Seven Years of Drought in Israel Brings Faiths Together to Pray for Rain

Teresa Neumann : Nov 16, 2010
Arieh O'Sullivan - The Media Line/Jerusalem Post

"Before anything else, to live we need rain. If there isn't any rain, there won't be any Jews or Muslims or Christians here."

"But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in Heaven. For He gives His sunlight to both the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust alike." -Matthew 5:44-45, New Living Bible

(Israel)—Seven years of drought in the Holy Land has been so bad, according to the Jerusalem Post, that it has brought together Muslim, Christian and Jewish clerics to offer prayers for rain.

Notes the report: "At a spring named Ein Heniya in the Valley of the Ghosts that separates Jerusalem from the Bethlehem hills, the clerics gathered [last week] for an unusual prayer session. They decided to put aside their differences and, as followers of one God, united their prayers for the much needed rain."

Orthodox Rabbi Menachem Froman said, "Before anything else, to live we need rain. If there isn't any rain, there won't be any Jews or Muslims or Christians here. According to our traditions, the Jewish and the Islam, rain is due to the deeds of man, and if we make any step of peace between us, perhaps that will open the treasures of the skies and rain will fall."

"I came here with my Jewish and Muslim brothers to pray that God has mercy on us and bestows blessings and rain on this holy land," said Rev. Issa Elias Musleh, spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. "God willing, our prayers will reach God, who will grant us all our wishes—for He is capable for changing all things..."

The report intimated that the clerics were united in their desire for peace for Israel, and notably absent from the report was mention of the Christian belief in God's mercy.