Weather Reports

Yom shlishi, 4 Tevet 5771.  Happy solar birthday, Dearly Beloved!

 

I have mentioned before how much fun it is to have an online community email list that is frequented by interesting people who love to help each other.

It's a pretty nice way to communicate other issues as well.  For instance, we just had the first serious winter storm of the season.  Of course, there is the usual communication that makes a list so helpful:

How do we find out if there is school today?

Is school on time?

School is open today, right?  How do we find out for sure?  High schools?  I'd hate to send the kids out to wait for buses that aren't coming.

We called my son's bus driver and he assumed business as usual. The snow is pretty superficial. Big question is if there's ice on the roads. I assume there would have been an announcement of some sort if there was any problem. But dress the kids really warm cuz it could take longer than usual...

And the final, authoritative word:  SCHOOLS ARE OPEN REGULAR TIME

But then there was the stuff that makes living in Neve Daniel, with our amazing winds and our not-boring listmates, so much fun:

There is a black bicycle helmet with yellow flames in my yard.  The wind probably put it there. If you are missing it, now you know where it is :-)

Has anyone seen a black barbecue cover flying around anywhere? Our bbq is cold.

Green schach-mat bag on our porch. If you are missing one, we will be happy to return the one that just landed on our mirpeset. That is, if it is still on our mirpeset when the storm has passed...

Yair's beloved kippa flew off in yesterday's storm.  It is large and black with purple trim.  Please let us know if  you find it.

Happy Precipitation,

Nava

And my own contribution to the weather report:

Just now, btw, I am listening to the wind take red roof tiles off of a part of my roof and dash them to the patio below.  The sound is somewhere halfway between beautiful and destructive.

May the rain follow, and it will all be worth it.  (I feel bad for my landlord, though.  He really liked adding those tiles...)

Where the tiles used to live.

Where they landed.  Crash!  Bang!  Smash!

After the Dearly Beloved cleaned up.

The wind was so strong, it blew furniture around the yard.

Sigh.  If we get lots of rain, the cleanup will be worth it.

I hope all items found their owners, and not too much of value was lost or destroyed.  I give the kids a bracha for a snow day -- and their parents a bracha for not too many snow days.

And I thank Hashem for the blessing of rain.

May it continue until our worries of fire and drought and famine have passed.  May this year truly be blessed, with rain in its proper time for our crops and our cattle, with good health and good friends.

Happy solar birthday, Dearly Beloved!  Till 120, in good health.

Glossary:
Schach-mat: used to cover the traditional temporary dwelling we build at the Festival of Tabernacles.
Mirpeset: balcony
Kippa: scullcap

Dear G-d. A Humble Petition for Reconcilation.

Yom rishon, 28 Kislev 5771.

Dear G-d,

I fully accept that we are responsible for the lack of rain in Israel, and for the subsequent disaster wrought by the fire in the Carmel.

We Jewish people have failed in some way -- many ways -- to keep our part of the bargain with You.  We have made many mistakes.  Small errors and large and terrible errors.

But I think I am not alone in feeling helpless to fix the problems between us, between You and me, without clearer guidance.

I once knew a fellow who told me the story of his very unhappy marriage.  He told me he had married a girl who was much too good for him.  They had married young, when he lacked knowledge about how to run a successful relationship.  (The fact was that he hadn't even seen a good relationship growing up.)  He had treated her shabbily and carelessly for the first several years of their marriage.


Then he "got religion."  He learned and developed as a person; and in the course of his learning, he became ashamed of how he had treated his wife.  He begged her forgiveness, and vowed to improve.  She forgave him; and things improved for a time.


Then, little by little, she again began to withdraw from him.  He would try to do small kindnesses for her.  He brought flowers to try to appease her.  He would ask her what he had done -- and she would tell him that "he should know."  After all, they had discussed during their reconciliation all of the little actions and big commitments it takes to make a relationship work.  She gave him little hints periodically, and turned away even more when he failed to pick up on them.

Photo credit: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/loveless-marriage.html

But he remained perplexed.  He knew that he was still not the perfect husband.  But which (or how many) of his small errors had weakened their relationship this time?

As time went by, he stopped asking for particulars, as she really felt he ought to have learned enough by now to not need her detailed guidance.  Eventually, he stopped asking, and just accepted the situation of their cooled relationship.  When I met him, he wore a perpetual expression of being lost.  I had no advice for him, as I also could not read her mind.

Hashem, we are like that man.  Every year, we try to "make up" with You.  We cry, and apologize from our hearts for all of our little carelessnesses and big transgressions in our relationship.  But as time goes by, there is still no rain, there are still terrible illness and disaster.  Our Sages -- ancient and modern -- exhort us to look over the requirements You have clearly outlined, to pay attention to the hints You are sending us.  If only we would walk in Your ways...  there would be rain in its time, and grass for our cattle.  Our enemies would be subdued...

But I must admit to being as perplexed as my old friend.

We know that we are "messing up."  We want to repair the damage.  Our rabbis are calling for days of prayer and fasting, to increase our observance of Your commandments.  Groups gather at the Kotel to beseech You to end the drought.  Every day, I receive new emails reminding me to add more Tehillim (recitation of King David's Psalms) and give more charity in order to help end the distance between You and us.

