REMINDER: ‘V’sain Tal U’matar’ Begins Thursday Night for Chutz La’aretz

Beginning this Thursday night, December 4th, at Maariv, Jews who live outside Eretz Yisrael will begin inserting the tefilah for rain, “V’sain Tal U’matar Livracha,” into the Bracha of Barech Aleinu in the Shemoneh Esrei.

While Jews in Eretz Yisrael have been adding the tefilah since 7 Cheshvan, the minhag in the Diaspora follows a calculation based on the solar calendar.

The Gemara in Taanis 10a explains that while Eretz Yisrael requires rain immediately following the Yomim Tovim, the low-lying lands of Bavel, where the vast majority of the Jewish people lived at the time, did not need rain as early. In fact, early rain could be detrimental to their agricultural needs.

Therefore, Chazal established that outside of Eretz Yisrael, we wait until “60 days after the Tekufah (Autumnal Equinox).”

Halacha follows the solar calculations of  Shmuel the Amora (Tekufas Shmuel). Because the solar calendar (Julian) used by Shmuel drifts slightly from the civil Gregorian calendar we use today, the date for “60 days after the Tekufah” is strictly fixed to the solar cycle.

Currently, in a standard year (like 2025), we begin on the night of December 4th. However, in the year preceding a civil leap year (when the secular year has an extra day in February), the date pushes forward to the night of December 5th.

In Eretz Yisrael, the request for rain is not bound by the solar Tekufah but by the Jewish calendar date of 7 Cheshvan.

Theoretically, the residents of Eretz Yisrael should have started asking for rain immediately after Sukkos (on Shemini Atzeret), just as we start mentioning the power of rain (Mashiv Haruach) at that time. However, Chazal exercised great sensitivity for the Olei Regalim; the people who had traveled to Yerushalayim for Yom Tov.

To ensure these travelers could return to their homes without being stranded in muddy, impassable roads caused by heavy rains, the Chachamim delayed the tefilah for rain in Eretz Yisrael until the 7th of Cheshvan, when even those living as far away as the Euphrates River could arrive home safely.