36. Have You Ever Seen the Rain? A Radical Ruling of the Rosh - Feat. Rabbi Elli Fischer

Shu"T First, Ask Questions Later

Why do we seem to pray for rain at the wrong times? Can we adjust the dates for V'sein Tal U'matar? Who even came up with setting December 4th/5th as a day of halachic significance? Rabbi Elli Fischer shares with us a radical ruling of the Rosh (Responsum 4:10) on this topic and its intriguingly fraught reception. Rabbi Fischer's very own translation of this responsum can be found on Sefaria. Please note his more recently updated bio: Rabbi Elli Fischer is an independent writer, translator, and rabbi. Previously, he was the JLIC rabbi and campus educator at the University of Maryland. He holds BA and MS degrees from Yeshiva University, rabbinical ordination from Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, and is working toward a doctorate in Jewish History. He is a founding editor of The Lehrhaus, a web magazine of contemporary Jewish thought. His original writing has appeared in numerous Jewish publications. Among the issues he writes about are the history of halakhah; religion and politics in Israel; the interplay between legal and nonlegal elements of the Talmud; and Central European Jewish History. He edited ten volumes of Rabbi Eliezer Melamed’s Peninei Halakha series in English and is a cofounder of HaMapah, a project that applies quantitative analysis to rabbinic literature.