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Geshem (גשם) is one of the Hebrew words for "rain," applied mostly to the heavy rains which occur in Israel in the fall and winter. This half of the year is called in the Mishnah "yemot ha-geshamin" (days of rains). In the liturgy of the German-Polish ritual "Geshem" stands for the piyyuṭim which in the Mussaf or additional service for the Eighth Festival Day (Shemini Aẓeret) are read and sung as an introduction to the first mention of the "powers of rain," i.e., the words "He causeth the wind to blow and the rain to descend." "Geshem" corresponds to the "Tal" (Dew) occurring in the liturgy for the first day of the Passover, when the above-quoted passage is omitted as being inapplicable to spring and summer. These piyyuṭim end with an invocation in six stanzas, each of which closes either with "for his sake do not withhold water!" or with "through his merit favor the outflow of water!" the merits of the Patriarchs, of Moses, of Aaron, and of the twelve tribes crossing the Red Sea being successively referred to. Geshem – used as a male first name – was a Nabatean leader who opposed Nehemiah ((6 )) in the reconstruction of Jerusalem. == Customs related to Geshem == The Reform congregations, which are sparing in their use of the later piyyuṭim, as well as the Ḥasidim and those South-Russians who have adopted the ritual of that etc., confine themselves to this sixfold invocation; but the ordinary German-Polish festival prayer-book contains also a number of other compositions. Foremost among these is one which sketches the agricultural work in each of the 12 months, and parallels therewith the influence of each of the 12 signs of the zodiac, setting Aries against Nisan, and so on through the year. Old maḥzorim often have the text illustrated with twelve rude woodcuts. It has become customary for the reader of the Musaf on the days on which "Geshem" or "Ṭal" is inserted, to put on the white shroud and cap, as on the Day of Atonement, and before the additional prayer to intone the Ḳaddish in the accents of that solemn day. After the invocation above he proceeds: "For thou, O Lord our God, causest the wind to blow ... For a blessing and not for a curse, For plenty and not for famine, For life and not for death!" And the congregation thrice answers, "Amen!" When Abudirham wrote his book on the liturgy, the Sephardim were still faithful to the Talmudic rule that "a man must not ask for his worldly necessities" in the first three benedictions; hence Abudirham distinguishes the additional service for the Eighth of the Feast only by having the reader proclaim "He causeth the wind," etc., before the silent prayer. But the modern Sephardic service-books give a poetic prayer after "Shield of Abraham," and another which leads up to the distinctive words of the season; these words being added: "For a blessing, for grace, for joy," etc. From an early date (comp. Ta'an. 2b; Ber. 33a) it has been customary to introduce the benediction in the Musaf on the eighth day of Feast of Tabernacles, in the fall of the year, and it is recited for the last time on the first day of Passover, in the spring. On the latter occasion the word טל ("dew") is substituted for the word גשם ("rain"), used on Shemini Aẓeret, and hence the titles "Geshem" and "Ṭal" given to the Musaf of these festivals. The Talmudists had decided that the actual prayer for rain, "Give dew and rain for a blessing upon the face of the earth," in the ninth benediction of the Shemoneh Esreh, should be introduced only at the actual inception of the rainy season. The announcements in "Geshem" and "Ṭal" were regarded rather as an affirmation of the divine control of the seasons. Indeed, this view led to the rabbinical instruction that no private individual should utter the formula either within or without the synagogue until it had been proclaimed by the officiant, or, according to a later view, by the beadle, before the commencement of the Amidah (Mordecai on Ta'an. i.; Shulḥan Aruk, ''Oraḥ Ḥayyim'', 114, 2, 3). For a similar reason the custom arose of displaying in the synagogue on the eighth day of Tabernacles a board inscribed with the formula, and of publicly and formally removing it before the Musaf commenced on the first day of Passover. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Geshem」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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