Drenched and Sick, Why Did I Vote in The Likud Primaries?

When I walked out of the house mid-morning to vote in the Likud Primaries, I thought that there was a break in the blessedly raining weather. To be safe, I wore a heavy winter coat and took an umbrella. Also the voting station wasn't far from the house, less than a ten minute walk...

Yes, you guessed it. It began to rain, but not too heavily. So I got to the voting station and voted.

Unlike at other elections and primaries, none of the local activists were there schmoozing. In all honesty I had been counting on their being at the voting station. If someone had been there, I could have gotten a ride home. I needed a ride home, even though the walk up wasn't that far. The rain had gotten stronger.

By the time I got home, I was soaked, feeling sick and totally miserable.As you can see from the picture, my coat and skirt were both soaking wet. Water even snuck in through the top of my waterproof boots. Yes, it was raining that hard. I had to change pretty much everything; that's how wet I had gotten.

Now, I still don't know who won, Bibi Netanyahu or the "challenger," Gidon Saar. I wasn't happy about Sa'ar's forcing these primaries before getting soaked in the rain. And now I'm even angrier.

If Sa'ar loses, not only has he added fuel to Blue & White's campaign against Likud, but he wasted money and made me sick.

Politics!

Blessed Rain Water at Jewish Legion Memorial, Shiloh Junction

Yesterday one of my walking partners called and suggested that we take a walk to see streams of water at the Shiloh Junction. Her timing was great, and I was able to take a break from my Shabbat cooking to join her.

Since our time and walking prowess are rather limited, we took her car to the Shiloh Junction and walked across the road to the Shiloh Valley park and hiking trail. It has also been dedicated as the Jewish Legion in Binyamin Memorial.

During World War One, the first Jewish fighting force was established, the Jewish Legion, and one of the areas it got to was Shiloh. So, last summer a memorial was set up at the Shiloh Junction.

Today, the area just west of Shiloh is a Jewish agricultural area with olive groves and vineyards. Since it's part of the Emek Shiloh, Shiloh Valley, it's extremely fertile. When we came to live in Shiloh in 1981, the entire area was barren. But in the past twenty years, this area has been one of the most profitable agricultural sites around. Prize-winning Meshek Achiya Olive Oil grows olives here, and a number of prize-winning wine companies get their grapes from here, too.

Experts can taste the difference between rain-watered produce and artificial irrigation, so the accumulation of rainwater here is very important, Baruch Hashem, thank Gd.

Israel, The Holyland, is Not Europe

So far, so god. The early winter crocus flowers are blooming. They are the signs that water has seeped into the ground, and winter has begun here in the Holyland.

Quite a few decades ago, I took a course to improve my Hebrew. One thing I got out of it was the fact that the early Hebrew writers here couldn't get European seasons out of their brains. They continued to refer to the "first buds of spring" and other such literary images that aren't part of the Holyland reality. New York, where I grew up, and most of North America is very much like Europe. The winter is dark and snowy. You don't see the "buds" and flowers until spring. Then it all blooms and continues throughout the summer.

Here in the Holyland, it rains only in the winter. By early-mid summer, unless you irrigate your garden, everything just dries up. Many people try to imitate, recreate the gardens of Europe or North America. It's a waste of water and distorts perception of the Israeli climate.

Israel begins to green in early winter, after the first few rains. Winter flowers start blooming, too. By the end of winter the ground is covered with wildflowers and greenery. As the weather heats up in the spring, and the rain ceases to fall, the flowers dry up and die.

In addition, oranges, which since the middle of the twentieth century are a staple of Israeli agriculture, only get sweet (fully ripe) after the first rains.

Chazal, our sages, teach us that the quantity and quality of rain are dependent on how well we Jews keep the mitzvot and treasure the Holyland. Gd willing, we will deserve rains of blessing.

Succot ושמחת בחגך Why the Joy?

