Succot Rains, Scuds and the Power of G-d

We're now in the Succot Holiday, and a lot is being written about the significance of early rains.  Here in the Holyland, we need rain, every drop we can get.  But rain is supposed to come during specific times of the year, and if it rains a couple of weeks "early," is that a good sign or a bad one?

“But during Succot in Israel God invites us into the succa, which is in effect His house under His protection. After Yom Kippur, to sleep in the succa is a happy and tranquil experience, but when it rains it’s as if God is kicking us back out again, which we should take as a sign of rebuke and reproach.”

According to Lau, the message that should be heard is that of the importance of bettering interpersonal relations “We must know how to treat our fellow man, our relations between each other need to be less violent. You cannot treat people in this way and then go into God’s house to live under his protection.”

Apparently in some parts of the country, or very specific cities and/or neighborhoods there has already been heavy rain.  Here in Shiloh you can count the drops, which I did yesterday afternoon while sitting outside with a friend.  Barely five drops as total rained on the two of us, and a similar number made it through our succah's sechach the night before..

Last night a neighbor told me that one of her children reported very heavy rain not all that far away from us.  And another neighbor told us that it was so horribly windy on her street that her succah and those of neighbors blew down.  Others at the table were incredulous.  We all live in Shiloh and we didn't suffer stormy winds.

Rain, wind, their quantity, timing and location are all controlled by G-d.  He allocates rain according to our behavior, our keeping of His Commandments.  We only have a very general picture of what is going on, the scorecard.  There is no "accounting" or "bookkeeping" guide that we can follow.  We don't know what each sin or mitzvah is worth exactly.  G-d keeps the scorecard a secret.  The hints come from the heavens in rain, wind, storm and cursed dryness.

G-d also controls the military success of our enemies and ourselves.

Dry Bones from 1991 Gulf War

During that frightening early 1991 "war" when we sat as "sitting ducks" in "protected rooms" never militarily defending ourselves against the Iraqi assault of scuds, rockets, G-d made sure they did very little damage to human life in Israel.  To show how potentially dangerous the rockets actually were, G-d allowed one to hit Americans and many were killed.

Scuds were responsible for most of the coalition deaths outside of Iraq and Kuwait. 42 Scud missiles in total were fired into Israel.^[25] They killed one Israeli directly and one Saudi security guard. Twenty-eight members of the Pennsylvania National Guard were killed when one struck a United States Army barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.^[26]

This should be a powerful reminder to all.

We must all do our best to follow the Torah and pray that G-d accepts all with blessings.

ושמחת בחגך

v'samachta b'chaggecha

and be joyful in your holidays