A Geshem

Nehemiah ben Solomon ben Heiman ha-Nasi

10th Century

About This Entry

Geshem (rain) piyyutim are recited in the autumn, on Shemini Atzeret, to mark the first time each year the prayer for rain is said in the synagogue. The counterpart to this is the Tal (dew) piyyut, recited in the spring, on the first day of Passover, to mark when the prayer for rain is replaced in the service by the prayer for dew. This short excerpt is taken from a much longer, expanded shiv‘ata (a series of poems written for an Amidah that has seven blessings), which includes an account of the history of the world, beginning even before creation. The first stanza here, therefore, is based on the rabbinic tradition that seven things were created before the world: the Torah, repentance, the garden of Eden, Gehenna, the Throne of Glory, the Temple, and the name of the Messiah (b. Nedarim 39b). Water serves as the theme and appears at the end of each line.

The Items that Came before Creation, and the First Day of Creation

Also, back then You set seven fearful things: 
the height of the wondrous throne, borne by the skies of heaven;
You gave the thirsty to drink sweet honey, wine, milk, and water;1
a garden where the upright will dwell, a bed upon the water;
the inferno as recompense for traitors, the fires of stones worn away by waters [see Job 14:19];
the surrounded hill of the wolf,2 led by springs of waters;
a lion’s whelp,3 and bowed repentance, before the beds of waters.
You set the first sparks alight, created darkness and water.
They were sweetened in the trickling rain, life with water:
And the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). [ . . . ]

The Third Day of Creation

Many waters were gathered together, all around like woven waters.
The sand fences in, marks its boundary, an order that may not be passed by water [see Psalms 104:9].
He prepared them for the wars of His pleasant ones, twice in the sea and land.
He deepened them both, and they flowed, the beloved ones in the reed of water.
The sea was split for those who accompanied Him, while it drowned the evildoers in water.
The flock [Israel] passed through the breach with hope, between the bodies of water.
The streams in Arnon were soaked from the corpses of caves and protrusions.4
The Jordan was levelled for three [prophets],5 and in the future He will dry out water (Isaiah 11:15).
He declared from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), and they have been expressed over generations, the wonders of water:
And God said: Let them be gathered together, the waters under the heaven (Genesis 1:9).
He revealed it like half a whorl: land in the middle of water.
He laid its heights down to rest in the unformed, its stones smoothed by water.
He covered it with grass, twice with “good,”6 the yield of waters’ vegetation.
It was filled with buds and clods, the face of the world cleared of water.
It shows sundry colors, from the shining beauty of water.
He prepared food for the creatures, two days before they were created.
It came in its primal state, before the furrows were cursed.7
He designated it to be brought in the future, as storerooms filled with water,
when He will turn the desolate wilderness into sources of springs of water:
And upon every high hill streams and courses of water (Isaiah 30:25).

The Fourth Day of Creation

In the pure height of heights, He suspended lights in the heavens.
He prepared them though Teli,8 as is recorded, to rule over nights and days.
Their radiance He carves at the ends, twice every year,
this one at the birth of seas and that one over the middle of waters.9
He made Ash glow with consolations;10 it was wrenched out in the rage of water.
They were swept away like drops of hot water, as the flow cools the waters.11
Canaan and its nations were struck when they stood in the midst of heaven.12
They are stormy at the edge of parched land, and then come rains of water.
They grow from the east in their strength, and set in the west before the water:
Upon the peoples that are under the whole heaven (Deuteronomy 2:25).
Translated by Avi Steinhart.

Notes

[The sages compare the Torah to honey, wine, milk, and water.—Trans.]

[I.e., the Temple, which was in Jerusalem, a city surrounded by hills (Psalms 125:2), and was partly in the portion of the tribe of Benjamin, called a wolf in Genesis 49:27.—Trans.]

[See Genesis 49:9: “Judah is a lion’s whelp.” The Temple was also partly in the portion of Judah (see b. Yoma 12a). Ju-dah is praised for his public repentance after the episode with Tamar (see b. Sotah 10b) and for the repentance he showed by protecting his brother Benjamin after failing to do the same for Joseph. This line also alludes to the name of the Messiah, which is the last item on the aforementioned list, as the next verse states: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staf from between his feet, until Shiloh will come” (Genesis 49:10), and the Talmud states that Shiloh is one of the names of the Messiah (b. Sanhedrin 98b).—Trans.]

[See b. Berakhot 54a–b.—Trans.]

[Joshua (Joshua 3); Elijah (2 Kings 2:8), and Elisha (2 Kings 2:14) —Trans.]

[The refrain “and God saw that it was good,” is mentioned twice on the third day.—Trans.]

[See Genesis 3:17.—Trans.]

[Teli (dragon) was a term used for the lunar and solar nodes. Its “head” and “tail” are the points where the orbits of the sun and moon intersect and where, therefore, an eclipse may occur.—Trans.]

[Genesis 1:6, 14.—Trans.]

[“Who makes Ash, Orion, and the Pleiades” (Job 9:9). “Ash” is generally translated as the Great Bear.—Trans.]

[Judges 5:19–21.—Trans.]

[ Joshua 10:12.—Trans.]

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.

Engage with this Source

Geshem (rain) piyyutim are recited in the autumn, on Shemini Atzeret, to mark the first time each year the prayer for rain is said in the synagogue. The counterpart to this is the Tal (dew) piyyut, recited in the spring, on the first day of Passover, to mark when the prayer for rain is replaced in the service by the prayer for dew. This short excerpt is taken from a much longer, expanded shiv‘ata (a series of poems written for an Amidah that has seven blessings), which includes an account of the history of the world, beginning even before creation. The first stanza here, therefore, is based on the rabbinic tradition that seven things were created before the world: the Torah, repentance, the garden of Eden, Gehenna, the Throne of Glory, the Temple, and the name of the Messiah (b. Nedarim 39b). Water serves as the theme and appears at the end of each line.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval Liturgical Poetry (Piyyut)

7th to 12th Century

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