Rain, Rain

Newsletter February 5, 2024 Together, we're #keepingitsacred...

Because many of you have asked, yes, we are drenched. Within the first 12 hours of this storm, we received over 10 inches of rain from this atmospheric river. And the rains continue to fall.

In the Jewish tradition made famous by the story of Noah, rain has been seen as the method by which God inflicted destruction on the world. Rain falling for 40 days and 40 nights, relentlessly wiping out life on land. But still, after that, the rainbow came out with a peace dove carrying in its mouth an olive branch-- both signs of a good future to follow.

But, elsewhere in Jewish tradition, rains are known as a blessing. And, to the rabbis, the term "rain" could be understood as various iterations of rain such as rain clouds, drizzles, heavy rains, rains that soaked the earth, rains that flowed on top of the earth. And frozen rain, that is snow, was regarded by the 3rd century sage Rava as five times as beneficial as rainfall to the earth. This is not surprising since the tradition is one of people in the desert lands of the Middle East where precipitation meant life-- literally. And therefore it meant blessing-- metaphorically.

At the conclusion of Sukkot, in fact, we have a tradition of adding a blessing to our normal daily prayers-- a blessing welcoming rain as a sign of God's powerful love for us. It appears in the liturgy in the midst of acknowledging the wide array of God's power, we add: mashiv ha'ruach u'morid hagashem-- thanks for the one who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall. And at the initiation of this season, there is even a traditional choreography performed to bring on the rain.

The lesson here is that like many things in life, rain can be a force of destruction or of blessing. The trick is not seeing rainfall always as curse or always as blessing. But rather evaluating each situation. And even trying to see how what might be perceived as a curse can become a blessing.

Together, we're #keepingitsacred…

Rabbi Heather Miller

Founder, Keeping It Sacred

---

The above is an excerpt from a Keeping It Sacred newsletter. If you want to read the entire newsletter or any from our archives, please head over to: keepingitsacred.com/news 

And if you'd like the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week, please share your name and email address in the fields at the bottom of the page in the purple boxes.

Thanks for your interest, and thanks for #keepingitsacred...