The Chief Rabbinate of Israel on Monday called on the public to pray for rain, in the first joint ruling issued since Kalman Ber and David Yosef were voted in as the country’s Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis, respectively.

“We are in the midst of the month of Kislev and have not yet received the rains of blessing,” the rabbis wrote. “The people in the fields and crops of the land are desperate for water and, unfortunately, there is none.”

“We call on the public in every location to pray and beg Him who blesses the years to have mercy on His people and His land and answer us and rain down upon us dew and rain for blessing,” added Ber and Yosef.

According to their ruling, Sephardim will recite the prayer “God of life, open Thy heavenly treasures” on Shabbat, during the...