Once Shmuel ha-Katan, a sage who flourished at the end of the first century C.E, decreed a day of fasting and prayer for rain. The people began their fast at sunset, and rain fell before sunrise. They interpreted the rain as a sign of divine favor. Then Shmuel told them a parable:
What does this situation resemble? It is like a slave who requests his ration from his master. The master says to them, "Give it to him so that I may not hear his voice!" (Babylonian Talmud, Ta’anit 25b)
On another occasion Shmuel decreed a time of fasting and prayer for rain. The people began their fast at sunset, but rain did not fall until late into the next evening. Again they interpreted the rain as a sign of divine favor. Then Shmuel told them a parable:
What does this situation resemble? It is like a slave who requests his ration from his master. The master says to them, "Wait until he languishes and suffers! Afterwards, give it to him!" (Babylonian Talmud, Ta’anit 25b)
In both of these parables, Shmuel cast God in an unsettling role. In the first, he depicted God as the
irascible master who shuns the voice of his slave. The slave represents the people. In the second, again he depicted God as the master. This time, however, ignoring the request, the callous master makes his hungry slave suffer.
The point of these two parables is clear: the people ha
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