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Abba Hilkiah Prayed for Rain and His Wife's Cloud Came First

Two scholars walked out to a field to beg a man for rain. He would not return their greeting, so they followed him home to find out why.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Greeting He Did Not Return
  2. Everything He Did on the Road Home Was Wrong
  3. Two Corners of One Roof
  4. He Answered Before They Asked
  5. Why the Cloud Came Up Over Her Corner
Abba Hilkiah Prayed for Rain and His Wife's Cloud Came First Click for full size

The Greeting He Did Not Return

The two scholars found Abba Hilkiah bent over a hoe in another man's field, and when they wished him peace he did not lift his head.

They had walked a long way for that silence. The rain had failed. Cisterns were green at the bottom, the wells were dropping, and the sages of the generation had prayed and prayed and the sky had stayed shut over them like a lid. Then somebody remembered whose grandson was living out past the town. Choni ha-Me'aggel had once scratched a ring in the dust and told heaven he would not step out of it until the rain came, and heaven had given in. If the gift ran in the blood, it ran here.

So they stood in the furrows and waited. He went on digging. He did not ask their names or their errand, and when the light started to go he shouldered his bundle of firewood and set off home. They followed him. Nobody had invited them.

Everything He Did on the Road Home Was Wrong

He carried the wood on one bare shoulder. His cloak he carried folded on the other, which no working man does, because the use of a spare garment on a road is to sling your load in it and save your skin.

He walked the dry road barefoot. At the river he stopped, sat down, and put his shoes on to wade across. On the far bank he took them off again. Through a stretch of thorn scrub he gathered his clothes up above his knees and let the branches rake him, and blood came up in lines on his shins, and he kept walking.

At the edge of the village his wife came out to meet him dressed the way a woman dresses for a wedding. She went into the house. He went in after her. The scholars stood in the doorway a while before anyone moved aside for them.

He sat down to bread and did not say come and eat. He broke the loaf and put one piece in front of the older boy and two in front of the younger. Then he leaned across to his wife and said something with his hand near his mouth, and neither guest caught a word of it. He stood up. "Come up to the roof with me," he said to her.

Two Corners of One Roof

He took one corner. She took the other. They stood apart with the whole flat roof between them and prayed, and the two men below tipped their heads back and watched.

The cloud came up over her corner. Her prayer brought it, and not his.

It gathered on her side of the sky and spread out from there, and by the time the pair of them reached the bottom of the stairs the rain was falling on the roof they had just left.

He did not wait to be asked anything. "It is not needed now," he said. They told him the rain had come through his merit and his prayer. He let that pass without agreeing to it. Then he answered every question the two of them had carried up the road behind him, without one of them ever being spoken aloud.

He Answered Before They Asked

The greeting in the field. He was hired by the day, and the hours belonged to the man paying for them. A word of courtesy would have been spent out of another man's purse.

The wood on the bare shoulder. The cloak was borrowed. He had been lent it to wear, not to haul firewood in.

The shoes at the river. On the road he could see what he was stepping on. In the water he could not.

The clothes lifted through the thorns. A scratch closes by itself. A tear in cloth needs a man who wants paying.

His wife at the edge of the village, dressed like that, for a husband coming home filthy off a field. So that his eyes would have somewhere to rest and would not go looking on the road.

The meal. There had not been enough bread on that table for four grown men, and an invitation he could not honor would have bought him their thanks for nothing.

The two pieces for the younger boy. The older one was in the house all day and could reach the food himself. The younger had been at school since morning and came home hungry. He was feeding need, not age.

Why the Cloud Came Up Over Her Corner

He left that one for last.

When a poor man knocked at the door and Abba Hilkiah was the one who opened it, the man got a coin. He then had to carry the coin somewhere, find someone selling, buy, walk home, and cook, and only then eat. When the same man knocked while Abba Hilkiah was out digging in somebody's field, the wife opened the door and put bread in his hands, and he ate standing there.

Her giving landed. His had to travel first. Her merit was the greater, he said, and he said it in front of two visiting scholars and his own two sons.

The rain went on falling. The delegation had come out for the grandson of the most famous rainmaker in the country, and it went home having watched the sky open over the corner of the roof where Abba Hilkiah's wife was standing.

Abba HilkiahAbba HilkiyyaRainPrayerWomenTzedakahMarriage
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From the tradition

Sources

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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Gaster, Exempla of the Rabbis, no. 421; cf. Taanit 23a-bThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster (1924) · PD-US-pre-1929

A drought had settled on the land. The sages, running out of options, remembered the legend that Abba Hilkiah, the grandson of the famous rainmaker Honi ha-Me'aggel, had inherited his grandfather's gift. They sent a delegation to him to beg him to pray.