But instead, the situation seems to be getting worse.

Photo credit: San Francisco Sentinel

Like my friend, I don't for a moment think that You are the guilty party.  I know my weaknesses and my faults.  But I cannot determine which of my failings has caused this terrible distance between us.  I fear that we may be drifting into a loveless marriage that I will be unable to repair.

Please, Hashem!  Help this poor orphan Nation!  Give us clear guidance.  We are trying to "bring flowers," to do small kindnesses to help each other, to improve our speech, to give more charity, to house those whose homes were destroyed in the greatest disaster in Israel's history.  We know in our heart of hearts that our efforts are not large enough compensation for our errors.  But we really do want to repair our relationship with You!  For the best of reasons -- to bring the Geula Shelaima (the complete redemption), and for the most mundane -- to avoid what appears to be the decree of impending drought, famine, and who knows what else, G-d forbid...

You are our Father.  Please guide us.  Please send us clear guidance.

Lovingly, humbly, beseechingly Yours,

one of Your children

Geshem Blessings

Yom revi'i, 5 Shevat 5770.

We tried very hard to be good Jews before we lived in Israel.

We said the prayers for rain, even when we were unable to start our car, which was stuck in a foot of snow and ice.  We tried to have Eretz Yisrael in mind.

We learned in our Jewish youth the midrash of how Hashem was so angry at the serpent for misleading Chava that He gave the serpent the worst punishment imaginable to a creature of Hashem:  He caused the serpent to become a snake, crawling on its belly on the ground, the very dust providing its nourishment.

Naturally, the question is asked, "How can having all the food one needs, available all the time, be a punishment?"

The answer is a poignant lesson in the extreme.  Imagine if your father would tell you, "I am utterly disgusted with you.  You are a total disappointment to me.  I never want to see you again."  Then, he reaches into his wallet, and takes out his checkbook.  He writes a check for you, for a million dollars.  "Take this," he says.  "It will take care of all of your needs.  Don't ever call."

The snake's food is always there for him.  He need never cry out to Hashem to provide for him.

The Jew in Israel must always cry out for rain, as Hashem did not give us unlimited sources of water via uncontested rivers and lakes.  Our Jordan River is constantly under siege by neighboring countries.  And we must constantly pray with real kavana for our Lake Kinneret to be full enough to provide the water we desperately need.

In the old country, we prayed, as per the instructions in the Artscroll siddur.

In Israel, the rabbis call for special days of fasting and prayer.  We deprive ourselves of food, and feel our collective prayer for rain as one overwhelming voice crying out from the depths, until, at last...

...when the first drops come, there is a collective sigh, a spiritual shaking of each other's hands.  "We did it.  We finally got it right.  We finally got something right together.  Hashem heard us..."

Perhaps this is the beginning of the ultimate good, when we will make peace among ourselves, when the world will at last see us for the good that we give, as per His design, in His holy name?

We will not rest.  We will not assume, nor place our trust in man, nor in princes.

We will continue to cry out to Hashem for our needs, and try to do His will in this world.

The knowledge that we pray not only for ourselves, but for the world, gives us a sense of higher purpose:  You who listen to prayer, grant dew and rain on the face of the earth, satisfying the whole universe from Your goodness.

We in Israel who so desperately need achdut, unity, feel a rush of hope that we have gotten a step closer, no matter what  is going on in the headlines.

 For all of our efforts when we lived elsewhere, we never felt as clearly our sense of purpose, our sense of connection to our Creator, to each other, and to our Land, as we feel when we speak of the weather here in Israel!

Spare us and have compassion on us and on all our produce and fruit, blessing us with bounteous rain.

May we merit life, plenty and peace as in the good years...








Glossary:
Geshem: one word for rain.  Just as the Eskimo has many words for "snow," the Jew has many words for "rain."
Midrash: an explanatory story, illustrating and clarifying difficult Biblical concepts
Chava: Eve
Kavana: intense focus

Just a little reminder: we're all in this together.

Yom shishi, 5 Cheshvan 5770.

Hat tip to Haim Makovsky


Glossary:
Mashiv HaRuach U'Moreid HaGeshem:  the prayer for rain, very important to a country that relies so heavily on G-d's blessing of rain for its very survival.

Haya li kelev shachor katan.

Yom sheni, 1 Cheshvan 5770, Rosh Chodesh.

I haven't felt much like writing lately.

But a few observations, now that I do.

In Baltimore, a series of hot mornings like this would cause me to say, "I sure hope we get rain soon, so that the chance for fires is diminished."

In Israel, these past several rainless days and higher-than-usual temperatures have caused me to say, "I sure hope G-d isn't really, really mad at us and planning to withhold the desperately needed rains, leading to drought and famine, chas v'shalom."

It is easier to see here how much everything matters.

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Haveil Havalim: The Post-Chagim Edition, is up at Ima's place.  Enjoy some of the excellent and varied writing that the J-Blogosphere has to offer.

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 Reasons to get up in the morning:

Chodesh tov!