As I write, rain is pouring down in Israel, and it’s not the first storm either. This is what we have been davening for: “Mashiv ha ruach umorid ha Geshem.” We thank Hashem for bringing wind and rain to save us.
Last winter was the driest in twenty-five years, but this year the blessed rains have not been withheld. “Af-Bri is designated as the name of the angel of rain, to thicken and form clouds, to empty them and cause rain, water with which to crown the valley’s vegetation …. In the merit of the faithful Patriarchs, protect the ones who pray for rain.” (Tefillas Geshem)
Rainfall in Israel is a barometer of our spiritual condition. “If you listen to my commandments ... then I will provide rain for your land in its proper time... [but if you] turn astray ... then ... He will restrain the heaven so that there will be no rain ....” (Shema)
What are we doing differently this year?
It is possible that worldwide hatred may have frightened many Yidden and we are realizing that “ain od milvado,” there is no place to turn but to Him.
Water and fire are opposites. Water extinguishes fire and fire dries up water, but both symbolize Torah. “Ho! Everyone who is thirsty, go to the water, even one with no money!” (Yeshiah 55:1) Torah satisfies the true thirst of every person.
Among my classmates was a girl who is now the wife of a prominent physician. I saw a recent email in which she mentioned that they have one son, a successful corporate lawyer who is not interested in getting married. She is aching for a grandchild. She asked, “Does anyone know a girl for my son?” She feels she has no future. Today, in the secular world, marriage is “out.” It is a “me-first” world which has forgotten that the Torah's first mitzvah is “P’ru orvu … be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Recently an Italian diplomat stated, “In a few years there will be no more Italians. We are not having families.”
Fire symbolizes Torah. “Behold, My word is like fire … and like a hammer that shatters a rock.” (Yirmiah 23:30)
Both water and fire are necessary for life, but they are dangerous. They are the greatest brachas and also the greatest dangers. As I write, floods are causing catastrophic damage in Washington State. Water wiped out the entire world in the days of Noach. Every day we thank Hashem for holding the water back from engulfing us: “rokah ha’aretz al hamayim.” We would be under water if Hashem did not restrain the deluge. “[With] the watery deep, as with a garment, You covered [the earth, but] You set a boundary [the waters] cannot overstep. They cannot return to cover the earth.” (Tehillim 104)
This week we light the Chanukah menorah.
As soon as Shabbos ends, we thank Hashem for the blessing of fire. Light was the first creation during Shaishes Ymai Beraishis and is our first creation at the beginning of the week, during Havdallah. We cannot live without fire. Hashem has positioned the sun at the perfect distance from the earth; any farther away and we would freeze; any closer and we would burn.
Fire is dangerous. “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the wicked people and all the evildoers will be like straw, and that coming day will burn them up, says Hashem, Master of Legions, so that it will not leave them root or branch. But a sun of righteousness will shine for you who fear My Name, with healing in its rays, and you will go out and flourish … on that day that I bring about, says Hashem, Master of Legions…. Behold, I send you Eliahu ha Novi before the coming of the great and awesome day of Hashem, and he will turn back the hearts of fathers with their sons and the hearts of sons with their fathers…” (Malachi 3:19ff)
When we look into the light of the menorah we should have in mind to be healed by fire and to see the day when the menorah once again burns in the Holy Sanctuary in the midst of Yerushalayim.
“Hakadosh Baruch Hu said … ‘I lit the fire in Tzion [which destroyed the Bais Hamikdosh], and I will [in the future] build it [again] with fire, as it says: ‘And I will be for it a wall of fire all around and for glory I will be in its midst.’” (Bava Kamma 60b)
May we see it soon in our days!
GLOSSARY
Bais Hamikdosh: the Holy Temple in Jerusalem
Davening: praying
Hakadosh Baruch Hu: G-d
Havdallah: the ceremony ending Shabbos
Shaishes Yamai Beraishis: the Six Days of Creation
Tehillim: Psalms
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