Q: Why do we recite the prayer for rain on the last day of Sukkot?
A: The last service is actually called by different name, Shmini Atzeret, when we include a special prayer for rain. The following words are inserted into the daily until Passover, “Who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall.”
Rain is vital to our survival. Without it we die. The Talmud states that Shmini Atzeret is the world’s Yom Kippur. Just on the Day of Atonement, God declares “who will live and will die,” so too a declaration is made regarding the world on this day. If a positive judgment is decreed we will have rain, life. If not, the world will with.er and die.
Shmini Atzeret is an agricultural holiday. It is called the Eighth day of Assembly in English. Interestingly, it falls around the autumnal equinox. A change happens then. Rain does, with God’s blessing, begin to fall and the earth is renewed and continues
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