This Week's Parsha

Anyone who has ever done Israeli folk dancing or simcha dancing at a wedding or a bar or bat mitzvah is familiar with the Mayim Mayim (Water Water) circle dance.

The words from the song come from Yishayahu 12:3:

Ushavtem mayim b’sason mimaayanei hayeshua

You can draw water with joy from the springs of salvation.

The music for the song was composed by Emanuel Pugashov Amiran. The dance was created in 1937 to celebrate the discovery of water in the desert. The choreographer was Else I Dublon.

Da’at Mikra comments that in the future, B’nai Yisrael will have celebrations at the time of the drawing of the water like the Simchat Beit HaShoeva (Water Libation ceremony when the Temple stood in Jerusalem). The water will be drawn from springs of blessing whose water will save the land and all those who are thirsty for water.

This alludes to the minhag (custom) of having a Simchat Beit HaShoeva celebration where they draw water in order to thank and praise God, even when the Beit HaMikdash is not standing. At the time of the celebration they would sing songs of praise to God.

Many of the mitzvot of Sukkot are connected with water or with rain:

The Talmud, Ta’anit 2b states that blessing and shaking the Arba Minim, (four species), the lulav, etrog, hadasim (myrtle), and aravot (willow) on Sukkot is essentially a prayer for rain.

Rabbi Eliezer said: Seeing that these four species are intended only to make intercession for water, therefore, as these cannot grow without water, so the world too cannot exist without water.

On Shmini Atzeret, when we no longer need to sit in the sukka, we begin to “mention” rain in our prayers with the blessing of “Mashiv HaRuach u’Morid HaGashem,” “He who makes the wind blow and the rain fall.”

The Hoshanot which are added to the prayers on Sukkot also have a heavy focus on rain.

As the rainy season begins, let’s pray for rain of blessings, let’s hope that this year will be a better year than last year, that the hostages and our soldiers will come home safely and may the Beit Hamikdash be rebuilt speedily in our days so that we can observe the true Simchat Beit HaShoeva ceremony.