’s easy for us to forget that, here with all of this rain and snow. But our liturgy reminds us. Through the winter months, during our daily amidah we’ve prayed “mashiv ha-ruach u-morid ha-gashem” — You cause the winds to blow and the rains to fall! We only pray for rain during the rainy season, because it is frustrating both to us and to God when we pray for impossibilities. . . .

Categories: the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Pesaḥ

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, Jewish Renewal, North America, North American Jewry, paraliturgical teḥinot, water cycle

Contributor(s): Rachel Barenblat

בִּרְכַּת הָאִילָנוֹת | The Blessing of Flowering Fruit Trees in the Spring Season in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

When the spring (Aviv) season arrives, a blessing is traditionally said when one is in view of at least two flowering fruit trees. In the northern hemisphere, it can be said anytime through the end of the month of Nissan (though it can still be said in Iyar). For those who live in the southern hemisphere, the blessing can be said during the month of Tishrei. . . .

Categories: the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Pesaḥ, Rosh Ḥodesh Nisan (נִיסָן), Rosh Ḥodesh Iyyar (אִיָּר), Rosh Ḥodesh Tishrei (תִּשְׁרֵי), Rosh Ḥodesh Marḥeshvan (מַרְחֶשְׁוָן)

Tags: eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, four worlds, Needing Source Images, Nusaḥ Ha-Ari z"l, school of the ARI z"l, Trees

Contributor(s): Jacob Chatinover (translation), David Seidenberg, Unknown Author(s), Aharon N. Varady (translation) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

A Kavvanah for Welcoming the Shabbat with the Spring Equinox, by Rabbi Yaakov Reef

In the year 5775 (2015), the vernal equinox coincided with Rosh Ḥodesh Nissan, the Hebrew month known also as Aviv (Spring), as well as the onset of Shabbat, and a total solar eclipse. Here is a short meditation to receive the shabbat in embrace of the new season. . . .

Categories: the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Ḳabbalat Shabbat

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Aviv, candle lighting, North America, Spring, vernal equinox

Contributor(s): Yaakov Reef

תפילה לנספים בשטפונות | Prayer for Flash Flood Victims, by the Masorti Movement in Israel (2018)

Flash floods are dangerous in every season, but are rare in the dry season, after most rain and snow are thought to have fallen. Changes in the global climate due to global warming caused by anthropogenic activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and the conversion of land for raising animals for their meat is a significant contributor to extreme weather experienced around the world. The Masorti Movement of Israel’s prayer for flood victims was first published on their website, here. . . .

Categories: the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Dangerous Storms & Floods

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, flash floods, Needing Proofreading, תחינות teḥinot, ישראל Yisrael

Contributor(s): Anonymous Author(s), Masorti Movement in Israel and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

כַּוָּנָה וּבְרָכָה עַל רְאִיַּת נְחִיל רֶמֶשׂ גָּדוֹל עַד־מְאוֹד | Kavvanah and Blessing for Observing a Massive Swarm of Creeping Things, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

There are blessings for beautiful vistas, and there are blessings for powerful weather. But is there a blessing for giant swarms of bugs? Certainly! There just wasn’t a kavvanah for it… yet. Inspired by the appearance of Brood X in May 2021, this is a meditation and blessing for the unique experience of seeing an enormous number of non-dangerous insects. Cicadas are NOT a plague — they don’t eat crops or spread disease, but they do help revitalize the soil and keep forest ecosystems healthy. As a natural part of the universal order, we should work to see the divinity and goodness in them, even if we might normally think of them as gross. . . .

Categories: the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Brood X, crawling things, insects, Periodical cicadas

Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

שים שלום למוסף טל | Sim Shalom for the “Tal” Musaf Amidah of Pesaḥ (extended)

The first day of Pesach, according to the Sages, is the day the world is judged for grain and dew. Because of this, many customs have developed tying it into the pomp of the High Holy Days. One custom preserved in many medieval maḥzorim is to extend the final blessing of the the Musaf “Tal” (Dew) service, including a Hayom piyyut, a piyyut form otherwise almost exclusively associated with the Yamim Noraim. This extended Sim Shalom berakha including piyyutim is presented here, largely based on the form compiled by Ernst Daniel Goldschmidt (zatsal). . . .

Categories: the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag

Tags: טל tal, היום תאמצנו Hayom T'amtsenu, Nusaḥ Ashkenaz, peace, פיוטים piyyutim, Prayers for Precitipation, Spring

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17