Prayer for Dew

(Tefillat Tal), Name given to various supplicatory hymns and prayers which form part of the Amidah during the dry season in the Land of Israel. There are many references in the Bible to the vital importance of dew (e.g., Gen. 27:28; Mic. 5:6; Ps. 133:3), often also in a symbolic context (cf. Deut. 32:2; Hos. 14:6; Zech. 8:12). The blessings of rain and dew are emphasized in the daily Amidah, which incorporates appreciative "references" (second benediction) as well as seasonal "requests" (ninth benediction), a liturgical development that gave rise to some controversy in the Mishnaic period (Ta'an. 1:1-2). According to an old tradition, the "heavenly stores of dew" are opened up at the beginning of Passover. From the early Middle Ages, it became customary to recite special pleas for Divine intercession when the earth of the Holy Land needed moisture during the summer (prayers for dew on Passover) or else during the winter months (prayers for rain on Shemini Atseret; see RAIN, PRAYERS FOR). These hymns and prayers have entered the liturgy of all Jewish rites, the Prayer for Dew being chanted in the additional service on the first day of Passover. Among sephardim, these supplications are known as Tikkun Tal ("the Dew Formula").

Few Orthodox congregations nowadays recite the whole series of alphabetical acrostic poems originally adopted by the Ashkenazi ritual. In most Diaspora communities, the ark is opened and worshipers remain standing while the reader (dressed in his white robe or KITEL) chants the Prayer for Dew soon after commencing his repetition of the Additional Service Amidah. The opening words, Tal ten li-retsot artsakh ("Give dew to favor Your land"), introduce what chiefly remains of the older Ashkenazi ritual---a hymn in six rhyming stanzas with reversed acrostics, attributed to Eleazar KALLIR. A parallel is drawn between the revival of land and nature in springtime and Israel's own future restoration. After the reader has proclaimed, Mashiv ha-ru'aḥ u-Morid ha-tal ("[For You are the Lord our God] who causes the wind to blow and the dew to fall"), he repeats the congregation's threefold prayer that dew may be granted "as a blessing, not as a curse; for life, not for death; for plenty, not for famine." Each wish is greeted by a congregational response of amen. This ritual is followed in conservative synagogues, and an abbreviated version is used by reform congregations.

In Israel, however, this (Diaspora) procedure is maintained only by Ḥasidic Jews; other Ashkenazi congregations recite Tefillat Tal immediately prior to the silent Amidah. Furthermore, all traditional rites in Israel have adopted the Sephardi practice of substituting Morid ha-tal ("Who causes the dew to fall"), in the second benediction of the Amidah, for the phrase Mashiv ha-ru'aḥ u-Morid ha-geshem ("Who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall") used throughout the winter. "Grant blessing to the earth"--- inserted in the ninth benediction of the weekday Amidah---is nevertheless a standard formula among ashkenazim, voicing the hope for a prosperous year, which worshipers recite from the first intermediate day of Passover until the afternoon of 4 December (until 7 Ḥeshvan in Israel). Two quite different versions of this benediction (for summer and winter) are prescribed in the Sephardi and Oriental rites.

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