[img]96|left|||no_popup[/img]Dateline Jerusalem – The often hot, arid and dry Israel whose water level is so dangerously low as to necessitate water rationing, artificial dams and desalination plants has become a cold, rainy and wet Israel this past week.
Lake Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee, the major source of fresh water for the country, has its shores almost overflowing to record breaking highs. However, the Kinneret still is almost 12 feet below its maximum level. In the past 24 hours, the water level has risen 22 centimeters (about 9 inches), the largest 24-hour rise in 10 years. It is the first time in 20 years the Jordan River could be seen flowing this time of year. January so far has the highest number of rainy days in one month on record, and we are barely into the month.
Accompanying the rains, and snowfall in the Golan Heights and Jerusalem are gale-force winds uprooting trees, knocking out electricity, pushing down pedestrians, causing flights to Eilat to be rerouted. Flooding is widespread, closing down train stations in the center and north of Israel, turning Tel Aviv's main traffic artery into a river of water and mud as well as closing the city's major sewage system. Shoppers at the mall in the relatively new city of Modiin had to be evacuated because 20 inches of water were filling it. The skylights in my apartment building are leaking so badly that the stairwells and lobby are soaking wet. It is a good thing my first floor apartment sits above the ground floor lobby or I, too, would be flooded. When I took out garbage bags to the trash bin outside the building, a violent gust of wind caused me to stumble backwards, and I am not exactly a featherweight.
In Answer to Our Prayers
In Israel, we pray for rain. Jews have been doing so for thousands of years. There is a prayer for rain in our daily prayers because in ancient Israel, a good rainy season meant a good harvest and necessary drinking water for people and livestock. A drought meant disaster. We recite the blessing “He causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall,” referring to the “natural and supernatural wonders that G-d performs” and then we request that G-d “bestow dew and rain for blessing upon the face of the earth.” There may be debate as to whether prayers or the fact several weather fronts converged at once in a rare meteorological event for the country are the reasons for the unusual lightning and thunderstorms besieging Israel. The way I look at it, there is no debate. Only G-d could cause a rare meteorological event.
In the meantime the thunder is music to my ears, although some of my friends cannot sleep at night because of it. I never have been able to sleep or concentrate without noise in the background. I have felt completely calm this entire week listening to my apartment's windows shake whenever the thunder roared and the winds assaulted them. Of course, I have not left my cozy apartment to wade through the sewer-less streets of my town, except to go to the synagogue on the next block. It is amazing how fast a person can walk when trying to avoid a deluge.
This weather plays havoc on my sinuses, scrunches my neck and back from the cold, and keeps the blood in my legs from circulating because I am getting no exercise sitting at home all day. But I am willing to sacrifice so that Israel can be blessed with the much-needed rainfall.
L'hitraot. Shachar
