The most familiar part of Parashat Ekev comes toward the end, in chapter 11, verses 13-14 when Moshe, speaking in God's voice, tells the Israelites: "If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day...I will grant the rain for your land in season." This is, of course, the second paragraph of the Shema, recited twice daily to fulfill the command to recite them when we lie down and rise up, and written on parchment and stuffed into tefillin and mezuzot so that we can fulfill the command to impress them on our hearts, bind them on our hands, let them be symbols on our forehead, and inscribe them on our doorposts.

But what is the larger context here? And why this emphasis on rain?

The Israelites are about to take a major developmental step as they enter the Land. In the desert, God was ever-present and miracles were obvious - whether in defeating enemies or providing manna. In the Land of Israel, the Israelites have to fight their enemies, establish settlements, and work to produce their own food. This is an important step - a good one - and one that God desires. But it is fraught with peril. In the desert, Israelite dependence made them faithful...faithful enough to take this next step (unlike their parents who perished in the desert). But in the Land of Israel, with God taking a step back, the Israelites can easily come to the mistaken belief that they are entirely responsible for their success and comfort. And they will break faith with God and Torah.

Whenever they stepped out of line in the desert, the punishment was swift and painful. Fire consumed them. The earth swallowed them. Snakes bit them. Illness befell them. As Moshe tells them in in Devarim 8:5, "Bear in mind that the LORD your God disciplines you just as a man disciplines his son." But in the Land, just as there will be no obvious and direct miracles, there will be no obvious and direct punishments. And there won't be a leader with singular clear access to God's thoughts and desires who can lay out the right path so clearly.

In the Land, the only indicator of whether God is happy with the Israelites is rain - the key to any long-term success. As they are told in Devarim 11:10-12:

For the land that you are about to enter and possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come. There the grain you sowed had to be watered by your own labors, like a vegetable garden; but the land you are about to cross into and possess, a land of hills and valleys, soaks up its water from the rains of heaven. It is a land which the LORD your God looks after, on which the LORD your God always keeps His eye, from the year's beginning to the year's end.

The Land of Israel is special to God because it is rain-land. Faith-land. It has no river like the Nile or the Tigris and Euphrates to power the irrigation necessary for a mass civilization. Those dwelling in the Land of Israel have to put in the work, but it is all for naught if forces beyond their control do not cooperate. And the only hope to influence those forces is to be humble in the face of them, and to appreciate them.

Modern Jewish thinkers have rejected this idea that mitzvah performance can influence the weather. The Reform Movement went so far as to remove this paragraph from their prayer book many years ago. But I personally find the message both powerful and important. Security and abundance lead to overconfidence in our merit, our skill, and the solidity and reliability of the world around us. And this overconfidence can quickly lead to arrogance, callousness, and eventually cruelty. We often use our own struggles and victories over adversity to justify not offering more assistance to others.

But so much of the good in our lives is on account of people being more loving, kind, and decent than they have to be. And that is God at work. True security is not achieved by looking out for oneself, but by building a more compassionate world. The Torah thus reminds us that God does not only clear our path of enemies but also "upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the stranger, providing him with food and clothing." (10:18) We were once a nation of orphans and widows, strangers with no food and clothing. God's treatment of us is the model for how were are to treat others, and how we treat others is the true test of our loyalty to God.