One of Judaism's interesting questions is:

Why is the Succot Holiday called the "Joyful" one? ושמחת בחגך

The other day, while walking outside in Shiloh and wondering when Gd will bless us with cleansing and health-producing, also necessary for agriculture rain, I noticed the grapes.  OK, I didn't need to go very far to see grapes, since we have a few vines by our house.

The grapes are rather dusty, and some are dried out, eaten by birds, bees etc. And the leaves are awfully brown and ripped. But there are still grapes for humans to feast on.

I began to think of how it must have been in olden times, a few thousand years ago, when food storage meant drying and pickling food. Instead of refrigerators, freezers and modern containers, they used caves and ceramic urns. 

In this late summer season, people couldn't rely on piped water from high tech reservoirs, desalination, drip agriculture etc. It hasn't rained for six months. We frequently complain of the high prices of fruit and vegetables, because the summer crops are finished and the winter ones can't grow without water. The products of modern high tech agriculture isn't cheap.

How did our ancestors manage? During the almost four hundred years of the Mishkan, Tabernacle in Shiloh, there may have been grapes growing right where my grapes grow today. Considering how easily grapes grow here without any professional care, it's obvious to me that this is the Land Gd created for grape growing.

Finding and preparing sufficient food for the many late summer, Tishrei holidays is challenging enough in today's modern world. It's hard to imagine how much more difficult it was thousands of years ago. And then think of the joy when the food was served. Or many the mitzvah, the commandment to be joyful helped them enjoy what they could find to eat.

In Ancient Times, I doubt that the sukkot one lived in during the holiday was built onto people's homes or terraces. They left the comfort of their home to go up to Shiloh and later to Jerusalem for mass prayers. Conditions weren't like today's hotels, three enormous meals and unlimited afternoon cake. Vineyards like mine were treasured and shared, since there wasn't much to eat.

People were grateful and joyful for what they had ושמחת בחגך Visamachta bichaggecha, And be joyful in Your holiday.

Drought Again? Punished?

A couple of months ago, the rabbis here in Israel called for special prayers for rain, since the rain has been very sparse. As you may know, rain here in the Holy Land is a good barometer of how well we Jews obey Gd. If we're not "on track," then there will be drought or terrible damaging floods.

After the special rain prayers had been added by many, there was more rain, so after a short time, the rabbis announced that the emergency was over. You can guess what happened next. That's right. The rain ceased. And even worse, it started getting summerlike hot. 

And soon after TU B'Shevat green leaves began to take over the almond trees, pushing out the flowers. It's a bit too early for that. I think we should have kept on praying for more rain. We need at least another month of rain at least three days a week. It's clear to me that Gd was disappointed in us. He wanted more prayers and a few other things...

My husband and I took advantage of free trees and planted two. Unless it rains well, we'll have to water them pretty frequently for the next few months.

About the drought. I have no doubt that every single time someone here states that we no longer have to save water and worry about rain, because we've solved the problem with our brilliant technology, Gd cancels a planned rainfall.

Even if we can produce the needed quantity of water, we still need rainwater. Not all water is the same. I can taste the differences between mineral and non-mineral water. The purified and desalinated water just aren't the same. They don't have the same minerals, for healthy people and good tasting fruit and vegetables.

Gd willing, we will be blessed with good sufficient rain in the right quantities and season.

TU B'Shvat, A Real Holiday?

One of the most enigmatic Jewish "holidays" is TU B'Shvat, the 15th of the Jewish Month of Shevat which takes place towards the end of winter. It's more a day to be "noted" than celebrated. There are no mitzvot, commandments to be observed. And there's nothing forbidden. Torah observant Jews don't need to take a day off from work, either. Nor are special prayers said. This essay by Batsheva Haber on the Matan site gives a lot of background.

TU B'Shvat is celebrated most by Jewish preschools and elementary schools, most pragmatically because the Jewish curriculum is rather paltry over a month after Chanukah and a month before Purim. Talking and teaching about fruit grown in the Land of Israel, when it's often too cold to play outside, can be lots of fun.

