'Such Gashmiyus!'  One of those annoying phrases you hear when you're tucking in to a particularly tasty piece of food....It's calculated to rile you - makes you feel guilty for enjoying the physical too much.

But is it a crime? The Gemoro tells us that after 120 years, we will have to give an accounting for the physical pleasures that were permitted to us, and we did not partake thereof.

A more careful examination will show us that a key part of our prayers is asking for rain - particularly in Israel, but a key part nevertheless. It is intimately connected to financial and economic wellbeing. That doesn't sound very spiritual, does it?

Well, think again. Our prayers for the physical, are a bridge to the spiritual. And Hashem's response? The rain - a bridge from the spiritual to the physical. Geshem - rain. The root of Gashmiyus...