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After Sukkos, we immediately begin saying mashiv haruach, as it is the rainy season. However, we delay saying v'sein tal umattar, the request for rain, until we have given the pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the festival time to get home (Taanis 10a). We don't want them to get rained on on the way.

We continue saying v'sein tal umattar until erev Pesach (Shulchan Aruch O.C. 117:1).

How come we don't stop a few days early, to give the pilgrims a dry journey to Jerusalem? How come we only want to facilitate a dry journey home? If anything, I would have thought the opposite - we should want to ensure a dry journey to Jerusalem, lest someone refrain from coming due to the treacherous journey.

Double AA
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Y     e     z
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    When you have something to expect to, you don't feel down. To Jerusalem = Happy even if it rains From jerusalem = Feeling down if it rains – Zeev Mar 23 '15 at 23:25
  • It's very unusual for it to rain at the tail end of the season. Reason would damage the ovens they bake matzo in, and is a primary reason for adding a second Adar. Nevertheless, if it's going to rain it remains a siman bracha, so we continue to ask for it. We explicitly stop asking for rain during pesach because it becomes a woman klalah. – Isaac Kotlicky Mar 24 '15 at 00:02
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    @IsaacKotlicky can you source that claim about adding a second Adar to facilitate matzah baking? I'm pretty sure it's because Pesach has to be in chodesh ha'aviv. – Y     e     z Mar 24 '15 at 03:43
  • @yEz That is the reason the power exists, but there are other reasons Beit Din might choose to do so even if not necessary. See Rambam Kiddush Hachodesh Chapter 4, particularly Halacha 5 – Double AA Mar 24 '15 at 04:32
  • @IsaacKotlicky It's not matza baking it's ovens to roast the Pesach. – Double AA Mar 24 '15 at 04:32
  • @yEz Chodesh ha'aviv is primary (which they would know at the start of the year), but the Talmud lists several other reasons for beis din to add the second Adar mid way through the year. – Isaac Kotlicky Mar 24 '15 at 10:05
  • You may want to view Ramba"m Hilchot Kiddush Hachodesh per DoubleAA's suggestion). There , he discusses that one of the reasons Sanhedrin can create a leap year is related to rain - i.e. - roads too muddy and bridges washed away. I think, he also explains that a concern that it may rain in the way is not in the calculation. (May be in commentary.) Other idea is perhaps, we want the simcha of Yom Tov to extend after Yom Tov is over, which would make a dry journey more pleasant. – DanF Mar 24 '15 at 13:41

1 Answers1

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Daf Al Hadaf brings this question from Kovetz Bais Hillel

He brings a few answers, two of them are below.

Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach answers that when Jews went to Jerusalem for Succos they were still wearing summer clothing and were unprepared for rain. However when they went for Pesach they wore winter clothing and were able to travel even in the rain.

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky answers that it is no problem going to the Bais Hamikdash when it is raining, however it is a problem leaving the Bais Hamikdash when it is raining. He says this is alluded to in the verse בבית אלוקים נהלך ברגש״ ־ ״ברגש״ ר״ת ״ברד רוח גשם שלג that when you are going נהלך you can go even if there is rain and snow.

Gershon Gold
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