Whenever my friends and I get together to compare notes on what we all did for TU B'Shvat as children, whether in my Conservative Jewish after school program, the best Jewish school in Paris or even in religious schools here in Israel we have similar stories. We ate raisins, dried figs and buksa, hard teeth-breaking carob pods. This was to symbolize the Shivat Haminim,  the Seven Botanical Species grown in the Holy Land.

With the advent of political zionism and the establishment of the Keren Kayemet, Jewish National Fund, JNF, TU B'Shvat became a major marketing, programming and fundraising tool. TU B'Shvat became THE DAY to plant trees in the Holyland. It didn't really bother anyone that it was really a month or two past the optimal time to plant trees. Most of the very limited rainfall had already fallen, and without expensive and sometimes logistically difficult supplementary watering an outrageous amount of the trees so lovingly photographed would soon be dead. But planting trees on TU B'Shvat has become a major activity for schools and youth movements here in Israel.

To be honest, I too planted a tree the very first time I came to Shiloh. It was TU B'Shvat thirty-seven 37 years ago, and the small community was on a promotional drive to bring more families to live here. Friends, who have daughters the same ages as our daughters, told us about it, and the girls and I piled into their car to drive out to Shiloh. We planted trees and met the pioneering families. I fell in love with Shiloh and then just had to convince my husband that it would be our new home. Yes, obviously I succeeded, because we're here in Shiloh.

Davka, yesterday I planted a tree. I didn't do it because of the date. I planted it since after it had been sitting on my window sill for a year, it looked rather ill and lonely. Last year when I was teaching in Yeshiva Tichonit Ahavat Chaim, the yeshiva high school in Kochav Hashachar, the little "tree" had been sitting in the Teachers Room and offered to anyone who wanted. So, I took it home. I tried to care for it, but after a year it looked awfully sick. Either it will thrive outside or die.

Some of you may be waiting for me to mention a Seder TU B'Shvat. That's the ceremony more and more people are observing to celebrate TU B'Shevat. The only thing it has in common with the Passover Seder is wine. That can be a subject for another post, Gd willing.

Desalination: Do We Still Need Rain?

For many people the development and use of Desalination and other water purification processes have made old-fashioned primitive rain unnecessary. Here in Israel, where not all that long ago, every drop of rain and freshwater lakes and other  natural water sources were considered more precious than diamonds, we now hear that "we don't need rain."

Considering that the rain in this part of the world comes totally from Gd as a barometer of our obedience to Gd's commandments, that's like saying that we don't need Gd. It reminds me of what many Jews have said since the invention of modern refrigeration systems.

"With refrigeration, we don't need to keep the Laws of Kashrut."

Kashrut is more than a primitive system to keep food safe for eating.

Last night before going to bed, I checked the weather forecast and saw that rain was predicted, so I decided not to do laundry. I generally hang mine out to dry, unless there has been a very rainy week with no such opportunities. This morning the sun was summer blue, so I quickly did two washes. But since this is supposed to be the height of the rainy season, and we've hardly had any rain, I won't get upset if the sky suddenly gets dark and rain starts to fall.

To be very honest, I'm terribly worried by all the Israelis/Jews who insist that we don't need rain anymore. First of all, there is the theological problem in this. Denying dependence on Gd for the most basic of natural resources, the insistence that man can provide for such a crucial need goes against the most basic principle in Judaism. It competes with those who insist that our national security is dependent on technology and foreign nations. History shows that our greatest victories, 1948, 1967 and 1973 were miraculous. And for those who claim that Nixon/Kissinger saved Israel in 1973, the truth is a lot more complicated. We were victorious when we defied them; their aim was a "draw" between us and Egypt, so they could come in as "peacekeepers."

And in terms of the water's qualities, I think that everyone who has had different types of water, the purified the "hard" mountain spring water and the "soft," which is popular in coastal areas, especially in the USA, there are differences in taste. Also there are easily measurable differences in the various minerals found in water. Just look at the labels of bottled waters.

