Weird "Weather"


Husband here. I’ve often said that there is no doubt in my mind why Hashem (God) chose this piece of land as the homeland for His People. Throughout an area the size of New Jersey, several different climates can be found. None of them are large (ok the Negev desert is pretty large) but adequate in size enough that you can get a taste of the real thing (e.g. skiing in winter, forest hikes, rivers, oceans, fresh water lakes, a top-10 in the world saline lake). Here in Bet Shemesh, we’ve been smack in the middle of a windstorm for the past 48 hours.

Like our son’s fever accompanied with no symptoms last week (ended up being roseola infantum) the windstorm has nothing along with it, no clouds, no high-levels of dust, no rain, and not even cooler air (that will come at the end of the week). What it does mean is that as our home is perched at the top of a large hill, with no surrounding structures to impede or slow down the wind, the wind has been howling loudly for that entire time. The noise has forced Tamar and I to sleep in a different bedroom, where the noise is diminished somewhat.

The other weird “weather” that others in this country are experiencing today are rockets. Overnight, the Prime Minister and his security team authorized a strike against the top leader of one of Gaza’s terrorist groups. The strike was successful and as a result the remaining terrorists think it is cool to rain down rockets on innocent citizens of our country. So far, thank God, the damage has been light, with just a few injuries and no casualties. Our neighborhood has also been quiet, but many cities and towns close-by have had schools cancelled and work closed by the Home Front Command (Israel’s Department of Homeland Security).

This is definitely the most tense the “situation” has been since we arrived here in July. In the past Tamar and I have observed these situations from afar, and usually only the most dire messages get through. The reality is that just like any tragedy or tense time, people start sticking together more than usual. Prayers for our soldiers get passed along on WhatsApp groups, schools notify parents that staff are fully-trained in case of an emergency, and daycare teachers without safe rooms profess their trust in Hashem to keep them safe. There are even jokes saying that since the terrorist was killed along with his wife that he will now have trouble partaking in the traditional reward for terrorists killed for their crimes (look it up).

Sure things are tense, but the silver-lining here is that this might just be Hashem’s way of bringing people together. Even though it will be a little different until things calm down, we know we are safer in the end because of what our brave soldiers did and continue to do. Cooler weather arrives on Friday, and hopefully along with it peace and calm.

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