by Rabbi Oliver Spike Joseph

Water underpins all life and lies at the beating heart of our Jewish religious tradition and crucially, is most often forgotten about.

I love teaching about water, the images of water flowing through our collective story lifts me up.

At this time of year, I am stuck by how intrinsic water is to our faith and to all life that surrounds us.

An aspect of Rosh Hashanah, our Jewish New Year, is renewing our appreciation for all created life and it is from water from which all life emerges.

Water is at the beginning of our biblical tradition: ‘and the essence of God sweeps over the water’ [Genesis 1:2]; and water streams through all of our collective stories, Noah and the flood, Abraham greeting guests at his tent, our forefathers and mothers meeting at water sources, Moses being sent down the River Nile as a baby and the Israelites being freed by miracles of water and crossing the parted sea to find freedom from Pharoah.

All our stories flow through water. Our rabbinic tradition too is rich in stories of water, my favourite of recent weeks is Shimon Bar Yochai in a cave, sustained for twelve years of study by a miraculous stream and a carrob tree.

Our Jewish tradition tells us the world is judged for water at Sukkot which we celebrate in the middle of October. Sukkot too a harvest festival born by way of water which irrigates and nourishes all our grown food. My prayer for our communities and all communities is that rain falls in this season, a rain of benevolence, blessing and generosity. We know only too well the destructive power of rain, and the devastation that can be caused when the rains are withheld. May it be God's will that all communities are spared rains and floods of destruction in the weeks and months ahead and may it be God’s will that the rains are provided in the times that they are so dearly required.

This Sukkot our Jewish community has teamed up with WaterAid to tell the story of communities that live without access to safe and secure drinking water. As Jewish communities celebrate water, are judged for water and begin to pray for rain after Sukkot, at Shmini Atzeret, it is my hope that communities, Jewish and Christian alike can also continue to tell the story of those displaced and facing uncertain futures, helping to lift these people up, ensuring that all people can celebrate healthy harvests and water.