Not only people like myself can discern those differences, but our health can be affected, as are the agricultural products. The taste and sweetness of oranges after a couple of strong rains are totally different from that in oranges grown with "treated" water. Compare sawdust with sugar. That's how differently they taste, as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather have a shorter season for the oranges than find myself trying to eat the results of irrigation with purified/desalinated water. A friend who is a farmer here insists that the fruit grown with the industrially treated water is far inferior in quality to that grown with rainwater.

If we keep bragging that we don't need Gd's rain, the greatest gift, anymore, then Gd will turn off the faucets completely. The desalinated water is fine for washing floors and other such chores, but it's no substitute for rain, lakes, streams etc. And we really must remember that our entire existence is dependent on Gd, not our industries and intelligence.

Rain As A Blessing and Not A Curse

In Jewish Prayer we request that the rain be a "blessing and not a curse."

That means that it should fall in the correct season, the correct amount, at the right pace and even the right day and hour.

Judaism is a land based agricultural religion. As I've written many times, the Jewish Calendar is a lunar one with adjustments that keep the holidays falling in the correct seasons by adding a month every few years in an amazingly accurate system developed a couple of thousand years ago.

Winter skies are so beautiful, varied and ever-changing.

At the end of the winter, we pray to Gd to cease the rains, and then half a year later, we pray for them to resume. But the prayer for rain is in two parts. We ask for rain "soon," not immediately. The pilgrims who had come to pray together first need to get home safely. So, about two weeks after the end of the Succot-Simchat Torah Holiday Season we ask for rain to really fall.

No doubt there's a dangerous phenomena that not only happens here in Israel during the first rain after a long dry period. The suddenly wet oil and dust that have been building up on the roads make traveling dangerous. It's usually a time when there are many traffic accidents. So many people fear that first rain, because sometimes it's a curse instead of a blessing.

This year, we added the second part of the prayer requesting rain at the end of last week, and then late Friday night, on Shabbat, when most of us were sound asleep, with a clap of loud thunder,  the rain began to fall hard. In terms of safety, that is the very best time of the week for a "first rain."

Gd willing may this year's rain be a blessing not a curse. May we have enough rain, at the right times, and my Gd forgive all of our sins.

This morning, it rained a bit. Winter is beginning for real.

Kislev Coming Soon

Here in Israel the weather gets very schizophrenic. We don't have fall/autumn like in North America or Europe. We just have these days that start chilly, turn into summer and then are cold like winter for a few weeks, and then suddenly we need jackets all day long and heat in our homes. And the winds bring the rainclouds, and splash; it's raining! Somehow we're always caught unaware and unprepared...

I'm going to have to check those weather sites daily now...

Nu, where is this going? I refuse to blog about the American Elections or any politics tonight. I just don't want to spoil the lovely relaxation that still remains from Shabbat.

The Tishrei Jewish Holidays, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kipppur, Succot and Simchat Torah are already memories. Our succot are down and put away for next year. Last week began the Jewish Month of Marcheshvan, and we are already praying for rain. It actually rained last week, not all that much, but enough for everyone to say that the prayers must be working. I was davka in the Old City; I went to the Kotel to doven Mincha and say Tihillim. I also delivered some mail to my son who was working in the area. 

I had planned on entering that little old room on the side, but apparently too many other women had the same idea. So I went into the new sheltered area, which wasn't too bad as long as you don't stand or sit where there are leaks. I missed being at Tel Shiloh for Rosh Chodesh. I couldn't make it because of a new job commitment. The Kotel just isn't as nice.

Gd willing, I'll be with my friends, and any newcomers who want to join us, on Rosh Chodesh Kislev.

Women's Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh
Rosh Chodesh Kislev, 5777
Thursday December 1, 2016
1st of Kislev, 5777, 8:30am
Hallel and Musaf for Rosh Chodesh
Tour of Tel Shiloh
Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson
Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors.

