It Never Rains in Southern California... Blog #8
I remember the song, though not the performer, composer, or lyricist: “Seems it never rains in Southern California … But girl, don’t they warn you, it pours, man, it pours.”
As I recalled, it never rains in Israel after Pesach, its dry season. From Succot to Pesach, there are two rainy seasons, the light rains and the heavy ones. It is found in Deuteronomy 11, the 2nd paragraph of the Shema -- yoreh and malkosh.
Well, rain it does in Israel, at least now. On a few occasions during the past three months thunderstorms were forecast. They were almost always wrong. I say, almost, because twice or so there was about an hour of light rain.
Today, as I was talking to Marian (7:30 AM CDT) it started to rain. I am fascinated by it. After working since early morning, I decided to take my walk. The light rain was so welcome to me. And then -- it poured, man, it poured. I was quickly soaked before making it to a tent in the park. Five minutes later -- the drizzle resumed.
It got me thinking -- how has the climate changed in Israel and how have Israelis helped make it so? It led me to BYJU’S (an Indian multinational educational technology company, headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India).
Trees play an important role in the preservation of nature. Planting more trees brings rain because plants transpire. Transpiration is a process by which aerial parts of the plants lose water as water vapor during photosynthesis. This water is added to the normal moisture of the air thus making the air saturated faster and bringing rain.
I then found: UJIA (United Jewish Israel Appeal -- from the United Kingdom; I do not know when this was posted):
Here are three incredible environmental facts about Israel:
Israel treats 92% of its wastewater and returns 72% of it to agricultural use. The highest percentage in the world.
2. Israel is the only country that entered the 21st century with more trees than it had in the 20th century. In the last 50 years, 260 million trees have been planted in Israel. (Perhaps you planted some of them through JNF...!)
3. More than 83% of homes in Israel use solar energy to heat water. The highest percentage in the world.
So maybe I was not wrong about “then.” Maybe it hadn't rained or hardly rained in the past after Pesach until Succot, but it most certainly does now.
The same 2nd paragraph of the Shema from Deuteronomy 11 reads … If you observe God’s commands, he will bring the yoreh and malkosh.
We once thought that rain had nothing to do with our behavior. We thought that these were scientific phenomena that operated on their own. This appears to be dispelled by the new science. Now, if we can only learn that God’s blessings based on our behavior might really change the world for good, we'd really have something.
(BTW -- The song was written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.)
