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The Torah and other Sources quote God many times as saying:

If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. [Lev. 26:3-4]

In times of drought, when rain is scarce, the reason is simple: We've been bad.

My question is: When rain is abundant and timely, and the harvest is great, does it mean we've been good?

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  • In Israel, certainly. Elsewhere: machloket
    – יהושע ק
    Commented Mar 21 at 0:08

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Not necessarily. The Gemara in Sanhedrin 113A says that Achav made a similar conclusion. He said that the Jews were serving avoda zara in great numbers, and the rain was coming in abundance. Obviously, the curse wasn’t true. Eliyahu responded that there would be a drought.

The Maharsha says that the reason why there was rain, is because the curse of No rain is tied to the next Passuk that says you will be banished “quickly” from Eretz Yisroel. The Gemara says that “quickly” by Hashem is 852 years.

So the fact that it was raining so much during the reign of Achav was in no way a sign that they were being good.

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  • "The Maharsha says that the reason why there was rain, is because the curse of No rain is tied to the next Passuk that says you will be banished quickly from Eretz Yisroel. The Gemara says that 'quickly' by Hashem is 852 years." Talk about "אבות אכלו בוסר ושיני בנים תקהינה"!
    – Tamir Evan
    Commented Mar 22 at 12:39

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