תפילת נשים ראש חודש כסלו

בשילה הקדומה, תל שילה

יום ה' 1-12-2016
 א' כסלו, תשע"ז 8:30

הלל ומוסף לראש חודש

יהיה דבר תורה קצר וסיור בתל

כדאי לבוא ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

So, take out your Jewish Calendar, 5777, and mark the day. If you have more questions about it, please contact me shilohmuse@gmail.com with "Rosh Chodesh" as subject.

Nothing beats our Women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma! Shiloh is one of Judaism's holiest places. It predates Jerusalem as a place of prayer. The Tabernacle was in Shiloh for almost four hundred years, during the time of Judges, before King David established Jerusalem as the Jewish Capital. During those centuries it was to Shiloh where the Jewish People came to pray and sacrifice to Gd. And today we can pray where Chana, Eli, Shmuel, along with many others prayed to Gd.

There's lots more to do at Shiloh Hakeduma besides our monthly prayers, so I suggest that you contact them and visit. For more information call 02-994-4019.

PS If you'd like to organize transportation, then contact Ben Levine of Awesome Tours. He has a supersized van, a mini-bus that has room for fifteen 15 passengers comfortably. He'll help you arrange a truly inspiring Rosh Chodesh (or any day) in Shiloh.

Phoenix Botanical Gardens Leaves Out Israel

I had a really lovely visit at the Phoenix Botanical Gardens, Desert Botanical Garden with my sister and cousin while in Arizona.  It's a stunning place, though the colors are mostly browns and greens except for the CHIHULY IN THE GARDEN glass sculptures that dot the landscape in various guises, some more successfully than others.

The visit was marred by an unnecessary omission.

Considering that I've lived in Israel since 1970, I know with certainty that I live in a desert, which is included the concept of "near a desert."  There's little humidity and our rain is restricted to a few short months of the year.  So when I saw that sign asking if I live in a desert I was expecting to find Israel listed among the countries on the map.  Granted that not every country you'd find in an atlas is listed, but being a loyal enthusiastic Israeli patriot to me Israel is the most important, even if not the largest, country there is.

And of course being such a loyal patriotic Israeli I'm rather hypersensitive to such omissions.  Isn't Israel the most important country in the world?  Isn't it the center of world affairs?  Doesn't the world's moral magnifying glass, compass or microscope focus on Israel more than any other country?  From the perspective of the editorial staff of prominent international newspapers, magazines etc. you'd think that Israel was a country of a billion people at least.  Considering the amount of time the United Nations General Assembly, Security Council and its various humanitarian organizations spend on what's happening or what they claim is happening in Israel, you'd certainly think that Israel is the largest and most volatile country in the world.  So, I don't think that I am unrealistic to have expected to see Israel listed along with Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

At present, Israel is suffering from an unusually dry winter.  Besides the great blizzard, and rainfall in the warmer parts of the country, in December 2013, we've hardly had more than a few moments' rain.  This is very worrying.  Davka, Arizona is also suffering from a record-breaking lack of rain.

I hope that nobody blames me.  Last year I claimed that I had been gypped, because it rained or was very cloudy all through my winter visit to Arizona....

May The Rain (Precipitation) be a Blessing Not a Curse

This has been an awful rollercoaster of a year when it comes to rainfall (precipitation) in Israel.  First we didn't have any, besides a short strong burst of rain a few months ago, so the rabbis requested we start to pray for rain.

It was declared an official drought.  Then came the blizzard or rainstorm depending on the climate, which brought massive amounts of precipitation to Israel, so the rabbis called off the emergency addition of prayers.

And since then, almost nothing, barely a drop. The temperature is also rising as if spring has arrived.

So we're back to having to add the special, "please let us have rain" prayers to G-d.

בע"ה יח' בשבט תשע"ד

 

 

 

תפלה על הגשמים

 

לצערנו הרב מאז ירידת השלג לא נתברכנו בברכת שמים.

יש צורך גדול להתפלל שוב על הגשמים.

