Rain and Dew In the song of Haazinu, the poem he sings on the final day of his life, Moses calls heaven and earth to bear witness to his words: Listen, O heavens, and I will speak! And let the earth hear the words of my mouth! My lesson will drip like rain; my word will flow like dew; like storm winds on vegetation and like raindrops on grass. Moses compares the words of Torah, which bring life, nurishment and growth to the world, to both rain and dew, not only for the sake of poetic beauty, but rather because an essential element of the Torah is that it contains both “rain” and “dew”. The Torah is a marriage and partnership between G-d and the people. Therefore, the Torah contains both the “rain”, the written Torah, the word of G-d that descends and is communicated from above, as well as the “dew”, the oral Torah, which is the effort of the people to explain, interpret and apply the Divine wisdom. Like the dew which forms from the condensation on earth, the oral Torah is brought forth not by heaven but rather by earth. When we study Torah we are not merely accepting the word of G-d passively; we are, in fact, partnering with G-d, offering our own voice and perspective, contributing our part to the unity of heaven and earth, the marriage of the Jewish people and G-d. Adapted from the Pri Tzadik