In I got It!
Let the Rains Come
Tefillos of travellers for rain-free weather shouldn't be heeded
When a wayfarer is caught in the rain and mud in the midst of his travels, he prays that the rain should cease. Long ago, the roads were not equipped with protection against the elements or accessible places to shelter. If a person was on the road and heavy rains began to fall, he was in a pitiful state. Thus his prayer would emerge from the depths of his heart, from a realistic recognition that only his Creator can help him by causing the rain to stop and that there is no human power in the world that will allow him to continue on his journey. He feels with all his being that he is in the hands of his Creator, and his prayer is therefore pure in its quality of faith and his feelings of complete dependence. Such a prayer has the power to split the heavens, and reach the throne of Glory. This is why the Kohen Gadol was forced to plead that the prayers of travelers not be heeded – travelers always pray to be spared from rain, and if their prayers would be heeded the Holy Land would be deprived of its sorely needed rain…