בברכת 'שומע תפלה' של תפלת עמידה גם בלחש וגם בקול

נוסיף ע"פ מנהג התפלה של יוצאי אשכנז

 

'ועננו בורא עולם'

 

ולמנהג יוצאי ספרד נוסיף את המלים:

 

'אנא, א-ל חי פתח אוצרות שמים, השב רוח יזלו מים

בגשמי רצון תברך עדה, בפחי יגון כציפור לכודה,

בצדקת אברהם אב המון הכין סעודה, ואמר יקח נא מעט מים'.

from Kumah
That's a letter from a few years ago.

That's the announcement our rabbi, HaRav Elchanan Bin-Nun sent out yesterday.

Rain here in the HolyLand is the barometer of how well we Jews as a nation are obeying G-d.  And considering two crucial factors, I have no doubt that there will be rain problems.

One is that we're soon to enter the year of Shmitta, the Sabbatical for the Land and farmers. Not only is this a complicated year halachically, according to Jewish Law, but there is very little respect for differences in opinion.  Rav Ariel has thrown down the gauntlet and given his Psak, Halachic opinion. 

Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel of Ramat Gan made it clear, last week, that Jews are prohibited from buying from non-Jews during the Shemita agricultural sabbatical year, starting with Rosh Hashana in September. Speaking at Machon Torah Vehaaretz (Torah and Land Institute) conference at the Machon Lev Jerusalem College of Technology, he noted that buying from non-Jews is an option discussed every Shemita year, along with Heter Mechira (selling land to non-Jews) and Otzar Beit Din, where the land is under the ownership of a court and a farmer may only collect production costs.

No doubt that others will say the opposite, and then people will refuse to eat at each other's homes or at smachot, festive events.

The third Binyamin Netanyahu Government is more talk than action when it comes to defense.

At the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said: “We are determined to maintain quiet in the south. We will do so by a policy of preventive action and strong reaction against those who try to harm us or who harm us. I suggest that Hamas take our policy into account.”

It's pretty obvious that terrorists don't care about logic. They only understand force, real force. Until we demand unconditional surrender we will be plagued by terror.  That was the crucial tragic mistake after the 1967 Six Days War. The Eshkol Labor Government turned the miraculous victory into a farce by trying to coddle a peace agreement out of the Arabs who had wanted to and still want to destroy the State of Israel.

But even more worrying is what is happening right now in the government's participation in the American bulldozed Kerry "Peace" sic talks.  Our governments over the past forty-seven years still haven't learned the lesson.

PEACE CANNOT BE NEGOTIATED WITH ARAB TERRORISTS!

That's it plain and simple.  When we have an Israeli Government that does the right thing and embraces the Land of Israel and Jewish rights to settle all of the Land and rules fairly over all of its residents, then we won't have a drought.  The water drought comes from a drought in Jewish Leadership.

Let's pray that wisdom be given to our government leaders.  May they follow all of G-d's Commandments.

Enough Rain? So Soon?

After a very dry early winter, the rabbis requested that we urgently pray for rain.  Certainly some of us did pray.

It has been raining all week.  And it is getting colder and colder.  Those intrepid ones in the mountainous areas of Israel who leave home very early in the morning report ice on the sidewalks and streets.  Yes, it's getting dangerous.  I didn't notice any ice when I left home this morning at 6am, but it really has been raining.

When we pray for rain, we ask that it be in quantities that would make it a blessing, not a curse.

Actually, the rain started last week, soon after we began to add the prayer to beg G-d for the necessary precipitation. I slept in Hod Hasharon Wednesday night, and very early Thursday morning we woke up to buckets of rain, or high-powered water hoses pounding the roof.  At least that's what it sounded like.  It was the rain.  Since then it has been raining on and off.  And when it rains it rains. The Jerusalem Big Blue Lions and Judean Rebels and their fans were lucky that G-d decided to take a break for their opening game on Thursday night.  That made it safer for their players especially the guest forward Uriel Wang who scored an unforgettable touchdown.

