Taanit 23A

״בעתם״⁠ — בלילי רביעיות ובלילי שבתות.

“In their season” means on Wednesday eves, i.e., Tuesday nights, and on Shabbat eves, i.e., Friday nights, because at these times people are not out in the streets, either due to fear of demonic forces that were thought to wander on Tuesday nights or due to the sanctity of Shabbat.

שכן מצינו בימי שמעון בן שטח שירדו להם גשמים בלילי רביעיות ובלילי שבתות, עד שנעשו חטים ככליות, ושעורים כגרעיני זיתים, ועדשים כדינרי זהב, וצררו מהם דוגמא לדורות, להודיע כמה החטא גורם, שנאמר: ״עונותיכם הטו אלה וחטאתיכם מנעו הטוב מכם״.

As we found in the days of Shimon ben Shetaḥ that rain invariably fell for them on Wednesday eves and on Shabbat eves, until wheat grew as big as kidneys, and barley as big as olive pits, and lentils as golden dinars. And they tied up some of these crops as an example [dugma] for future generations, to convey to them how much damage sin causes, as it is stated: “YHWH our God, Who gives rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in its season that keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld the good from you” (Jeremiah 5:24–25).

וכן מצינו בימי הורדוס, שהיו עוסקין בבנין בית המקדש, והיו יורדין גשמים בלילה, למחר נשבה הרוח ונתפזרו העבים וזרחה החמה, ויצאו העם למלאכתן, וידעו שמלאכת שמים בידיהם.

And we likewise found that in the days of Herod that they were occupied in the building of the Temple, and rain would fall at night. And the next day the wind would blow, the clouds would disperse, the sun would shine, and the people would go out to their work. And as rain would fall only at a time when it would not interfere with their labor, the nation knew that the work of Heaven was being performed by their hands.

מעשה ששלחו לחוני המעגל וכו׳. תנו רבנן: פעם אחת יצא רוב אדר ולא ירדו גשמים, שלחו לחוני המעגל: התפלל וירדו גשמים! התפלל, ולא ירדו גשמים. עג עוגה ועמד בתוכה, כדרך שעשה חבקוק הנביא, שנאמר: ״על משמרתי אעמדה ואתיצבה על מצור וגו׳״.

§ The Mishnah taught: An incident occurred in which the people sent a message to Ḥoni HaMe’aggel. This event is related in greater detail in the following baraita. A baraita states: Once, most of the month of Adar had passed but rain had still not fallen. They sent this message to Ḥoni HaMe’aggel: Pray, and rain will fall. He prayed, but no rain fell. He drew a circle in the dust and stood inside it, in the manner that the prophet Habakkuk did, as it is stated: “And I will stand upon my watch and set myself upon the tower, and I will look out to see what He will say to me, and what I should answer when I am reproved” (Habakkuk 2:1). This verse is taken to mean that Habakkuk fashioned a kind of prison for himself where he sat.