Loving Life in Israel: Raining Hope

Rain in Israel is a completely different experience than rain in New York, and probably anywhere else in the world.We pray for it, hope for it, predict it, speculate about it, celebrate it, and count every drop. There is a very specific rainy season here and deviations from it are rare.

One deviation comes with a special segulah: Rain in the month of Iyyar is supposed to be a segulah for good health. The explanation behind this belief is that the letters of Iyyar stand for:

Alef: Ani (I)
Yud, Yud: Hashem
Resh: Refoecha (is your healer)

You can read more about it here.

When it does rain in Iyyar you might see people running outside with their mouths open, trying to catch a bit of the magic.

Last year, we caught some Iyyar rain and rubbed it on Trip'n Daddy's dry lips.

(We generally hold a "You never know - it can't hurt" perspective when it comes to Segulahs)

So when reports of that rare Iyyar rain started to fill up my Facebook feed this morning, I smiled.

Because even though it didn't work for us, Iyyar rain is still special, still magical, still celebrated.

Because in Israel, every drop of rain equals a drop of hope.

Rain, Rain (Don't) Go Away

I was on the phone with UM this morning. (Funny how we speak more when Savta and Saba are by him then when they are home.) He was observing on G-d's greatness; I believe his exact words were: Ain Od Milvado. He was specifically referring to the amount of rain Eretz Yisrael has received within days of Tefilat Geshem. Apparently, the Kinneret, which was at severe levels, is replenishing pretty quickly.

Of course, UM being UM, he saw a direct correlation between this and the fact that Obama is going to lose the election. The typical UM logic goes like this: G-d loves us and is giving us rain, so therefore there is no way he going to put us in the danger we would be in if there is a President Obama.

On this side of the world it is also raining.
All this rain on the week of Parshat Noach.

Hmm...I wonder.