Now the Israeli Chief Rabbis have instructed us to thank G-d for His generosity and stop the special prayer for rain.  I hope they haven't jumped the gun and made the decision prematurely. We need lots more than one humongous gevaldik rainstorm.

According to the local Shiloh rainfall expert, Rabbi Dov Berkovits, davka Shiloh has received relatively a lot of rain.  I just checked the Israeli meteorological site and we (Israel/Jerusalem) are not ahead of a normal year.

We're going to need more weeks like this one.  And we certainly do need breaks in between the rainfall with full sunshine and warmer weather.  To get the weather that will be a blessing and not a curse, we must still pray to G-d and never take for granted that G-d won't punish us.  Today I was listening to a shiur (class/lecture) by Dr. Yael Ziegler about King Solomon.  She said that it had never occurred to him that G-d may punish the Jewish People by allowing the Beit Hamikdash, Holy Temple to be destroyed.  King Solomon was overconfident.  I think that our government has the same mindset as King Solomon, and that has me very worried.

Umbrellas add to the painting exhibit at Matan, where Dr Ziegler teaches Bible.

Our rainfall and weather are controlled by G-d, so we must live according to G-d's commandments.

No Rain in the Forecast, and No Substitute for Rainwater

Ariel

17-26°Today November 27
Mostly Cloudy 

13-21°Thursday November 28
Hazy 

13-19°Friday November 29
Partly Cloudy 

15-21°Saturday November 30
Partly Cloudy 

From this morning's forecast on Arutz 7

So far, this has been a dangerously dry winter.  In Israel winter rains were supposed to have begun after the Succot Holiday, exactly two months ago.  There were a couple of very short scattered rains in some parts of the country and even an hour or so of very heavy rain that made us think that all was right in the world.  But we were mistaken.

I think that G-d is very angry.  It's written in the Bible that our rain is a gift from G-d and an indication of how satisfied He is with our behavior. Nu, so in all honesty, I'm not all that surprised that yesterday was so hot and dry that my heavy cotton wash dried completely in less than an hour.  And that was late afternoon.  There was absolutely no humidity, even at dusk.

No doubt that G-d is angry, especially when the news was released that the Israeli Water Authority was complaining of "too much water."  Yes, just a couple of weeks ago, that strange announcement was in the news, davka at the same time that rabbis were announcing that we should add a special prayer for rain to our daily prayers.

This year, the Water Authority is concerned again. However,Globes reports that this time, the fear is that Israel will get too much rain – forcing the government to pay desalination plants to stop producing fresh water.

Not all water is the same.  I don't know about you, but I can taste the difference in water.  I feel sick and find my gums sensitive when I drink American soft, purified water.  During recent visits I've been buying myself bottles of mineral/mountain water, and I feel much better.  We once invested a fortune in fancy water filter in the house, and the water tasted "American," and I began having problems.  I don't buy bottles of "purified" water.  you have to read the labels.

Last year we finally, after a long period of drought,  had good rains which started on time, and the fruits were delicious and plentiful.  There is a difference in taste between rainwater citrus fruit and fruit grown with piped water.

The other day I had a tremp, ride with a friend who is a farmer.  He has orchards and a hot house for-export flower business.  As we rode, I asked about rain versus water.  He told me there are many differences, because the purified and desalinated waters don't have the necessary minerals for sweet healthy fruit.  Yes, it's not my imagination; not all water is the same.  There's no way that piped in desalinated or purified water, no matter what the quantity can substitute for rainwater.

This year's heat also has him terribly worried.  Pretty much all of his agriculture is based on our usual climate, the mountain cold and a certain quantity of required cold spells during the winter.  Without that cold, the flowers and fruit trees are barren. This means that food will be much more expensive in the coming year.

In addition, we're getting very close to Shnat Shmitta, the sabbatical year.  We need a bountiful harvest before Shmita, and we won't have it unless a great miracle happens.

That miracle is up to us.  G-d is waiting, no doubt.