They found him digging in a field. They greeted him. He did not reply. He did not even look up. The sages were insulted but they followed him home in silence.

They watched him pick up his faggots of wood and carry them on one shoulder, while he carried his mantle on the other. They watched him put on his shoes only when crossing a river, and lift his clothes when walking through thorns. When he reached his house, his wife came out to greet him, beautifully dressed. He went inside, sat down, and did not invite the sages to share the meal. Over dinner, he gave one piece of bread to his older son and two pieces to his younger son.

After the meal, he and his wife went up to the roof together and stood in different corners to pray for rain. A cloud appeared first in the corner where the wife was praying. Rain fell as they came down.

Only then did Abba Hilkiah ask the sages their errand. They told him. He said, "It is no longer needed." They said, "We know it was through your merit that the rain came." And they asked him to explain his strange behavior.

He answered each action in turn. He had not replied to their greeting because he was a hired worker, time was not his to give. He had carried the faggots on his bare shoulder, not on his mantle, because the mantle was lent and had to be returned unstained. He put on his shoes when crossing the river because he could not see what lay at the bottom, but not when walking through thorns, because scratches heal while torn clothes do not. His wife had dressed beautifully to meet him so that his eyes would not wander to another woman. He had not invited them to the meal because there had not been enough food, and it would have been wrong to accept their thanks for a hospitality he could not actually extend. He gave the elder son one piece of bread because the boy was home all day and could take what he needed, while the younger son was all day at school and came home hungry.

And the rain, he said, had gathered on his wife's side first because a woman in the house feeds the poor directly, while a man can only give money for food. Her merit was greater.

Gaster's Exempla (no. 421, 1924) preserves this story because it is really about how to see a righteous person. A righteous person does not look like what you expect. Sometimes he looks like a hired hand who will not even greet a visiting delegation, because every second belongs to the employer who is paying for his time.

Full source
Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 421Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster (1924) · Public Domain

Abba Hilkiah, the grandson of Honi the Circle-Drawer, inherited his grandfather's extraordinary ability to bring rain through prayer. But his methods were so peculiar that the sages who came to ask for his help were left bewildered. The Talmud (Taanit 23a-b) records the entire exchange.

When a drought struck the land, the sages sent two scholars to ask Abba Hilkiah to pray for rain. They found him working in his field and greeted him. He did not respond. They followed him home and observed a series of strange behaviors: he carried his bundle on one shoulder instead of both, he walked barefoot on dry ground but put on shoes to cross water, he lifted his garments when passing through thorns but lowered them in smooth terrain.

At home, his wife greeted him at the door more elaborately dressed than he was. They went upstairs, and he and his wife prayed facing different corners of the room. Rain clouds appeared first on his wife's side.

The scholars asked for explanations. Every odd behavior had a reason. He did not respond to their greeting because he was a day laborer and did not want to take time from his employer's work. He wore shoes in water to protect against unseen hazards. His wife dressed well because modesty requires it even at home. The rain came first to her corner because she gave food directly to the poor, immediate, tangible kindness, while he gave only money.

But the most remarkable detail was this: Abba Hilkiah insisted he had not prayed for rain. It had simply come on its own. The sages knew better. The rain had come because of his prayer. But his humility was so genuine that he refused to take credit for a miracle everyone could see.

Full source
Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 421Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster (1924) · Public Domain

In time of drought the sages sent to Abba Hilkiah to pray for rain. They found him digging in the field and he did not reply to their greeting. In the evening, returning home, the sages followed silently. He carried his faggots on one shoulder and his mantle on the other. Crossing the river he put on his shoes; passing through thorns he lifted his clothes. His wife met him beautifully dressed, and when they reached home, he did not invite the sages to the meal. He then gave one piece of bread to the elder and two to the younger son. After the meal, he and his wife went on the roof to pray. Clouds gathered in the corner where the woman was praying and rain fell as they came down. He then asked the sages what their errand was. They replied that he should intercede for them for rain. He said it was now no longer necessary but they maintained that they knew that that was through his merit, and prayer. Then they asked him to explain his curious action. He said he did not reply to their greeting, so as not to waste time as he worked as a hireling. He carried the faggots on one shoulder and not on the mantle which had been lent to him to wear. He put on his shoes when crossing the river for he could not see what was lying at the bottom and so avoid it. He lifted his clothes because scratches could heal but tears in his clothes could not be

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mended. The wife met him beautifully dressed to please him and so that he should not look upon another woman. They had not enough to eat and it would have been wrong to invite them and receive thanks for nothing. The elder son being always in the house could satisfy himself, but the younger boy was all day at school and came home hungry. The reason why the cloud had gathered on that side was because a woman in the house can feed the poor, whilst the man could only give money to buy the food. Hence her merit is greater.

Full source