Day 12 of the Omer
Jerusalem Explodes with Rain, Thunder and Lightning, even Hail
The Jerusalem area literally exploded early this morning with thunder, lightning and rain, as well as hail, which is sticking on the ground.
There has been almost constant thunder and lighting since 4:15 AM. Rain is falling at a rate of over 10mm per hour. As of 8AM, 35mm of rain has fallen.
Normally it doesn’t rain at all after the Pesach holiday.
The fire department rescued people stuck in their cars from floods inside Jerusalem.(Experience it for yourself.)
This is not only out of season, it is highly unusual even in season. Jerusalem just does not have violent storms like this. In my 19 years here, I have never seen anything like it. While I was pondering the meaning of it, the following thoughts occured to me.
As is well-known, there are four death penalties imposed by the Jewish High Court in cases requiring a death penalty: 1) stoning, 2) burning, 3) slaying by the sword, and 4) strangling. Perhaps each of these weather phenomena corresponds to one of these four...
1) Hail - stoning, since it makes the same damage as rocks
2) Lightning - burning, since it can start fires
3) Thunder - sword, since it makes a crashing sound like iron on iron
4) Flooding rains - strangling, since a drowning person chokes on water
If so, then is this crazy weather Hashem's merciful way of carrying out the punishments we so richly deserve for our many sins or is it a last, drastic measure to warn us to do teshuvah for these sins before the actual sentence will be carried out with bombs instead of hail, with mushroom clouds, G-d forbid!, instead of lightning, with missiles instead of thunder and with gas, G-d forbid!, instead of flooding rain.
I think our situation and Hashem's judgment is much more serious than we have been imagining it until now. I hear that adage in my mind: "Think good and it will be good." That's magical thinking. It won't be "good" just because we want to think it will be. It didn't work for the Jews who saw the Temples destroyed and who were carried away into exile. It certainly didn't work for the Jews sealed up in the Warsaw Ghetto!
We have to have the courage to face the Truth - if we want to survive! And to act upon what we know to be true in order to save ourselves and as many under our influence as possible!!
Hashem is much more serious about our teshuvah than we are. We must reach the point where we are as serious with Him as He is with us!!
Heaven is screaming at us to wake up! Time is running out. Are we ever going to listen?
This is a very interesting perspective on the weather.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many people who think you don't have to act, don't have to move a muscle. Just sit there are trust HaShem. That isn't right. We need to learn Torah, yes, and that includes Torath Lehima. But we need to DO in order to save our lives, and not just rely on a miracle. I expect a lot from our people, but I am always left disappointed at how asleep people are.
ReplyDeleteNot even the word "explodes" in this headline is by accident.
ReplyDelete- a voice in the wilderness
I was up at 3:15 and had to check the time. It was quite a spectacle. Most interestingly, I think, in Jerusalem. Where else did the storm hit? It was constantly lighting, thunder, downpour, lightening,mthunder, and then downpour, no hesitation, no breathers in between. The thought crossed my mind, huddled under my quilt, is HaShem angry? What is He trying to tell us? Some Rabbeim say it is a Bracha. But it was the same time Srael commemorated the Yom HaShoah! Is there a connection? I also read that the US is expecting a winter storm with snow also, and may hit Chicago next week before moving east. Definitely HaShem is talking to us, but is the message the same. [sorry for typos but it does not allow me to go back for corrections] any thinking person must wonder about the storm, even those who are not so religious.
ReplyDeleteThe Torah says the rain for Eretz Yisrael comes from Shomayim, comes as 'parnasah'. Maybe the Rabbis are telling us that the rain (even as a storm) is filling the Kinneret, making the desert green, and providing parnasah for the coming months that might be very troublesome. Our enemies like to war when the weather is summery, not stormy. Just some of my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that it woke people up and they said they could not continue to sleep through all the noise...
ReplyDelete- a voice in the wilderness
Excellent points, "voice".
DeleteI just thought of another thing. This is a shmittah year. Doesn't the Torah say the year after will be plentiful crops to compensate the farmers?
ReplyDeleteNo. It says there will be a bumper crop in the sixth year to get us through til the first year of the next cycle's harvest.
DeleteB"H - Right on the spot. And they sound the Sirens, the fools. You know, as we are commanded in Hilichot Siren
ReplyDeleteMaybe the sirens are there to warn us of something entirely different that what the State thinks that the sirens are for.
DeleteVery astute observation, Esser. The siren - which also heralds the onset of Shabbat in Jerusalem - is today's equivalent of the shofar. In that sense then, it's a very ancient method of warning the people or gathering them together.
DeleteA reminder to those posting anonymously... You must sign with some kind of name or your comment cannot be published.
ReplyDeleteDevash, your interpretation of the stormy weather makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteI've never experienced a lightning storm like this in my life. There was lightning every minute for a long duration. The winter weather is even odder considering that the recent leap year pushed Nissan over a month, so it should be even warmer, not colder.
I agree that a lot of the world, including the frum world, is asleep. I was asleep at one point, too. The "Think good and it will be good" idea used to drive me nuts because it is often used --unintentionally-- to encourage passivity that people mistake for emuna and bitachon. I guess it took me a while to realize that emuna is very active, it's about grabbing your yetzer hara by the neck and forcing one's thoughts to flow in another direction against the current, to speak a certain way, to actively turn to Hashem, to make a cheshbon hanefesh, etc.
I like the 4 Mitot Beit Din comparison.
ReplyDeleteWith all this bad weather, maybe I should move to Israel to get a little taste of my own weather. ;-)
;-)
DeleteDo believe that H' is showing mercy and your analysis is encouraging because our Sages have said that this time H' will create the new world with chesed -'Olam Chesed yibaneh'. The Rebbe of Lubavitch said that there will not be a war where the Yehudim will be harmed. I also believe that there will be no nuclear war and that the punishments will be on the wicked nations via 'stones' from the sky, meaning asteroids/meteorites and the other forces of His natural world. This is H's war. Be silent and H' will do battle. Believe that most 'real' Jews are doing teshuvah (according, at this point in their lives where some know nothing, to the best of their abilities/capacities). The real Erev Rav is another story, same as Esav/Yishmael (Amaleikim).
ReplyDeleteMay we all welcome Moshiach Tzdkeinu very soon, b'rachamim!
Raizy