{"id":62703,"date":"2019-09-10T15:36:37","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T12:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=62703"},"modified":"2023-04-05T17:01:27","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T14:01:27","slug":"elijah-he-can-do-rain-but-he-cant-dew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/elijah-he-can-do-rain-but-he-cant-dew\/","title":{"rendered":"Elijah: He Can Do Rain, But He Can\u2019t Dew"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[858,780,627],"acf":{"old_id":"62703","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"304","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Quiet and constant loving care is not what he\u2019s all about\u00a0","content":"

Elijah the prophet storms into the story today, bringing a devastating drought upon the land. Elijah declares: \u201cas the Lord lives, the God of Israel whom I serve, there will be no dew or rain, except at my bidding\u201d (I Kings, 17:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

Did Elijah take this extreme step on his own initiative or was he told to do so by God? The commentaries are divided on this, but the plain sense of the text, as well as the Talmudic sources suggest that the drought was Elijah\u2019s idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Talmudic passage in tractate Sanhedrin (113a) suggests that it was Elijah\u2019s outrage that the rampant idolatry, murder and corruption in Israel was going unpunished that led him to try and wrest the \u201ckey of rain\u201d from God and take matters into his own hands. Elijah saw Ahab and Jezebel getting away with murder – and Ba\u2019al worship – and was seized with righteous indignation and zeal for God\u2019s honor. How could it be that biblical promises are ignored with impunity? God backed up Elijah\u2019s threat and gave him the power to bring or stop the rain at his word.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet only part of Elijah\u2019s promise is fulfilled. When the rain returns after three years, God tells Elijah, \u201cGo appear before Ahab, then I will send rain upon the earth\u201d (I Kings 18:1). As the Talmud (Ta\u2019anit 3a) points out, \u201cIn this later verse, dew is not mentioned! Why not? Because it never stopped.\u201d Despite Elijah\u2019s threat to stop the dew as well as the rain, in fact, according to the Talmud, the dew never ceased.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why not? Elijah is a figure who sets great store by the power of withholding and returning the rain to prove that the Torah\u2019s promises are effective and thereby to bring the people back to serving God. His story teaches that dew does not cease, but we know that from experience too. Whereas rain in Israel in the winter is sporadic and unpredictable, dew is perennially and reliably present.<\/span><\/p>\n

The constant care with which God relates to Israel in the mode of dew, with its almost imperceptible gentleness persists even through the most turbulent ups and downs of the relationship. As we will see in the coming chapters, the quiet and constant loving care symbolized by dew is just what Elijah finds hardest to understand.<\/span><\/p>\n

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