Saving the Pecan Orchards | Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

This is a true story whose facts have been verified independently, and it happened just two weeks ago, during the last week of Bein Hazmanim. Eagle pass on the Tex-Mex border. A woman farmer is gazing towards the sky, fighting back tears. There's been no rain for almost six months, not a drop. She owns some pecan orchards and if it doesn't rain now, the orchards will die, she will go bankrupt and she and her family will find themselves taking to the road. Suddenly, a bus pulls up next to the parched orchard, and 50 Bochurim from the Tri-State area pile out of the bus. The farmer looks at them. Who are these strange-looking gringos? She's never seen a gringo with a baseball cap and peyos before. She goes over to the leader of the group and says to him, You're Jewish, right? Yes, he says. We're desperate. Pecans have grown here in Texas for 500 years. My family have farmed this land for generations, but the last two years have been terrible. We've prayed and prayed for rain, but nothing has worked. I know the Jewish people have a special connection to God. Will you pray for us, please? Moved by her plea and thinking it would be an interesting experience for the boys, the leader of the group, Shloime Zionce, gathered the Bochurim into a circle and they sang אשא עיניי אל ההרים three times. מאין מאין יבוא עזרי Shloime then made a short מי שברך in English, asking Hashem for rain to help the lady farmer and everyone else who needed rain. Father in heaven, He who blessed our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, please bless Gali bas Angie. God, please shower this area with rain, not only for her and her family, but for all the farmers surrounding. Only You can do it and no one else. Amen. -Amen! I don't know how seriously some of the Bochurim took the whole thing. When you're 18 years old, just about everything is a bit of a joke. She thanked them for their prayers. The group got back into the bus and continued their trip. That evening, the leader of the group got a text from the farmer. It said, How great are our Tefillos. It's easy to think: What can I do? What's the power of my actions? What's the power of my Tefillos? What can my being עומד בניסיון do? What's the power of my Mitzvah? Sure, in Olam Haba it’s powerful, it does something, but in This World? It's just so very hard to feel that what we do makes a difference, and our actions make all the difference. These Bochurim were just regular American boys. We’re not talking about Babas or Lamed-Vovniks and, you know, maybe some of them for them it was a joke, but they tore up the world, they tore up the heavens, they reversed the גזירה. We have the power. And even if our Kavanah is minimal, even when we just say the words, just phoning it in, each one of us, however small we may think we are, our power is enormous. Believe it. Use it. Hashem loves and cherishes our every action.