Why Qatar Needs Iran
The wealthy emirate enjoys having a neighbor that’s poor, dysfunctional, and dangerous.
October 30, 2025
Even in a High-Tech Age, Israel Still Needs Prayers for Rain
“Greater than the giving the Torah.”
Two weeks ago, on Shmini Atzeret, Jews began adding to their daily prayers a one-line evocation of God’s power to bring rain, marking the onset of the Levantine rainy season. The prayer is a reminder of a time when Judaism was the religion of an ancient agricultural society, when livelihood and even survival depended on the timing and abundance of the annual rainfall. Mordechai Shomron, in a 2018 article abridged here in English, discusses the prayer’s relevance in a high-tech age: