Rain Rain Rain

I've lived in Israel for 20 years. There are many things someone who moves here learns about and adjusts to. One is rainy season. In Israel there is NO rain all summer and we wait and pray for rain during the rainy season - winter. 

I grew up in Rhode Island where there is rain all year round. My husband grew up in Louisiana - one of the wettest states in the US.

So, what happens in Israel - like I said NO rain all summer. You get used to it. I can't even understand why there's a weather report every day. In the summer it is either hot, hotter than usual or less hot than usual. 

We don't expect rain - we don't even pray for rain in the summer. We start to pray for rain in the fall at the end of the Succoth holiday. It makes sense, we start asking G-d for rain when it is proper - when we're in the rainy season. We stop praying for rain in the spring, at Passover when we leave the rainy season.

After such a long period of no rain, when winter comes you'd think we'd be ready for rain. We never are. And on the farm it can be a big mess. Because the ground is so dry, if the rain continues for too many days, it just ends up sitting with no where to go. Streams fill and fill and fields become lakes. 

Our animal area has become a lake too. We had to move all our sheep and goats to our neighbor's. Thanks to our son and some very hard-working and strong friends of his and thanks to our neighbor.

Our ducks were happy, but I learned that even ducks need dry land. We've been pumping for weeks hoping to clear out water and hopefully plan better for next year.

משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם