The blessing of rain

I always knew that rain was a blessing, but I never realized how much of a blessing rain really was until I moved to Israel. It doesn't rain in Israel from around April until late October for two significant reasons 1) 2/3rds of Israel is desert and 2) Israel is located in the Middle East. The first real rain since April was a week before Rosh Hashana. A few days before that, I was waiting for the bus home and I felt a drop on my shoulder. I looked up at the night sky excitedly thinking it was going to rain but it was nothing more than a few drops. The day of the first real rain we were in the park with Doggie and it started to rain. The rain was slow at first and then it came pouring down. Everyone including Doggie ran for cover. It was pretty memorable and funny. I was laughing and running at the same time. Doggie was doing circles trying to figure out where to go. We huddled for cover under the children's slides with another man and his grandchild. Everyone was so ecstatic it was raining that we were all smiling from ear to ear not minding that we were dripping with water or that I was standing under something that had holes in it, which defeated the purpose of a cover, but who cared?! It was raining! The next day when I was talking to my mother I excitedly said to her "Guess what happened yesterday? It rained!!!" "Oh," my mother said. "That's right I forgot it doesn't rain in Israel for months. I'm so used to rain in Miami."

I have always been careful about conserving water while living in the States, but that was more out of a concern for our water bill then a concern of not having enough water. Not having a drop of rain for months made me put things into perspective, especially with Israel's one major water resource being dangerously low. Jerusalem has it's own water resource, but that is also at the red line. The Dead Sea is also evaporating. I think about how scarce water is every time I turn on the shower. The water smells pretty bad. Thankfully it gets better after a little while and then I get in=) When we shower we take ship showers and turn the water on and off as needed. We do that also to conserve hot water since hot water isn't readily available. Here we have the dood. Dood is Hebrew for (hot water) heater. It takes 15-20 minutes until there's hot water available for a shower. When we were in the States last month I took my time in the shower. It was awesome to have hot water at the ready and to have water that didn't smell. The toilets in Israel are also made to conserve water. There is a handle for a partial flush and a full flush. This is a great idea that should definitely be implemented in the U.S. There's also less water in the toilet bowls here, something my husband pointed out to me while we were in the States when a toilet overflowed easily. Recently we had a friend stay with us for a few days. When he went to use the bathroom I noticed he would let the sink run until he was finished. I asked him not to let the sink run because we really didn't have the water to waste. He said he didn't even think about that. It made me think how different and wasteful American culture is and how much my thinking has changed.

Now that the climate is ripe for rain, we say the blessing for rain in the daily prayers. When I was in school I just mumbled through the blessing since rain in Miami was like clockwork, especially in the summer. Now I realize how important the blessing for rain is. Every time it rains my first thought is thank God. We depend on the winter rains to sustain us for the rest of the year. It isn't just Israel that our resources sustain. Israel has to share their meager resources with the Jordanians and the Palestinians. In situations like the one we are in now I wish the Jordanians and Palestinians could get their own water source and stop using ours, but that's not realistic...just wishful thinking! Last winter it really didn't rain much, although it did snow twice which helped. As we head in to this winter my one thought is "Let it rain baby. Let it rain!"

Yom Kippur Israeli style

As I sit here with a splitting headache thanks to the Yom Kippur fast, I thought I'd reflect on the day gone by. Yom Kippur in Israel is something special. As I quickly learned when I moved here almost 2 years ago, Israel is a state for Jews but it is not quite a Jewish (observant) state. Many Israelis don't observe Shabbat. With Sunday being a work day who can blame them? Among other things there are also many non-kosher restaurants in Jerusalem and the rest of the country.

There are many differences in the people here, but on Yom Kippur it seems there are no differences. For one day everything is shut down and everyone comes together to observe Yom Kippur. It's against the law for anyone but emergency and police vehicles to be on the road. (of course there is always that one guy that just HAS to be driving loudly down the road). There are no flights in or out of the airport and even the radio stops broadcasting. Soldiers are required to keep the radios on so they have instructions in case of an emergency. Many families use the empty roads to their advantage. It's the one day of the year where the roads are filled with kids riding their bikes and scooters up and down the usually very busy streets. As I walked Doggie Yom Kippur evening, I tried to get him to walk on the road because we can't usually do that, but he wasn't interested since there was nothing except car tires to pee on so I alternated between the road and the sidewalk. It was so quiet. All that could be heard were the trees rustling in the cold breeze. It was great. Yom Kippur here is so different and felt so much more than in the U.S. since here it's observed by nearly everyone. It's a nice change.

Jerusalem is mentioned countless times in the Yom Kippur prayers. In the last line of the Yom Kippur prayer it says "Next Year in Jerusalem." It felt kind of weird saying that line since I live in Jerusalem, but the difference is that Jerusalemites say next year we should be in a Jerusalem that's rebuilt with the temple. A few times I thought to myself how cool it was that I live in such a holy city. That's not something I think about everyday. But on holidays and shabbat Jerusalem is the place to be.

As special as Jerusalem is and as peaceful as Yom Kippur was, I was reminded of the danger that is always lurking for us here as I saw two out of uniform soldiers carrying their machine guns on their backs as we all made our way home. Some soldiers always have to have their guns with them. In shul I did notice one man who had a hand gun on him. I thought that was a bit much but you just never know.